Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the impact on businesses of any problems at UK ports caused by congestion and delays on roads connected to those ports.

The situation faced by UK businesses and others across the globe is a result of high consumer demand, and the ongoing disruption caused by Covid-19 pressures. This is a global problem, and the UK is experiencing challenges similar to other countries at the current time.

Global capacity at ports regularly fluctuates in response to increased seasonal demand and this has been exacerbated by the ongoing global container and HGV driver shortages. The Government continues to work closely with the freight industry to tackle the challenges faced by some ports this winter.

The Department has ongoing engagement with businesses and organisations across a range of sectors to understand the impact that these pressures are having on the ground. In addition, Sir Dave Lewis, former CEO of Tesco, was appointed in October to act as the UK Government’s supply chain adviser and provide a further link between business and government. We continue to work closely with industry to identify and understand the causes of supply chain issues and pre-empt future issues.