The UK is to launch its own investigation into vehicle emissions testing, following the Volkswagen scandal. The UK regulator, the Vehicle Certification Agency, will work with car makers to re-run lab tests where necessary and compare them with “real-world” road tests.

The UK Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin said the move was to ensure the issue of emissions cheating was not industry-wide.

“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.”

The German car maker said it hoped to release more details about which brands and models are affected by “defeat device” software designed to cheat emissions tests today.

The move followed a call by the European Commission on all EU countries to carry out separate investigations. “We need to have the full picture of whether and how many vehicles certified in the EU were fitted with defeat devices, which is banned by EU law.”

Previously VW said 11 million cars worldwide had been fitted with the software.

Experts said it was unclear whether “defeat devices” would have led to VW cheating emissions tests outside the US. The company told EU officials the vehicles in question included cars with 1.6 litre and 2 litre diesel engines, the German Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said.

The German transport authority has launched an inquiry into the scandal and is conducting static and road tests on VW models and spot tests on cars made by other manufacturers to discover the extent of the wider problem.

11 million VW cars potentially affected

The influential Commons Transport select committee said it would launch a wider investigation into testing in the car industry.

Louise Ellman, the committee’s chair, said: “Action must be taken to give the public confidence in the testing regime in relation to emissions, safety, recyclability and other factors.

“It should not take a crisis to make the authorities act. There have been anecdotal reports for some time that real-world performance does not match data reported by manufacturers.

“This gap is now subject to research and earlier this month the Committee on Climate Change was told that the growth in this gap is partly due to increased exploitation of ‘flexibilities’ in laboratory testing by vehicle manufacturers.”

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled – leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: “Europe’s largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

Other car makers have seen their shares hit by the scandal. The share price of the rival German manufacturer BMW fell more than 5 per cent after a car magazine reported that road tests by the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) – who helped spark the VW scandal – revealed one of its BMW X3 models exceeded European emissions limits by more than 11 times. It did not say what the cause for the alleged problem was.

BMW said it did not manipulate or rig any emissions tests. “There is no function to recognise emissions testing cycles at BMW. All emissions systems remain active outside the testing cycles,” a statement said.

11 times - the amount by which BMW's X3 model exceeded EU emissions limits

Juergen Pieper, a Frankfurt-based motor industry analyst, said: “There is no suggestion BMW has done anything illegal. There are concerns for the long-term damage for every manufacturer that builds cars with these engines.”