Guernsey Press

Minister confident on work to mitigate supply chain risks

A BRITISH minister has expressed ‘high levels of confidence’ in work to mitigate risks to critical supply chains to Guernsey in the face of a no-deal Brexit.

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President of P&R Gavin St Pier (left) and British minister James Duddridge (right).

Around 90% of the Channel Islands’ food and medicines are shipped through Portsmouth International Port, and leaked UK government documents have warned that Crown Dependencies may be affected by supply chain disruption under a no-deal Brexit.

In an interview with the Guernsey Press, Brexit minister James Duddridge issued a reassuring message after visiting the island earlier this week to further develop key relationships with officials, politicians and business leaders – including P&R president Gavin St Pier. ‘I visited the port in Guernsey. I had discussions with Gavin St Pier around the Portsmouth end of the operation. In fact today, the British government has announced £9m. extra funding for ports in terms of their Brexit preparations.’

The UK Department for Transport had also been in communication with the island’s government around these issues, which had been in place for the previous planned date of the UK’s exit from the EU, on 31 March of this year. Those preparations could be ‘ramped up again,’ said Mr Duddridge.

‘We are working to make sure that aren’t these problems, mitigating against [those]. A lot of the work that’s been done internally is on worse-case scenario and then mitigating against that. So, I’ve got a high level of confidence in that work and that work continues, so we reduce the risks on a daily basis. Cabinet committee for Brexit operations meets daily and the sole purpose of that is to mitigate against the transitional risks.’

Asked whether Guernsey and the Crown Dependencies were at the top of considerations of the Boris Johnson government in the UK, he said: ‘Guernsey was my first port of call, top of my agenda, and the prime minister is very clear that these issues were incredibly important and I’m working very closely with the Secretary of State. In fact, I’ve just come out of the office to update him on the visit.’

More from Mr Duddridge's visit: WTO membership for island 'to be done within weeks.'