In the first Covid lockdown, public money was given to the cross-Solent operators, when the number of people able to use the ferry services dropped.
News OnTheWight started asking questions in June, attempting to find out exactly how much it was. It’s been a long path.
Now we’re in the third Lockdown with a tightening of travel restrictions and ferry companies reducing their timetables, it makes what we found out all the more relevant, as it’s possible more public money will be coming their way.
Public money to IW ferry companies
You might remember that back on 24th April 2020 it was announced that Red Funnel, Wightlink and Hovertravel were to be given £1.5m/month between them for three months to continue to run a service connecting the Island to the Mainland. With the reduction in travel demand, all three operators reduced their services substantially, but some services did continue.
What hasn’t been clear is when the companies stopped receiving the £1.5m/month and how much public money they each received in total.
(Update: 14th Jan 2021: By challenging the DfT blocking the FoI release of the detail of how much did each of the Isle of Wight ferry companies actually receive of public funds, News OnTheWight did manage to find out.)
Asked the MP
News OnTheWight first started asking these questions of the Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely, back in June. We didn’t get an answer.
We tried again with his office in the first half of November. This time they were more responsive, but we still didn’t get the figures.
DfT wouldn’t comment
Media requests to the Department for Transport (DfT) – the Government department that had given the money – drew a blank, as when we asked how much had been paid to the cross-Solent operators they said,
“It would be inappropriate to discuss commercially sensitive matters through the media.”
This didn’t make any sense to us. We were confused why disclosing the amount of public money that has been given to three companies that make up the whole of the market might be considered as commercial sensitivity.
FOI request
Given little other option, News OnTheWight filed a Freedom of Information request to the DfT.
Happily we were successful – at least in part.
We learnt that Wightlink, Red Funnel and Hovertravel were collectively given money over four months – April 2020 to July. In July, just under a third of the other months’ sum was paid over.
UK Covid Lockdown dates
As a reminder – The first UK lockdown started nationwide on 23rd March with the message, “Stay at Home”.
- 10th May: The Government message changed from “Stay at Home” to “Stay Alert”, marking a slight relaxation.
- 10th June: John Metcalfe, CX IWC gave the message, “Enjoy the Island but do it responsibly”
- 15th June: Non-essential shops reopened in England, providing they were ‘covid-secure’.
- 4th July: Restaurants, pubs, hairdressers and some accommodation owners were given the green-light to reopen.
How much did they receive?
In total they received just short of £5 million of public funds between them. Here’s the month by month breakdown:
| Month | Amount |
|---|---|
| April | £1,500,000 |
| May | £1,500,000 |
| June | £1,500,000 |
| July | £426,000 |
| Total | £4,926,000 |
The detail still held back
As is clear, it’s been quite a path to get to learn what we have.
Sadly DfT has still blocked News OnTheWight from finding out how much money had been paid to each company, claiming that it was ‘commercially sensitive’.
Quite how the details of which ferry company received which amounts of public money considered as information that shouldn’t be open to the public is beyond us, so we are continuing to pursue it.
(Update: 14th Jan 2021: By challenging the DfT blocking the FoI release of the detail of how much did each of the Isle of Wight ferry companies actually receive of public funds, News OnTheWight did manage to find out.)
Article edit
2:14pm 18th Jan 202 – Added details of out success of getting DfT to release info under an FoI challenge.
