My Lords, the two instruments that I am speaking to today, along with the Heavy Commercial Vehicles in Kent (No. 3) Amendment (No. 2) Order 2021, are a package of measures and it is important that they should be debated together. I am grateful to the House for facilitating this. While the Heavy Commercial Vehicles in Kent (No. 3) Amendment (No. 2) Order 2021 requires the negative procedure, it should be taken into account when considering the two amending orders, as it completes the whole picture. Taken together, they support the effective management of Operation Brock and strengthen the enforcement regime that underpins it.
As noble Lords will be aware, the Government have been working with partners in the Kent Resilience Forum to continue to develop Operation Brock. Operation Brock is a co-ordinated multiagency response, owned by the Kent Resilience Forum, to manage heavy commercial vehicle traffic during cross-Channel travel disruption, specifically when capacity for HCVs to leave the UK through the Port of Dover or the Channel Tunnel—together, the short straits—is significantly restricted.
In the instances to date when Operation Brock has been deployed, it has successfully managed to limit the effects of traffic disruption on freight traffic and other road users, both on the main motorway and local road network. We need to be able to continue to use Brock should cross-Channel disruption occur in future—for example, due to bad weather or industrial action. The existing legislation will expire at the end of the month and the amending orders seek to put it on a stable footing by removing the sunset clauses. Together they are a vital part of Operation Brock, as they provide the enforcement and the traffic restriction regime that underpins its operation.
By way of background, the legislation was first put in place in 2019 in preparation for a potential no-deal departure from the EU. It was updated in 2020 in preparation for the end of the EU transition period and once again in 2021 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The No. 1 2019 order provides powers to traffic officers to support Operation Brock and sets the amount of the financial penalty deposit for breaching restrictions created by the three orders. The amount of the deposit for breaching the restrictions introduced by the instruments is set at £300. The No. 1 amendment order removes the sunset clause and removes references to redundant offences from the Road Safety (Financial Penalty Deposit) (Appropriate Amount) Order 2009 to reflect amendments made by the other amending orders.
The No. 2 2019 order restricts cross-Channel HCVs from using local roads in Kent other than those on the approved Operation Brock routes when Operation Brock is active. The amending order updates which roads are restricted and removes the sunset clause.
To complete the picture, the Heavy Commercial Vehicles in Kent (No. 3) Amendment (No. 2) Order 2021, which is subject to the negative procedure, will again remove the existing sunset clause provisions from the No. 3 2019 order. That order restricts access for cross-Channel HGVs to the motorways in Kent, including the contraflow on the M20 and use of the M2, when Operation Brock is active.
To summarise, these amending instruments continue the powers from the 2019 orders by removing the sunset clause. In doing so, Brock will be an available option for the Kent Resilience Forum to keep traffic moving to, from and through Kent. These orders remove the extraneous elements that are no longer needed—the provisions relating to the EU transition period and to the Covid-19 pandemic, which were intended to be temporary. We wanted to underpin the core enforcement and traffic restrictions of Brock for the longer term. These orders are of vital importance to allow sensible traffic management in Kent. Operation Brock has proven to be an efficient traffic management measure. I commend the orders to the Committee.
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