Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate the Government has made of a) the annual cost to UK port operators of dredging and disposing of dredged material required to maintain navigational access, b) the proportion of those costs arising from disposal levies and monitoring fees, and c) how those costs compare with equivalent charges in France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

a) Information relating to the annual cost to UK port operators of dredging and disposing of dredged material required to maintain navigational access is not held centrally.

b) The costs arising from the disposal levies and monitoring fees for last three years are shown in the table below:

c) The equivalent information for France, Belgium and the Netherlands is not held centrally.