Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment has been made of the potential effect on (a) employment, (b) maritime freight volumes and (c) passenger numbers at UK ports on the (i) North Sea, (ii) Channel and (iii) Irish Sea from the European Commission's Draft Regulation on market access to port services and the financial transparency of ports.

It is not possible to frame meaningful estimates of the regulatory impact of the proposed Regulation in these terms. In the short term, the main impact would be on administrative compliance costs of the ports within scope of the Regulation, rather than on trade volumes. However, the industry has expressed concern that the Regulation, were it to be implemented along the lines of the May 2013 Proposal, would be likely to have a serious adverse impact on port investors’ confidence, which ultimately could depress trade and employment in the sector.

The Council General Approach text, which was agreed by Transport Council on 8 October, would result in a substantially lesser regulatory impact.

The Commission published an Impact Assessment accompanying its Proposal in May 2013 [reference SWD (2013)181 final]. This postulated induced cost savings and increases in short-sea shipping and throughput at European ports which I regard as wholly unrealistic, especially in the UK context.