HC Deb 26 November 1991 vol 199 cc424-5W
Mr. Hind

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport whether he proposes any changes to the fees charged to United Kingdom hauliers for international road haulage permits in 1992.

Mr. Chope

I am glad to announce some further fee reductions following the successful negotiation of significant increases in the United Kingdom's bilateral and multilateral quota. This has resulted in greater income from permits without significant increases in costs.

Our success benefits British hauliers twice—first, from the more plentiful supply of permits and, secondly, from the reduction in fees.

The fees will be as follows, with the 1991 charges in brackets:
£ £
Single journey permit £2 (£2)
Multi journey permit for two or more journeys £1 per journey (£1)
Annual period permit £20 (£40)
Three month period permit £5 (£10)
Multilateral EC/ECMT 3 annual permit £40 (£80)
Multilateral EC/ECMT 3 month permit £10 (£20)
Community Removals (annual) £5 (£25)
Multilateral EC 1 month permit £5 (£7)
EC 1 month cabotage permit £5 (£5)

Mr. Hind

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will announce the outcome of his Department's recent bilateral negotiations on road transport with the Soviet Union and its republics.

Mr. Chope

These negotiations resulted in agreement that road hauliers travelling between the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union and its republics will no longer need to carry permits as from 1 April 1992. We have also reached agreement with Portugal that road hauliers travelling between the United Kingdom and Portugal will no longer need to carry permits from 1 January 1992.

These follow my Department's success in February—March this year in negotiating the ending of permits between the United Kingdom and Hungary and the United Kingdom and Czechoslovakia from 1 January 1992.