My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Paul Clark) has made the following Ministerial Statement.

In its guidance note “Modernising Trust Ports”, second edition, issued in July 2009, the department strongly encouraged the major trust ports in England and Wales to analyse their corporate structure and keep it under review, with a view to identifying opportunities to enhance their efficiency and get value from their assets, and to report their conclusions to the department by April 2010.

The Government’s operational efficiency programme set out a policy framework to guide decisions on how activities using public assets will be delivered. This recognised that, in seeking to deliver services more effectively with limited resources, there may be advantages in some cases to adopting alternative forms of ownership.

In considering the appropriateness of sale of an asset, the Government will consider a range of factors. The following Statement sets out the factors that the Government currently consider likely to be particularly relevant to consideration of the appropriateness of sale of a major trust port.

The factors applying to sales in general include:

whether it is possible to ensure continued delivery of high-quality services and other policy goals (such as supporting economic competitiveness and growth) with a different form of ownership;

whether there is or could be a satisfactory degree of competition if the service were provided in the private sector;

the extent to which the sale could be expected to increase investment, potentially through reduced constraints on borrowing, or enhance efficiency or quality; and

the feasibility of sale in terms of market appetite and the value for money likely to be achieved.

Other factors applying equally to the sale of trust ports include:

the desirability of giving all bona fide prospective purchasers a fair and equitable opportunity to make an offer;

the desirability of encouraging disposal of equity to managers and employees of the port; and

whether the sale could be expected to help to deliver reliable and efficient transport networks.

The department has issued a guidance note concerning the procedure for the voluntary sale of trust ports. I have placed a copy in the Library of the House.