Ministers from several government departments have met senior police and Border Force officials in a bid to tackle problems at ports and airports that have caused disruption to holidaymakers and hauliers.
Kit Malthouse MP, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, chaired the Government Resilience, Implementation and Preparedness (GRIP) meeting on Tuesday (July 26) with ministers from the Department for Transport, Home Office, Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
They were joined by representatives from UK Border Force, the National Police Coordination Centre and the Kent Resilience Forum, which managed the local impact of last weekend’s problems that caused a ‘critical incident’ at Dover, and long queues at the Eurotunnel terminal in Folkestone.
Next weekend is also expected to be very busy with more holidaymakers heading for the Continent, amid warnings that the disruption could continue throughout the summer.
Ahead of another busy weekend of travel, it’s vital that any disruption is minimised.
Today @kitmalthouse chaired a meeting of Ministers & senior officials on the support provided.
We are in daily contact with the Port of Dover & French Gov on this issuehttps://t.co/hkmikbUgmE— Cabinet Office (@cabinetofficeuk) July 26, 2022
Ministers discussed how they are supporting industry and port and airport operators to ease potential disruption, from working with the Port of Dover and French government to liaising with Highways England about managing traffic.
Other recent measures were discussed, such as changing regulations on airport slots rules to help airlines manage schedules, avoid last-minute cancellations and provide passengers with more certainty.
With Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games beginning on Thursday (July 28), and RMT rail workers on strike on Wednesday, ministers also outlined preparations for alternative transport provision.
The Home Office updated the meeting about passport application processing ahead of the big summer getaway.
Kevin Foster MP, minister for safe and legal migration, has been meeting Passport Office seniors on a fortnightly basis to help improve processing times.
The Passport Office is now processing about one million applications each month, with 97.7% of these being processed within 10 weeks.
Malthouse said: “We want to make sure families get away on their holidays smoothly and hauliers aren’t delayed unnecessarily.
“This [meeting] was to confirm that work is under way to prevent the scenes of disruption that we saw last weekend, and that we are in daily contact with the Port of Dover and French government to work together to remove any grit from the system.
“I want to use these GRIP meetings to coordinate and galvanise Government Resilience, Implementation and Preparedness for potential issues facing the country.”
Pictured: Huge queues at the Port of Dover at the start of the summer holidays. Editorial credit: Simon Ward Photography/Shutterstock.com