Mr. Timmy Hennessy:

One issue with a levy such as this is ensuring that it is legally robust. An issue that arose during the development of the levy was substitutability. There was a consideration that, where two products may be readily substitutable and one could be used for the other, it could give rise to difficulties if the levy was only applied to one. Regarding broader considerations on environmental policy, we looked at EU policy about embodied carbon in concrete and at what work is ongoing at EU level. The levy was defined with reference by EU standards. We understand that work is ongoing in the EU to define concrete with reference to its embodied carbon, which would establish its environmental credentials. That work is not yet completed so it is not yet possible, from looking at individual concrete products, to scope out things based on a new definition of embodied carbon, because one is not yet available for the standards used in construction products regulation. I will ask Mr. Armstrong if I have covered that point clearly.