Seaborne Freight Debate

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Department: Department for Transport

Seaborne Freight

Wayne David Excerpts
Tuesday 8th January 2019

(5 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Chris Grayling Portrait Chris Grayling
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The common transit convention is the international agreement by which trade flows across multiple countries. It has already been announced that in leaving the European Union the United Kingdom will remain part of that convention, which will play a significant part in ensuring that trade flows freely in all situations. None the less, we need to make sure that we cannot get blockages at key ports, and that is what we are working to do.

Wayne David Portrait Wayne David (Caerphilly) (Lab)
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In the interests of transparency, will the Secretary of State indicate to the House which companies were considered for the contracts?

Chris Grayling Portrait Chris Grayling
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We received three compliant bids, all of which we judged acceptable and accepted. Two of them were from major operators that will provide around 90% of the capacity, plus there was this small additional contract. Should we choose to return to the market, there is also potential interest in the provision of extra capacity. I hope we will not need that, because I hope that we will have a proper deal come next week.