Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what his timeframe is for bringing forward legislative proposals on the designation and enablement of freeports.

Freeports are playing a crucial role in our post-COVID-19 recovery, helping to build back better, drive clean growth and contribute to realising the Levelling Up agenda. We have designated tax sites through secondary legislation in four Freeports and we will continue to designate more tax sites this year. Legislation has also been laid to underpin the customs and VAT regime and two customs sites have been already designated in law in different Freeports. HMG continues to support Freeports with the delivery of their customs sites and will continue to designate customs sites as the relevant criteria are demonstrated. Maps for designated tax and customs site are available on gov.uk. Freeports will be fully operational following designation of tax and primary customs sites, with seed funding to be released on approval of their full business cases, expected later this year.