Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to his Department's letter entitled Regulation of mobile concrete batching plant – decision on operating weight arrangements, published on 5 April 2018, for what reason his Department did not undertake an assessment of the economic effect on the viability of businesses of his decision against a permanent specific arrangement for mobile batching concrete plants prior to that announcement.

The Department does not in general conduct impact assessments on the application of existing legal requirements. However, we have listened to industry’s concerns, and that is why we have confirmed a 10 year derogation to allow mobile concrete batching plants to continue to operate above the standard legal weight limits to give the industry sufficient time to adjust.