MPs have accused the government of failing to respond to allegations that it illegally awarded ferry contracts to three operators as part of Brexit ‘no deal’ contingency plans.

As the FTA announced it was continuing to advise members about managing UK-EU trade flows in the event of the country crashing out of Europe with no deal, the transport select committee said it had received allegations that ferry contracts handed to Seaborne Freight, DFDS and Brittany Ferries were unlawful.

The government has already told the House of Commons that the contracts were arranged using an emergency measure exemption to bypass the normal procurement process.

Transport secretary Chris Grayling has previously said that this was due to “reasons for extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority”.

'Unlawful' contracts

But in two pieces of written evidence submitted to the select committee, Dr Andrew Watt and Dr Albert Sanchez-Graells claimed the contracts were unlawful.

Watt said: “Regulation 32 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 provides that a contract may be awarded by negotiation without prior publication i.e. without a public competition, only in situations of ‘extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority’.

“Article 50 of the treaty on European Union expressly envisages the possibility of the UK leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement. A ‘no deal’ Brexit has been plainly foreseeable by the DfT as a possible consequence of the prime minister’s letter since no later than March 2017.

“The DfT cannot reasonably claim that the current circumstances are ‘unforeseeable’ so cannot lawfully award the three ‘ferrygate’ contracts.”

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Government response

In response, transport secretary Chris Grayling told the committee that “given the unexpected and unforeseeable limitations on the extent to which the market had to date been able to respond to the risk of no-deal by putting in place contingency plans to prepare for this scenario, the government completed a procurement process to secure additional freight capacity”.

Lilian Greenwood, committee chair, described the response as “extraordinary”, in that it failed “both to provide any additional insight into why the Department used emergency powers in the award of the contracts, and to respond to the substance of our questions about the Department’s process for securing them”.

She added: “This was an opportunity for the secretary of state to put the record straight.”

Brexit preparation vital

Meanwhile, James Hookham, FTA deputy chief executive, said last Tuesday’s vote in the House of Commons had left the industry with no greater clarity or confidence about Brexit.

“The risk of a no-deal Brexit on 29 March is just as great this morning as it was yesterday,” he said.

“FTA continues to advise its members managing UK-EU trade flows to continue preparing accordingly and we are stepping up our advice and services to support them.

“We are not in the business of politics, we are in the business of keeping Britain trading.”

HGV backlog mitigation

Mounting concerns over post-Brexit jams at the port of Dover have also prompted the government to extend its deal to use Manston Airport as a lorry park until the end of 2020.

The special development order came into effect on 24 January and comes with additions to allow work on the site to create a new access, as well as temporary hardstanding, lining and signage.

Capacity is being increased at the former airport in order to hold 6,000 lorries.

Manston is involved in phase three of Operation Brock, the updated version of Operation Stack for dealing with an HGV backlog.

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