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, what assessment he has made of the effect on fair competition within the wet concrete market industry of the decisions contained within that letter.

The decision to establish a 10-year temporary arrangement enabling mobile concrete batching plant to operate in excess of standard weight limits will create a temporary regulatory discrepancy between different forms of delivery of wet concrete. Having listened carefully to the industry, the Government believes that this will provide time for mobile batching plant to come into compliance with the currently-applicable legal limits, which also apply to barrel concrete mixers.

At the end of that temporary period, there will be common limits across different modes of concrete delivery, helping to facilitate fair competition. The Department is aware that there are different maximum legal payloads for different vehicle types, due to differing unladen weights.