Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what the Government's policy is on the proposed EU Port Services Regulations; and if he will make a statement.

While the Government does not believe that the Proposal is necessary in respect of the UK’s proven competitive market based port sector, we achieved numerous significant improvements in the Council General Approach text agreed on 8 October 2014. The Regulation is now under active consideration by the European Parliament, and the Government will seek to defend those improvements against any amendments that would by comparison tend to increase the regulatory impact on UK ports.