Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had discussions with the Board of the Post Office on the provision of financial evidence to claimants of the Horizon shortfall scheme to assist with their claims for redress.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government wants to ensure that all postmasters who experienced losses as a result of the Horizon scandal are provided with full and fair redress. It also recognises that given the significant time that has elapsed, it may be more difficult for claimants to provide evidence in support of their claim.
This was factored into the design of the Horizon Shortfall Scheme to ensure that postmasters will not be disadvantaged if there is a lack of records to support their claim.
There is an independent panel in place on the HSS, comprising of retail, legal and accountancy experts, which assesses each individual claim. The panel can exercise a degree of discretion to make fair awards where documentary evidence is lacking.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with (a) the Secretary of State for Wales and (b) her Japanese counterpart on the geographical indication status of Welsh food and drink products in Japan.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The department is working closely with Japanese officials to agree a date for entry into force of the necessary amendments to the UK-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, at which point the first tranche of British products will join the seven Geographical Indications (GIs) already in our agreement in receiving protected status. The Secretary of State discussed this process with her counterpart at the Joint Committee in Japan in October 2023.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she plans to take steps to create an expedited process for products with CE marking to receive UK Conformity Assessed marking.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In June last year, Government announced a package of measures to help reduce costs and burdens for businesses. One of these measures allows manufactures to use conformity assessment activities undertaken by EU notified bodies before 31st December 2024 to be considered as the basis for UK Conformity Assessed (UKCA) marking until 31 December 2027 or until the expiry of the certificate, whichever is sooner. This enables manufacturers to apply the UKCA mark on these products without the need for re-testing.
Government continues to engage with businesses to make placing products on the market and trading as simple as possible, whilst maintaining high standards of safety.
Asked by: Jessica Morden (Labour - Newport East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what her Department's planned timescale is for paying compensation to sub-postmasters that are eligible for the Group Litigation Order Compensation Scheme.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
To date, interim payments totalling £19.2m have been paid to 467 Group Litigation Order (GLO) postmasters. The full GLO scheme opened for registrations on 10 February 2023 and opened for full applications on 23 March. We are already making good progress: over 85% of claimants are now registered.
The Government remains committed to paying fair compensation to all eligible GLO scheme claimants by August 2024. That is why we have committed to publish a timeline for delivering the scheme following discussion with the claimants’ legal representatives.