Tacograph spot checks have revealed continental van and lorry drivers are far more likely to break EU working time rules on UK roads than British drivers.

The latest EU data shows 27,418 offenders detected on Britain’s roads were UK citizens, while 11,565 were from the much smaller pool of drivers from other EU member states.

In most other EU countries, locals are more likely to illegally overwork.

For instance in Italy, 90,725 Italian professional goods vehicle drivers were discovered breaking working time rules and just 2,834 offenders from other member states; in Germany there were 631,226 German and 73,246 foreign EU national offenders.

The European Commission reports a gradually worsening situation regarding professional driver overwork.

Across the EU in 2003/4 there were 1.185 million offenders detected, compared with 1.183 million the previous year.