Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 7
4th Report - National Policy Statement for Ports
Published 14 Nov 2025
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee National Policy Statement for Ports All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Ports are functional environments, where safety must remain the paramount consideration. We understand the desirability of aesthetic quality, especially for landscapes and surrounding communities, but we share the concern of stakeholders that there are limits to what can be reasonably achieved in this respect in port developments. The National Policy Statement for Ports must be clear that good design in this context is primarily in support of functionality, safety, and minimising environmental impact. (Recommendation, Paragraph 50) Decarbonising ports
From: Transport Committee, 4th Report - National Policy Statement for Ports (HC 1028), 14 November 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 21 July 2026 (deadline 14 January 2026).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's general support for the revised National Policy Statement for Ports, says it is making further detailed amendments in line with its response, and states that the broad thrust of the NPSP "will, however, be unchanged".
- On Critical National Priority status, the government "does not intend to accord ports Critical National Priority (CNP) status at this juncture". It says CNP projects are likely to create port demand, and that it has strengthened the needs case in the NPSP in relation to CNP infrastructure.
- It accepts the recommendations to clarify the NPSP's applicability to projects directed under section 35 of the Planning Act 2008 and to make clear that good design is primarily functional, safe and low-impact. It will do both in the final revised NPSP.
- On the Finch judgment, it agrees the NPSP should include specific guidance on Scope 3 emissions and is providing it in the final text, but says this does not create an "automatic presumption" that a full Scope 3 analysis will be required.
- On dredging, it intends to keep a separate section in the final proposed NPSP, saying that on balance highlighting it is "justified". On deemed marine licences for harbour orders, it notes the suggestion and says it is a matter for DEFRA to consider further.