Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2017 to Question 117278 on buses:tyres, how many tyres over the age of 10 years have been (a) identified and (b) collected by his Department for analysis as part of that research.

Research commissioned by the Department for Transport is proceeding to schedule and, as the House was advised in June this year, the report should be available early in 2019.

The current research does not include tyres over 10-years of age but work is underway to secure suitable samples that will be added to the programme. Additional funding is being made available to support this extended analysis and the Department is working with the contractor to ensure that any delays to the final report are kept to a minimum.