Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the Government's policy is on monitoring the contents of (a) imported and (b) exported containers for security purposes; and what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on such monitoring.

It is a long standing convention of successive governments not to comment on matters relating to national security.

The Home Secretary regularly meets with the Secretary of State for Transport as part of the process of policy development and delivery, but it is not the Government’s practice to provide details of discussions concerning the development of national security policy.