Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential risks posed to navigation and public safety by containers lost overboard; and what processes are in place to monitor and recover such containers.

Identification and recovery of lost containers is the responsibility of the owners and insurers of the vessel. In the recent incident in the Solent, surveys were commissioned by the vessel’s insurers, working with the Deputy Secretary of State’s Representative for Maritime Salvage and Intervention, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, and the Department for Transport.

Local navigation warnings remain in place as a precaution whilst further surveys are considered. The clean-up and recovery of containers on the shoreline has been led by West Sussex County Council.