Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 9 July 2019 to Question 275205 on Shipping: Exhaust Emissions, what estimate has he made of the capital expenditure required by a port to fund a berth for electric charging of vessels.

The Clean Maritime Plan, published earlier this month, sets out a route map for zero emission shipping in the UK. Alongside the Clean Maritime Plan, the Government published research setting out some of challenges around increasing uptake of electric charging. As noted in this research, capital expenditure costs associated with electric charging berths will vary greatly. They may be influenced by, for instance, the size of the vessels being plugged in, the existing grid infrastructure, and the layout of port infrastructure. The Government believes that electric charging will have a role to play in reducing emissions from UK shipping, and will continue to work with the ports and shipping industries, the Clean Maritime Council, and the National Grid to better understand the opportunities for shoreside power.