Beyond Brexit—government disagrees with ITC recommendation for UK freeport impact assessment

Article summary

The International Trade Committee (ITC) has published the government’s response to its report on UK freeports, which made several recommendations for the government’s consideration among its conclusions. While the government accepts the ITC’s recommendation to produce an evaluation of the impact policy of UK freeports within five years, it is not inclined to publish an impact assessment on the policy outlining its estimated impacts on economic growth, increased trade and investment, and job creation—preferring instead to publish ‘costings’ for the programme. Further, the government rejected the recommendation that the Department for International Trade should oversee UK freeports, instead maintaining responsibility should stay with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.