Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to UK Port Freight Statistics: January to March 2017 Quarter 1, published on 14 June 2017, what assessment his Department has made of the cause of the recent decline in freight tonnage handled by UK ports.

These are provisional statistics that provide an indication of high level trends. Further analysis and in depth commentary, including trends broken down by cargo category, will be published alongside the final annual statistics.