‘GOLD-PLATED’ LICENCES UNNECESSARY SAY BMF
28 June 2006 - BMF

Moving to prevent the over embellishment of EU regulations for obtaining a motorcycle driving licence

The British Motorcyclists Federation have accused the Driving Standards Agency (DSA) of increasing the cost and difficulty of obtaining a motorcycle licence by ‘gold plating’ an EU directive.

In written evidence to the ‘Davidson Review of Implementation of EU Legislation’, the BMF points out that motorcycle driving licence procedures are already complicated enough without the UK’s own agency adding unnecessary embellishments.

The review, reporting later this year and chaired by Neil Davidson QC, the former Solicitor General for Scotland, is designed to look at how the UK puts EU legislation into practice and particularly for evidence of ''gold plating'', defined as ‘instances where, by extending the scope of an EU directive, UK implementation goes beyond the minimum necessary to comply with that directive.’

With plans for a 3rd Driving Licence Directive already before the EU Parliament (even before the 2nd Driving Licence Directive has been fully implemented and evaluated!), the BMF points out that the DSA have already decided that meeting the 2nd Driving Licence Directive’s requirements will require purpose-built surfaced areas roughly the size of a premier league football pitch to carry out certain tests. This is larger than that determined by other member states and can therefore be seen as ‘gold plating’.

Further, the directive requires that two slow speed manoeuvres are required to be undertaken, but say the BMF, these have been ‘gold plated’ by the DSA who are now insisting on four distinct manoeuvres namely: riding at a walking pace, performing a slalom, a figure of eight and also a U turn. These do not apply in other member states.

Commenting on the procedure, BMF spokesman Jeff Stone said: “This really is a case of ‘all that glitters is not gold’. The EU directive is stringent enough and has been accepted elsewhere in Europe so we can’t see why the DSA have added this extra bit of ‘gold plating’. The effects on learner motorcyclists will be dramatic and worse still, they will have been unfairly and unjustly treated compared to those in other EU states.”

The knock-on effects will be far reaching because of the size of the test areas now required means that the UK’s current test centre sites will be closed and new ones opened at the new super centres. (Note: Typically there are often test centres within 8-10 miles of a candidate’s home. The new ‘super centres’ will be fewer and far between and candidates will have to travel up to 35 or 40 miles to get to a centre, or if in Scotland, some test candidates will have to travel in excess of 100 miles for a test. Serious problems will occur during the late autumn, winter and early spring periods due to adverse weather conditions when centres will close but too late to advise the candidate).

Coupled to the new 3rd Driving Licence Directive, motorcycling will become increasingly difficult and prohibitively expensive say the BMF. The current estimate for closing current centres and setting up of 50-70 new ‘super centres’ is well in excess of £80 million and costs will have to be recouped from candidates.

The effect so far is to increase all driving test fees by £3 a year through to 2008. Currently the practical motorcycle test is £58 with it increasing to £61 in April 2007; £64 in April 2008 with a total review of test fees at the start of the new testing regime in 2008. Raising the ‘gold plating’ issue is one further way of trying to control the tide of licensing legislation now facing motorcycling say the BMF.

www.betterbiking.co.uk

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