Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of laws governing the hours worked by agricultural vehicle drivers.

The Department for Transport (DfT) has not assessed the adequacy of the laws governing the hours worked by agricultural vehicle drivers.

The regulations that apply to the hours worked by drivers of agricultural vehicles depend on a range of factors. For example, drivers of some agricultural vehicles, if used for commercial non-agricultural haulage on public roads, may need to comply with the assimilated drivers’ hours rules (Regulation (EC) 561/2006, as it has effect in the UK) which set maximum limits on driving and minimum requirements for breaks and rest periods. These drivers follow the sector-specific Road Transport (Working Time) Regulations 2005. There are a number of exemptions from the assimilated drivers’ hours rules, including for tractors not capable of exceeding 40 km/h and tractors used for agricultural or forestry activities within 100 km of their base.

Drivers of tractors that are exempt from the assimilated rules are likely to be subject to GB domestic drivers’ hours rules, which set maximum driving limits and maximum duty limits, and would need to comply with the general Working Time Regulations 1998, unless the driver drives for less than 4 hours in a day or drives only off-road.

The DfT has published guidance on the regulations that apply to agricultural vehicles on gov.uk:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tractors-regulations-on-use.