So how much DID transport ministers know?
MINISTERS were last night urged to ‘come clean’ about the Volkswagen scandal after it emerged they were warned that diesel cars were being adjusted to pass tests almost a year ago.
The Department for Transport yesterday admitted receiving a 60-page report last October detailing ‘strong evidence’ that diesel cars on the roads were producing far more noxious gas than official tests suggested.
The report by the International Council on Clean Transportation, which helped uncover the VW scandal, tested 15 models of diesel cars on sale in the US and Europe. It found they produced an average of seven times the legal limit of nitrogen oxide.
The DfT yesterday insisted it had already been pushing for tougher testing of diesel cars, but admitted it had not taken ‘any further specific action’ as a result of the report.
Labour last night called for an independent inquiry into the growing scandal to establish how much ministers and officials knew. Labour’s transport spokesman Lilian Greenwood said: ‘Ministers must come clean and admit when they were first told about the diesel emissions scandal.
‘It is unacceptable that the Government waited this long to take action.’
A source at the DfT last night insisted that ministers had only become aware of the VW scandal last Friday when it broke in the US.
The source said officials were aware of the ‘concept’ of defeat devices, as they had been made illegal in the late 1990s, but added: ‘We were not aware that they were being used.’
A DfT spokesman said the Government has been ‘at the forefront... at a European level’ to introduce updated emissions testing.
He added that the ICCT report published in October ‘did not identify the vehicles tested’. The report also did not identify the potential use of defeat devices, but critics say ministers should have acted.