Government Response

The Government responded to this petition on Saturday 31st August 2013

As this e-petition has received more than 10 000 signatures, the relevant Government department have provided the following response:

The decisions of successive Governments have resulted in VED being structured according to vehicle type and registration date with VED contributing to general taxation revenues. Cars registered before March 2001 are taxed according to engine size, and those registered from March 2001 onwards taxed according to carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

Unlike for cars, the European Union has not yet established a design type approval test for motorbikes that requires CO2 data to be produced for each model variant. The current scheme for motorbike manufacturers is voluntary and so does not offer a complete dataset for all motorbikes in production. The Government is therefore not in a position to treat motorbikes on a CO2 emissions basis for VED. The current engine capacity based rates offer the most practical and easy-to-understand way to reflect the respective emissions levels of motorbikes.

The majority of motorcycle owners, in fact, pay rates lower than the top VED rate of £78. A third of motorcyclists pay the lowest VED rate applicable to motorcycles, i.e. of £17. The Government believes that healthy public finances are essential for future growth and jobs. The UK is still faced with the serious and unavoidable economic challenge of tackling the debts inherited from the previous Government. Despite this challenge, under this Government, VED rate increases for cars, vans and mototcycles are limited to inflation only, meaning that a motorist’s VED liability remains unchanged in real terms since 2010.

This e-petition remains open to signatures and will be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee should it pass the 100 000 signature threshold.