Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if her Department will take steps to increase (a) sustainable travel options and (b) (i) rail and (ii) sail provision between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

The UK ferry market predominantly operates on a private sector, commercial basis without government support or intervention. As such decisions on increased services is a matter for the relevant operators, and we note that there are multiple routing options for ferry access between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government is considering options to decarbonise the domestic maritime sector which - alongside the expansion of the UK ETS to domestic maritime from 2026, will deliver more sustainable travel options between GB and NI.

The Northern Ireland rail network is fully devolved, operated by Translink and provided grant capital from Department for infrastructure.