Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress she has made on her planned port strategy; and what plans she has for future funding of port infrastructure.

My Department is not currently planning on publishing a ports strategy, however, on 25^th March we published the Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy and we are continuing to develop a Maritime Strategy. Both address the Department’s priorities for the ports sector.

The Maritime Decarbonisation Strategy sets out Government’s plans for decarbonising the domestic maritime sector, including goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and policies to support this. The Maritime Strategy will be published later this year. It will focus on our four priorities of people, growth, environment and safety. Ports have a crucial role to play across all of these.

The Department is engaging with colleagues at the National Wealth Fund given Ports are a priority area for NWF investment.