In a new report published on Tuesday the Committee expressed doubt as to whether the Department for Transport’s current plans will be enough to address the practical challenges of a no deal scenario.

It says the DfT has not procured the additional freight capacity needed to secure the supply of critical goods, having taken a ‘rushed and risky’ approach to procurement that happened ‘too late in the day’.

Despite being aware that the ferry industry would need time to introduce new services, the department did not start serious preparations until September 2018, just six months before the UK is due to leave the EU, the report says.

It had originally intended to procure additional capacity equal to 25% of normal freight flows across the channel, but ferry contracts awarded to three bidders only accounted for 11% extra capacity.

The Public Accounts Committee is concerned that the DfT did limited work to review the bids it received, and one of the contracts – awarded to Seaborne Freight – has since been terminated, reducing capacity further to 7%. Seaborne owned no ferries and had no binding agreement to use specified ports.

The department also awarded a £33M settlement to Eurotunnel last week after it was left out of negotiations over the ferry contracts.

“It is critical that the approach to decision taking adopted in response to what are unprecedented challenges does not embed itself as the ‘new normal’,” emphasised Public Accounts Committee chair Meg Hillier.

“Taxpayers’ money must not be risked by business as usual done on the fly. Nor should transparency be sacrificed at the whim of Government,” she added.

“Whatever the outcome of the Brexit process, the Whitehall machinery must reflect on the activity of recent months and years and use what it has learned to drive real improvements.”

The committee’s report also reveals that ‘Operation Brock’, which is designed to manage disruption on Kent’s roads, will be challenging to deliver in time according to the DfT.

(Image: Alastair Lloyd)