A P&O Ferries vessel detained over safety concerns for more than a fortnight is being reinspected.

       The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) said it is assessing whether Pride of Kent is safe to resume sailings from Dover.

       P&O Ferries suspended most of its operations when it replaced nearly 800 seafarers with cheaper agency workers on March 17.

       Freight lorries queue at the Port of Dover on Tuesday (PA

       (PA Wire)

       It hoped to resume sailings on the Dover-Calais route with Port of Kent and Spirit of Britain this week ahead of the Easter getaway, but that is dependent on the ships being approved by the MCA.

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       Spirit of Britain was detained on Tuesday after an inspection found “a number of deficiencies”.

       An MCA spokesman said: “A reinspection is taking place at P&O Ferries’ request on the Pride of Kent which was detained on March 28.

       “All inspections have to satisfy the Maritime and Coastguard Agency that the ferries fulfil the requirement of the Port State Control regime and are safe to put to sea.

       “There are no further inspections of P&O Ferries at the moment but we will reinspect at the appropriate time.”

       The suspension of Dover-Calais sailings by P&O Ferries means there is a shortage of capacity on the key route.

       This has contributed to large queues of lorries on the roads approaching the Port of Dover.

       A 23-mile coastbound stretch of the M20 is closed from junction eight (Maidstone) to junction 11 (Westenhanger) to hold thousands of lorries as part of Operation Brock.

       P&O Ferries has accused the MCA of carrying out inspections with “an unprecedented level of rigour”.

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       In response, the agency said it works “in exactly the same robust way” for every ship.

       It previously cleared P&O Ferries’ Pride of Hull and European Causeway vessels, which are operating on the Hull-Rotterdam and Larne-Cairnryan routes respectively.