Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask Her Majesty's Government what preparations they are making to ensure smooth passage of freight and cars between Dover and French channel ports in the event of a failure to reach an agreement on customs arrangements, as a result of leaving the customs union and the single market.

We want our future relationship with the EU to be a deep and special partnership. We are confident that this is very much in the interests of both sides, so we approach these negotiations anticipating success. The Government does not want or expect a no deal outcome and the agreement on an implementation period makes such an outcome less likely.

However, a responsible Government should prepare for all potential outcomes. We have been engaging with border locations and the border industry to understand the operational impacts of any potential changes, especially at key locations like Dover, the Channel Tunnel and Holyhead, which handle large volumes of EU traffic.