Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what plans his Department has to roll out the economic development measures within the freeports programme to other UK coastal regions.

We want all the nations of the UK to be able to share in the benefits of Freeports. We remain committed to establishing our Freeport programme in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as soon as possible.

Given the mixture of reserved and devolved policy levers which are required to realise the full benefits of Freeports, we are working with the devolved administrations to deliver Freeports across the UK.