Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what involvement The Insolvency Service has on the matter of redundancies at P&O Ferries; what the cost to the public purse of that engagement is; what assessment his Department has made of the solvency of P&O Ferries; and what plans the Government has to safeguard ferry services in the event that P&O Ferries becomes insolvent.

On 1 April 2022 the Insolvency Service commenced formal criminal and civil investigations into the circumstances surrounding the recent redundancies made by P&O Ferries. As these are ongoing investigations, no further comment or information can be provided at this time.

The Department for Transport regularly looks at resilience of businesses within the maritime sector.