Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many freight vehicle permits for haulage between the UK and each other EU member state are current; and what plans they have to increase or amend those quantities.

Haulage between the UK and the EU is authorised by Community Licence rules, so permits are not currently required. If there is no deal, UK hauliers will be able to use ECMT (European Conference of Ministers of Transport) permits or rely on reinstated or new bilateral agreements with member states, some of which may require permits. The Government expects 20 agreements with EU countries to be reinstated once EU law ceases to apply. In most cases we would need to take some further steps with the other relevant parties to bring old bilateral agreements in to effect. In practice we would expect to update many of these old agreements and would seek new bilateral agreements where no old agreements are available. Any amendments to the quantities of permits will depend on the arrangements for reinstated or new road haulage bilateral agreements.