Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to secure the future of ports and wharfs as key infrastructure in delivering the supply chain for the Industrial Strategy.

The Industrial Strategy recognises the importance of ports to the UK economy by their inclusion as a foundational industry, essential to enabling growth in the strategy’s eight sectors through providing critical inputs and infrastructure.

The UK’s ports industry is largely privately owned and operated, with government’s role primarily to ensure that the policy and regulatory environment supports efficient operation and investment. The Government is streamlining planning and regulatory processes for ports, including by updating the National Policy Statement for Ports. The Government is also committed to investing in road and rail connections to ports to improve the efficient and cost-effective transportation of goods and passengers.

In addition, the Government is working closely with Ofgem and the National Energy System Operator on fundamental reforms to the grid connections process that will release up to 500GW of capacity from the connections queue. This may enable ports to electrify more quickly where capacity is released in port locations.

Finally, the Government is deploying capital at scale through the National Wealth Fund, with ports being one of the five sectors to which it has committed at least £5.8 billion.