Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of overseas tender for the procurement of vessels for Trinity House, in terms of foreign government support for the tenders and subcontracting of work to third parties in the Far East.

The Trinity House vessel procurement required bidders to state social value and UK content commitments as part of their bids, which accounted for ten per cent and five per cent respectively of the overall evaluation.

All bids are assessed against these criteria as part of a fair and open competition. Given that this procurement remains live at this stage it would be inappropriate for me to comment further before this process concludes.