Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to promote more rail freight during a period of shortage of HGV drivers.

The Government remains fully committed to unlocking the benefits rail freight can deliver, including its role in supporting resilient supply chains. We are incentivising modal shift from road to rail through the Mode Shift Revenue Support Scheme. In 2021/22, the Department allocated up to £20m to freight grants, removing the equivalent of around 900,000 HGV journeys off the road.

We are working closely with the rail freight industry to ensure they are doing all they can to move more goods during this period, with Freight Operating Companies (FOCs) transporting additional containers from ports to inland terminals to reduce congestion, where possible. We are exploring with Network Rail (NR) and FOCs whether there is scope to run longer freight trains, to ensure that capacity is maximised, and help increase the flow of rail freight on key routes from major ports.