A senior MP has written to the roads minister to express concern about the lack of progress in applying fixes to Volkswagen Group cars affected by the emissions scandal, with one third of vehicles equipped with ‘defeat devices’ still unfixed.
Figures provided in response to parliamentary questions tabled by Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, show that as of September 2017 around two thirds of affected vehicles had been fixed, but that the rate of fixes had declined from a high of 10% of affected cars per month in February 2017 to 2% of affected cars per month.
Ms Creagh has now written to John Hayes MP, minister of state at the Department for Transport (DfT), to express the committee’s concerns around the lack of progress of applying fixes to cars equipped with defeat devices, which detect when a car is undergoing laboratory emissions test and change engine performance to cheat the test.
She said: ‘It is over two years since the VW emissions scandal was discovered, a third of vehicles have yet to be fixed and rates have slowed considerably. We have written to the Department for Transport to ask what action they are taking in response to the stalled progress.
‘It is essential that the vehicles on Britain’s roads adhere to emissions regulations, particularly as the country is faced with dangerous levels of pollution. The Department must take responsibility for ensuring that these fixes are completed as soon as possible.’
A DfT spokesperson said: 'The UK Government continues to take the unacceptable actions of Volkswagen extremely seriously and is working hard on behalf of UK consumers.
'Officials in the Department for Transport hold monthly meetings with representatives from Volkswagen for information on the number of updates applied across all of the affected brands and to press them on remaining issues.'
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