Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the evidential basis is for the decision that if Mobile Batching Concrete Plants (MCBPs) continue to operate outside standard legal gross vehicle weight limits it would create an enduring regulatory discrepancy between businesses competing in the same market when operators of barrel mixers are free to purchase and operate MCBPs as many already do.

The standard legal gross weight limits, applicable to large vehicles, including MCBP, are not a regulatory discrepancy. Creating a specific, enduring regime for MCBP would have allowed these vehicles to be operated legally at higher gross weights than barrel mixers.

The decision to establish a 10-year temporary arrangement enabling mobile concrete batching plant to operate in excess of standard weight limits is to provide time for the operators of these vehicles to come into compliance with the currently-applicable legal limits, which also apply to barrel concrete mixers.