First, it emerged that the “startup” company hired to operate extra ferries as part of no-deal Brexit planning had no ships.
Now, new questions are being asked about the readiness of Seaborne Freight to handle the £13.8m contract after it turned out that terms and conditions on its website appeared to be intended for a food delivery firm.
“It is the responsibility of the customer to thoroughly check the supplied goods before agreeing to pay for any meal/order,” read part of the text on the company’s website.
Questions were also being raised about other parts of the terms and conditions, including a passage which stated: “Delivery charges are calculated per order and based on [delivery details here].”
Another section, which appeared to be constructed with a view more to mitigating the impact of prank pizza orders than transporting goods across some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, warned: “Users are prohibited from making false orders through our website.”
It added: “Seaborne Freight (UK) Limited reserves the right to seek compensation through legal action for any losses incurred as the result of hoax delivery requests and will prosecute to the full extent of the law.”
Chris Grayling’s Department for Transport said a section of the terms and conditions on the company’s website had been put up in error and was being immediately rectified.
Ridicule was also heaped on Seaborne’s “privacy terms”, which stated: “Members hold freedom to express themselves in their feedback. Although your intellectual freedom is respected, [Business name] reserves the right to remove from our website any material deemed threatening, immoral, racist, inaccurate, malicious, defamatory, in bad taste or illegal.”
Quick GuideGrayling's Failings
Show
Labour have claimed that while he was in government Chris Grayling's mistakes cost the economy and taxpayers over £2.7bn. Here are five of Grayling's biggest failings:
B&B gay comments
In 2010 Grayling was forced to apologise after a recording captured him saying that people who ran bed and breakfasts in their homes should have the right to turn away gay couples.
Banning books for prisoners
Grayling introduced a ban on prisoners receiving books from friends or relatives, and limited the number of books each prisoner was able to have in a cell. A high court ruling in December 2015 found that the measure was unlawful and it was subsequently scrapped.
Rail timetable chaos
Grayling was transport secretary when a change to rail timetables caused chaos, leading to the cancellation of thousands of services. More than one in 10 Northern and Thameslink trains were cancelled after the introduction of the new timetables on 20 May 2018. The rail regulator criticised Grayling's DfT for failing to question the industry’s assurances about the risk of disruption.
Seaborne Freight
Grayling was widely mocked after awarding Seaborne Freight a no-deal Brexit ferry contract despite the company not owning any ships and having never previously operated a ferry service. It emerged that Seaborne's website had copied their legal terms and conditions from a pizza delivery service. The contract was cancelled in February 2019. The government subsequently had to agree a new £33m contract with Eurotunnel to settle legal action.
Part-privatisation of probation contracts
Failings by the Ministry of Justice in the part-privatisation of probation services will cost taxpayers at least £171m, according to a National Audit Office (NAO). Under Grayling, in 2013, the ministry created 21 community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) to manage low- and medium-risk offenders with the aim of cutting reoffending rates and costs. The NAO found that while there has been a 2.5% reduction in the proportion of offenders proven to have committed another crime between 2011 and March 2017, the number of offences per reoffender has increased by 22%.
Among those criticising the company after the curious language on the terms and conditions was first pointed out by Twitter users was Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, who said: “Seaborne Freight. No ships, no trading history and website T&Cs copied and pasted from a takeaway delivery site.”
Andy McDonald, the shadow transport secretary, said: “Awarding a contract to a ferry company with no ships is yet another disgraceful misuse of public money by the transport secretary.
“The idea that Chris Grayling is backing a new business and has looked at this ‘very carefully’ is utterly risible. It’s yet another example of his incompetence and mismanagement of the UK’s transport system.”
Another Labour MP, Tonia Antoniazzi, said: “This is beyond a joke. It’s not just that the government have panic-hired a firm with no ships to conduct ferry services. That firm has literally nothing prepared to suggest the £13.8m handed over to them is a sound investment. They’ve seemingly copied and pasted their terms off a takeaway fast food website, and their login portal sends you back to Google.”
Other signs that the website may have been cobbled together included a “portal login” section that was an image of username and password boxes rather than an actual means of logging in. A language settings option also appeared to be an image of a union flag rather than an interactive option.
Grayling, the transport secretary, was forced to defend the contract on Wednesday when he said he would “make no apologies for supporting a new British business” after widespread criticism.
The contract is one of three agreements worth a total of £107.7m signed by the government to help ease congestion at Dover by securing extra lorry capacity in the event of a no-deal Brexit.
There was also pressure on the government to guarantee that the new ferry services aimed at easing pressure on Dover would be crewed by British seafarers.
Mick Cash, the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union, wrote to Grayling to seek assurances that any ships would be fully crewed by UK workers and to stress that collective bargaining agreements should be in place.
Sandra Welch, the deputy chief executive of the Sailors’ Society charity, expressed concerns about safety. “Safety is paramount,” she said. “And to avoid tragedy it is crucial that the right people with the necessary skills are involved.”
Seaborne hopes to operate freight ferries from Ramsgate from late March, beginning with two ships and increasing to four by the end of the summer.
A spokesperson at Grayling’s department said on Thursday: “Before any contract was signed, due diligence on Seaborne Freight was carried out both by senior officials at the Department for Transport, and highly reputable independent third-party organisations with significant experience and expertise into Seaborne’s financial, technical and legal underpinning.”