Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to his Answer of 16 January 2019 to Question 207177 on Volkswagen: Exhaust Emissions, what investigations his Department conducted to determine that no wrongdoing has taken place within the UK.

The relevant engines were designed, developed, manufactured and presented for type approval (either by the UK Vehicle Certification Agency or other EU type approval authorities) outside the UK. The Government has not aware of any evidence that representatives of VW UK were aware of the wrongdoing.

Evidence on this matter is likely to flow, if at all, from the investigation now being undertaken in Germany. In these circumstances it would not be appropriate for the UK to carry out a separate parallel investigation, and there would be significant difficulties in obtaining evidence. However, the Government has reserved its position on this matter and continues to monitor the German investigation with interest.

Given that the German investigation remains under way, the Secretary of State has had no further recent discussions with his German counterpart.