Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government which advisers were used by the Department of Transport to conduct due diligence on Arklow Shipping Limited in connection to the award of a shipping contract to Seabourne Freight; and whether any ministers or officials met representatives or agents of Arklow Shipping Limited as part of that process.

Due diligence was undertaken for all three ferry freight contracts at a level proportionate to the Department's prospective contractual relations. In recognition that Seaborne Freight was a start-up business, the contract with Seaborne required them to provide evidence about its financial backers. In part because of the withdrawal of Arklow Shipping, Seaborne was unable to provide this evidence to satisfy these contractual milestones, contributing to Secretary of State’s decision unilaterally to terminate the contract.