The French and UK governments have announced new measures to scrutinise vehicle emissions in the wake of the VW scandal in the US, according to media reports.

France will carry out testing to establish whether vehicles on its roads are equipped with banned software of the kind used by Volkswagen in the United States to trick emissions tests, the country's environment minister said on Thursday, according to a Reuters.

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"Random tests will take place to establish cars are not equipped with fraudulent software," Segolene Royal told BFM TV after a meeting with representatives of Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen. He added the tests would involve a random sample of about 100 cars.

Meanwhile, the BBC reported the UK government would launch its own investigation into vehicle emissions. It has also called on the EU to conduct a Europe wide investigation into whether car makers have been misleading regulators.

The UK regulator, the Vehicle Certification Agency, will work with car makers to re-run lab tests where necessary and will then compare the results against "real-world" driving emissions.

Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said: "The Vehicle Certification Agency, the UK regulator, is working with vehicle manufacturers to ensure that this issue is not industry wide. As part of this work they will re-run laboratory tests where necessary and compare them against real world driving emissions. We have called on the EU to conduct a Europe wide investigation into whether there is evidence that cars here have been fitted with defeat devices. My priority is to protect the public as we go through the process of investigating what went wrong and what we can do to stop it happening again in the future.

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