§ Miss McIntoshTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of the impact of a Working Time Directive on the farm community(a) in its general application and (b) specifically in relation to the movement of livestock to and from another auction; and if she will make a statement. [89006]
§ Alun MichaelNo sectoral analysis has been provided by the Department. The Department for Trade and Industry has overall responsibility for implementing the Working Time Directive 1998 and has produced a Regulatory Impact Assessment on the 1998 regulations. As a result of the flexibilities included in the regulations in relation to agricultural work it is anticipated that the additional cost to agriculture and associated sectors will have been small.
The Working Time Regulations 1998 currently exclude a number of sectors including road transport. A new working time directive (known as the Horizontal Amending Directive) covering the excluded sectors, has been adopted together with three sector specific directives, including the Road Transport Directive. The Horizontal Amending Directive is due to come into effect on 1 August 2003. The Department for Trade and Industry is currently consulting on the draft regulations to implement the Directive.
The Road Transport Directive is due to come into effect in March 2005 and the Department for Transport will be consulting on its proposals to do this in due course.
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