- A recent news article published in the Inews states that UK Government forced to pay £400,000 in damages for ship that blocked Suez Canal.
- The Ever Given was carrying more than £700m of products, including Nike shoes, Lenovo laptops and Ikea furniture but it is unclear what cargo the UK’s health ministry had aboard the ship.
A recent news article published in the I News states that UK Government forced to pay £400,000 in damages for ship that blocked Suez Canal.
£422,000 towards the costs and damages incurred
The Department of Health and Social Care was forced to pay £422,000 “towards the costs and damages incurred” after the container ship Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal for six days in March 2021.
According to financial filings from the Government, fees were incurred because government cargo was on board the ship.
The blockage of the canal halted international trade through the key shipping route, blocking freight worth a reported £8bn per day.
The 400m-long, 200,000-tonne vessel ran aground in the waterway, and led to compensation being paid by the Japanese ship owner to the Egyptian port authority.
The total compensation package was not made public, but The Wall Street Journal reported the amount as being around $200m (£161m).
The vessel’s crew reported a “loss of the ability to steer the ship” because of strong winds of over 46mph. Consequently, it ran aground and was unable to free itself.
This blocked the canal on both sides, meaning that no other cargo vessels could get around it.
An Ironic situation
It is unclear what cargo the UK’s health ministry had aboard the ship.
A Labour source told i: “It’s ironic that a ship run aground has led to a government in a similar position.”
Separately, £15bn in losses have been incurred through costs related to personal protective equipment (PPE). A further £6bn has been added to the £9bn of expenditure accounted for last year.
Most of the expense is because PPE bought when the cost per unit was higher has since dropped in value and remains unused, with additional costs coming from PPE that is no longer expected to be used.
A further £319m was spent on the ongoing storage and destruction costs for excess PPE supplies.
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Source: I News
