Ports: Infrastructure

(asked on 27th September 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect of the improvements to port infrastructure on the UK side of channel since June 2019 on potential goods disruption after the UK leaves the EU; and what comparative assessment he has made of the effect of those improvements and the improvements made on the French side of the English Channel.


Answered by
Chris Heaton-Harris Portrait
Chris Heaton-Harris
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
This question was answered on 7th October 2019

It was announced on 26 September that sixteen ports across England will receive a share of a multimillion-pound funding pot to help their preparations for Brexit on 31 October and beyond. The successful bidders of the £10 million Port Infrastructure Resilience and Connectivity (PIRC) competition offers ports up to £1 million each to deliver important infrastructure upgrades to help keep traffic and trade flowing smoothly across the border.

The fund is part of a wider £30 million government package to support ports across England to operate efficiently post-Brexit of which DfT is providing up to £5 million to four Local Resilience Forums (LRF) outside Kent with the highest volumes of accompanied road freight traffic with EU ports. A further £15 million will go towards the development of longer-term projects to boost road and rail links to ports.

It is for the relevant LRFs to consider how this impacts on port infrastructure and local traffic management plans. DfT will continue to support this work.

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