"It’s been an incredibly sad week following the killing of my friend and colleague, Sir David Amess. The warm and heartfelt tributes paid to him over the past seven days show what a thoroughly decent man he was - and Parliament will be a much poorer place without him. The nature of his death was obviously very shocking and I’m incredibly thankful to Suffolk Constabulary for phoning me last Friday to ensure I was ok and to offer security advice. The attack on David, was an attack on democracy itself – and whilst it right that security is, once again, reviewed for MPs, we must never lose that close link between MPs and their constituents. The terrorists will never win.
One thing a number of constituents have contacted me on recently is the delays at the Port of Felixstowe. Clearly with Felixstowe being the premier port in the UK, any issues releasing containers from the quayside has consequences for containers being able to come into the port. I have raised these issues with the Transport Secretary, Maritime Minister and also with other colleagues. The Port is working hard to resolve these problems - and so is the government. Including providing additional training places through skills boot camps backed by £17m of government funding - with participants being guaranteed a job interview afterwards. I recently signed a joint letter to industry, describing the action my department is taking to support those returning to driving and helping jobseekers become HGV drivers where appropriate. The government has also extended cabotage, the process by which a driver who has brought some goods into the country can do additional work whilst in the country. I’ve also followed up with the Transport Secretary about the provision of safe, secure and high-quality lorry parking in the context of the closure of the Orwell Truckstop. He has promised to reinvigorate work on lorry parking with trade and driver representatives, working with businesses, National Highways and via planning to improve the quantity and quality of overnight facilities, as well as access to facilities during the day. I will keep pressing on these issues.
Finally, I’m pleased to have helped set up the new Offshore Electricity Grid Task Force (OffSET), consisting of East Anglian MPs and County Councillors, designed to ensure our precious landscapes and communities are better protected from uncoordinated energy infrastructure. The group will scrutinise the Government’s Offshore Network Transmission Review and proposals to change the Nationally Significant infrastructure Planning regime. I’ll write in more detail on this next time."