Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate he has made of the number of ECMT permits (a) required by UK haulier operations and (b) that will be made available in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

The Government has been clear that it does not intend to rely on ECMT permits after we leave the EU. The EU has agreed a regulation on basic road connectivity which guarantees rights for UK hauliers to continue providing services between the UK and the EU should the UK leave without a deal. As it stands, the Regulation would come into effect if the UK left the EU without a deal and would last until 31 December 2019.

Going forward, we will be working with Member States to agree on bilateral arrangements. Many old bilateral agreements would become reinstated if we leave without a deal and we are confident that other bilaterals will be agreed swiftly, given it is in the interest of both sides for freight to continue to flow.

The UK’s allocation of ECMT permits for 2020 is a base quota of 174 which is equivalent to 2,088 annual Euro VI ECMT permits.