Catalogue description Ministry of Transport and successors, Mechanical Engineering and Vehicle Engineering: Registered Files

In 1958 the Mechanical Engineering Staff was established as part of the Highways Engineering Staff. When the Road Safety, Road Transport and Vehicle Regulation Division was set up in 1960, the Mechanical Engineering Staff was transferred to it. This Division was dissolved in 1965 and a Mechanical Engineering Division was established with responsibility for engineering aspects of vehicle safety and amenity standards for road vehicles. The Mechanical Engineering Division remained a separate Division on the establishment of the Department of the Environment in 1970. It was retitled the Vehicle Engineering Division in 1972 and was transferred to the newly established Department of Transport in 1976.

Mechanical Engineering Staff are primarily responsible for advising the Department on all technical matters relating to the design, construction, equipment, use and maintenance of motor vehicles, with particular reference to safety. They also co-ordinate the work of local and regional area technical staffs of professional engineers and vehicle examiners who are concerned with, inter alia, the inspection and certification of goods vehicles for mechanical fitness; the operation of road-side checks; the supervision of the activities of authorised examiners appointed for this purpose under the Road Traffic Acts, and the certification of technical information required under international agreements in respect of commercial vehicles proceeding abroad. They are also responsible for the development and provision of special equipment for snow clearing and gritting operations of motorways and trunk roads, and for the design of maintenance compounds on these roads.