Northern Ireland authorities not enforcing foreign lorry tax

Disagreement between Whitehall and Stormont has meant that the HGV Road User Levy is not being enforced by authorities in Northern Ireland, as the devolved administration attempts to negotiate further exemptions from the scheme for Republic of Ireland operators using roads that transit the province.

The levy has applied across the UK since 1 April, including in Northern Ireland. But the passage of secondary legislation, which would facilitate enforcement in the province by the Driver & Vehicle Agency (DVA) – the local equivalent of Great Britain’s DVSA – and allow fixed penalty notices to be issued, has been blocked by Northern Ireland’s environment minister, Mark Durkan, pending the result of ongoing negotiations with the British government.

Specifically, Mr Durkan is advocating a further exemption from the levy for the A5 road, for traffic transiting Northern Ireland in journeys to and from County Donegal. The UK government has so far failed to agree to this policy, which has also been advocated by the Freight Transport Association Ireland (FTAI). Exemptions already apply to parts of the A3 and A37.

Said Durkan: “I do not believe that the UK government has given proper consideration to the unique position here on the island of Ireland, particularly in respect of those in the haulage industry and those who rely on it to maintain and grow their business in the continuing difficult economic climate.

“I strongly believe that further consideration of the levy is needed to maintain the stability of both economies.  I have therefore been actively engaging with hauliers, haulage industry representatives and ministers in London and Dublin to identify ways to ensure that the island-wide economy is not adversely impacted on by this new tax…

“Although there are some signs of economic recovery, this is still a fragile process, and additional financial impacts such as this UK-wide tax could have a negative impact on the Irish transport industry, and therefore on delivery costs across the island.

“Let us also be clear that there are potentially financial implications for transport-related businesses in the North; for example, those that service or repair HGVs for southern operators who may have to pay the levy when bringing their vehicles into the North for that work to be carried out. Those hauliers may move to other servicing facilities…

“Turning to the issue of enforcing the levy, the DfT’s plans have been based on the premise that [the Department of the Environment (DOE)], through DVA, will enforce it in Northern Ireland, including through the use of fixed penalty notices and deposits.  That is not a position that I have agreed to…

“At present, therefore, to remove or at least reduce any confusion, the levy is by law in place throughout the United Kingdom and any haulier, regardless of country of origin, is required by law to pay for the use of roads in the United Kingdom, including in Northern Ireland.

“However, in the absence of the necessary agreements with my department for DOE staff to undertake enforcement and my making secondary legislation through the Assembly to enable fixed penalty notices to be used for the offence of not paying the levy, the DfT has a limited range of means by which to enforce payment of the levy.”

Durkan stressed that the DfT did have some means of enforcement available for Irish hauliers failing to comply with the levy – namely “through the arrest of drivers caught not paying the levy by Department for Transport staff or their agents, or through the making of witness statements and a prosecution file being passed to the PPS (Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland).”

He said: “It is for the Department for Transport to decide whether it wishes to follow those avenues, but it would be remiss of me not to make clear the possible consequences to hauliers of non-payment of that UK tax.  Local hauliers, as some members have outlined, are already paying it as part of their vehicle excise duty payment.”

He added: “I have indicated publicly on a number of occasions that I will decide my position on the DfT’s request that my department enforce compliance with the levy once my discussions with DfT ministers on the A5 have been concluded.”

Opinion on the Road User Levy in Northern Ireland is divided along unionist/nationalist lines. Nationalist members of the legislative assembly (MLAs), including Mr Durkan who represents the Social Democratic & Labour Party (SDLP), last month voted in favour of a motion tabled by Sinn Féin’s Phil Flanagan, which called on the Northern Ireland Executive to: “exert maximum influence on the British government” to exempt the province’s roads from the levy altogether.

Flanagan told the Northern Ireland Assembly that his party opposed “the ludicrous proposal from the British government to charge hauliers based in the rest of Ireland a fee of £10 a day or a £1,000 a year to use the road system here.”

He warned: “The likely outworking of this HGV levy will be that if hauliers, particularly southern-based ones, have to pay a levy to use the road system in the North, the [Republic of Ireland government] may well introduce a similarly regressive move for hauliers in the North.  Protectionism and partitionism are not in our best interests.”

But the motion to negotiate with Whitehall for a full exemption for Northern Ireland was overruled by the unionist majority – including the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which holds the highest number of seats in the Assembly, and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). MLAs for the cross-community Alliance Party also voted against the motion.

DUP MLA Peter Weir said: “This is an issue that needs to be properly resolved.  We are in a slightly farcical position at present… DOE officials on the ground are left in an invidious position.  As I understand it… at present, hauliers are sometimes being stopped by officials and told that this is actually in but is not being implemented.  Presumably, the inference is that it might be implemented in the future, but it is not being implemented now.

“To be perfectly honest, I can see, even from the officials’ point of view, a high level of embarrassment in trying to explain that.  It seems to be a position that does not add up.  We need to see certainty in this, and a resolution of it.  If there are to be exemptions, particularly exemptions that benefit firms from the south, we need to see some reciprocity.”

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) MLA Jim Allister said:  “To give free passage and travel to Republic of Ireland hauliers is to impose a disadvantage and an inequality on our hauliers and road users.  That is something to which I am totally opposed.  I support the logic and theory of the levy.  It is irrefutable in why it would exist…

“I have absolutely no sympathy with this Sinn Féin motion that thinks that Republic of Ireland hauliers should be free-loaders who travel our roads free of charge, doing the damage that all lorries do and that only the indigenous road hauliers should pay through a levy and taxes for that.”

Steven Agnew, MLA for the Green Party in Northern Ireland, added: “It is rare that Mr Allister and I agree.  However, I certainly agree with him on this:  this is something that UK hauliers pay when they pay their vehicle excise duty. So, it is right that, when other hauliers come in and use our roads, they pay this duty…

“The principle of the duty is also the right principle… We must pay for the maintenance of our roads.  However, while our current structures make heavy goods vehicles necessary, they cause damage not just to our roads but inconvenience to our communities.  The tax both looks to discourage the use of HGVs where they are unnecessary and incentivise the use of more fuel-efficient vehicles through reductions in the levy for lower-impact vehicles.”