Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when the competition for contracts under the Freight Capacity Framework Agreement will be completed and the winning bidders announced.
On Friday 20 September the Department announced the operators who had been successful in applying to join the Freight Capacity framework, and also launched two Call Off mini-competitions to provide capacity for 31 October. We intend to award Call Off contracts to successful bidders by 12 October.
It will be for suppliers on the framework to set out in their bids the ports, airports and rail terminals that they intend to use to meet the government’s capacity requirements.
To support the flow of vital Category 1 goods, the Call Off mini-competitions did not include those ports and terminals that posed an unacceptable risk of disruption to the flow of critical ‘category 1’ goods, including medicines.