Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the National Police Chiefs' Council's 2025 guidance on the management of abnormal loads; what steps her Department is taking to encourage consistent adoption by police forces; and whether Ministers plan to meet industry representatives to discuss consistency of adoption and the potential impact of secondary legislation on it.

The Department for Transport is encouraged that the industry response to the publication of guidance on the movement of abnormal loads by the National Police Chiefs' Council has been largely positive. We continue to engage with the Home Office on this issue, but operational decisions are for chief constables.

Department for Transport officials have established an abnormal loads working group with counterparts from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, the Home Office and also involving National Highways. This group is sharing information on the regime and future demand for abnormal load movements in key sectors and is taking forward actions to improve industry understanding of the process for moving abnormal loads.