Major ports in the UK face closure if the UK’s Border Force suffers personnel shortages due to the coronavirus outbreak.
A new bill to be introduced to the UK's House of Commons this week will enable the UK home secretary to request that port operators temporarily close and suspend operations if staff shortages result in a “real and significant threat to the UK’s border security”.
In response to the publication of the UK government’s policy paper the British Ports Association (BPA) said that keeping the UK’s gateways open for trade “should be a priority”.
"We trust that these powers would only be enacted suddenly without consideration of the implications," the BPA said.
"We would expect a sunset clause on these powers so that they expire once the pandemic is brought under control."
BPA chief executive Richard Ballantyne said: “UK ports facilitate 95% of our trade and will be instrumental ensuring the country is fed and resourced in the coming weeks.
“Half of the UK’s food is imported, and it will be critical to keep our ports open so that shops, public services, and businesses are supplied with what the country needs.”
Ballantyne said the industry was “generally very supportive” of the UK government’s measures to bring the pandemic under control and was “working hard to keep goods moving”.
“We would expect that proposed new powers to potentially close individual ports will only be used in the most extreme circumstances,” he said.
“These are unprecedented times and we are working closely with the UK government and devolved administrations.
“Our ports are currently open and facilitating imports of food, supplies and resources. It will be important that government staff at the frontline look to support this effort as best they can.”
Ballantyne said the BPA has been speaking with its counterparts in Italy where the ports have remained open and they have been “learning from their experiences to keep our gateways operational”.
The UK port industry is the second largest in Europe, handling around 500 million tonnes of freight each year. It directly employ around 115,000 people.
