asked Her Majesty's Government:
(a) how many heavy goods vehicles have been checked on the A55 in North Wales during the last year for (1) weight offences, (2) drivers' hours offences, (3) mechanical condition offences, and (4) speeding; (b) how many of these vehicles received immediate prohibitions; (c) how many of these vehicles were registered outside the United Kingdom; (d) how many such vehicles or drivers of them were subject to more than one prohibition notice; and (e) what action has been taken by the state in which the vehicle was registered. [HL4710]
The table below shows the heavy goods vehicle enforcement checks carried out by the Vehicle and Operator Services Agency on the A55 from July 2007 to June 2008.
Traffic Checks (inc. Weighing) (a) Drivers Hours Prohibitions (2) Weighing (1) Overloading Prohibitions (1) Roadworthiness Checks* (a) Mechanical Prohibitions (3) of which Immediate (b) Austria 18 8 14 4 14 4 2 Belgium 6 2 3 1 3 2 1 Bosnia-Herzegovina 2 1 2 0 1 2 1 Bulgaria 7 2 5 0 3 2 2 Czech Republic 22 5 15 1 17 9 5 Denmark 11 5 11 2 15 6 4 Eire 1,229 478 817 276 813 442 170 Estonia 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 Germany 50 18 25 8 29 13 6 Great Britain 253 62 131 29 182 88 37 Greece 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 Hungary 20 8 15 3 4 2 0 Italy 17 7 10 5 25 11 4 Latvia 13 2 10 4 10 3 2 Lithuania 16 4 10 6 7 3 2 Luxemburg 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 Netherlands 135 59 76 15 58 31 6 Northern Ireland 180 86 101 39 130 74 30 Norway 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Other Country not listed 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 Poland 142 28 90 21 76 37 16 Portugal 0 0 0 0 5 4 1 Romania 7 0 4 0 4 3 2 Slovakia 15 4 12 0 0 0 0 Slovenia 9 6 5 0 5 3 2 Spain 11 2 8 6 9 4 2 Switzerland 2 2 1 0 0 0 0 Turkey 3 2 3 0 4 0 0 2,174 793 1,371 420 1,414 743 295 UK 433 148 232 68 312 162 67 Non-UK (c) 1,741 645 1,139 352 1,102 581 228 * For roadworthiness checks, for articulated vehicles and those with trailers, the motor vehicle and trailer are checked separately and counted as such. (d) of all the vehicles checked, more than one prohibition issued—UK:43, Non-UK: 182, Total: 225
(e) Copies of all prohibitions issued are sent to the competent authority in the home country of the operator and driver for them to take relevant action and/or initiate more in-depth investigations with the company concerned.
(4) North Wales Police cannot separately identify from their records HGVs from other types of vehicles detected speeding on the A55.