Written evidence submitted by Getlink (COV0062) Getlink welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to this enquiry. Getlink, the Group which owns Eurotunnel, is the operator of the Channel Tunnel. We provide the infrastructure for Eurotunnel’s Le Shuttle passenger and freight services, rail freight trains and high-speed passenger services. With up to 400 trains passing through the Channel Tunnel each day, this vital link provides unrivalled speed and frequency of departure for our passenger and freight customers. In 2019, Eurotunnel carried 1.6 million trucks on our Shuttle services. Many of the goods passing through the Tunnel are time-sensitive and high-value, facilitating cross-border supply chains. This includes food and drink, with €10.5bn of food imported to the UK from the EU in 2019 through the Channel Tunnel1. A large proportion of this is perishable, with fish, crustaceans, fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy making up €7.1bn of this value. Time to market is crucial for fresh produce to maximise its value, with transporters using Eurotunnel’s services for these goods due to the flexibility, reliability and frequency of our Shuttle services. This response focuses on the questions relevant to Getlink’s role in keeping the food supply chain moving. Have the measures announced by the Government to mitigate the disruptions to the food supply chain caused by the pandemic been proportionate, effective and timely? Getlink has been working with the Department for Transport since before the beginning of the UK lockdown on sharing intelligence regarding the movements of food and drink across Europe into the UK. Our customer base across several countries means we are well placed to gather information on food supply chains that cross into the UK on our services. Precautionary measures in the Coronavirus Act oblige us to share information with the Government regarding the food supply chain, and we continue to provide this on a voluntary, regular basis using information collected from our freight teams across Europe. What further impacts could the current pandemic have on the food supply chain, or individual elements of it, in the short to medium-term and what steps do industry, consumers and the Government need to take to mitigate them? Our customers continue to use Eurotunnel due to the advantages provided by our services, which feed into the ‘just-in-time’ food supply chain; truckloads are brought into the UK and immediately distributed out to supermarkets. We have seen increased flows of traffic containing food supplies purchased in large quantities (e.g. rice). Our freight service is ‘turn-up-and-go’ with customers holding accounts with us, and we continue to run multiple departures per hour, increasing supply chain resilience as trucks are not constrained to a ferry at a certain time. With many countries across Europe relying on migrant labour for fruit and vegetable picking, many governments are taking measures to ensure that this is not disrupted;

1 EY, 2016: Economic Footprint of the Channel Tunnel for example, Spain are looking to recruit 80,000 migrant workers already in the country and unemployed people to pick fresh produce over the coming months, which will allow these products to continue flowing into the UK. With over 85% of drivers using Eurotunnel’s freight shuttle services being from mainland EU countries, many of whom make multiple trips a week, any potential measures to restrict or quarantine people crossing borders by governments across Europe must not apply to these drivers bringing vital goods into the country.