Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether freeport applications are assessed under (a) Criteria D and (b) Criteria E of Section 5.6 of the bidding prospectus for the use of supply chain finance schemes; and if he will list any successful freeport bids to date which contained plans to rely upon such schemes.

All bids were assessed against the assessment criteria set out in the Freeports Bidding Prospectus. For Criterion D, bidders were assessed on the deliverability of their proposal effectively at pace. For Criterion E, bidders were assessed against their proposals ability to demonstrate a high level of private sector involvement.