Asked by: Patricia Gibson (Scottish National Party - North Ayrshire and Arran)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when she plans to reply to the correspondence of (a) 26 January and (b) 26 March 2024 from the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran on concerns raised by a constituent about the conduct of Post Office Limited towards postmasters.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The correspondence from the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran was responded to on 8 May 2024.
Asked by: Navendu Mishra (Labour - Stockport)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department carried out impact assessments prior to its decision to delay the implementation of the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act, which became law in May 2023, will require employers to pass all tips on to workers, without deductions.
The accompanying statutory Code of Practice laid before Parliament on 22nd April 2024, and the other measures in the Act, will be effective from 1st October 2024.
The implementation date for the Act was revised from 1st July 2024 to 1st October 2024 to ensure sufficient time for those affected by the changes to prepare.
The impacts of the new requirements were considered in the impact assessment prepared for the Act: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3197/publications.
Asked by: Claudia Webbe (Independent - Leicester East)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to paragraphs 28 and 29 of the summary grounds of the Secretary of State provided in the High Court case between the King (on the application of Al-Haq) v the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, AC-2023-LON-003634, whether any of the arms export licences identified by the Change in Circumstances Review have been revoked since January 2024.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is monitoring the situation in Israel and Gaza very closely.
The Government can and does respond quickly and flexibly to changing international circumstances. All licences are kept under careful and continual review and are able to be amended, suspended, refused or revoked as circumstances require.
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics, including data on outcome, end user destination, overall value, type (e.g. military, other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information her Department holds on how many industrial ballots did not meet the threshold set by the Trade Union Act 2016 for strike action in each month of 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Available data relating to ballots for industrial action held by registered trade unions can be found on gov.uk under the Certification Officer’s official list of trade unions and their annual returns. However, data for the 2023 calendar year will not be available until later this year. Data for 2024 will not be available until the following year.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information her Department holds on the average percentage of trade union members (a) voting in ballots and (b) voting in favour of industrial action in each month of 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Available data relating to ballots for industrial action held by registered trade unions can be found on gov.uk under the Certification Officer’s official list of trade unions and their annual returns. However, data for the 2023 calendar year will not be available until later this year. Data for 2024 will not be available until the following year.
Asked by: Bob Seely (Conservative - Isle of Wight)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what information her Department holds on how many trade union ballots in each industrial sector there were in each month of 2023.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Available data relating to ballots for industrial action held by registered trade unions can be found on gov.uk under the Certification Officer’s official list of trade unions and their annual returns. However, data for the 2023 calendar year will not be available until later this year. Data for 2024 will not be available until the following year.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to UK Export Finance's Business Plan 2024-29, published on 30 April 2024, what steps she is taking to help companies in Northern Ireland Companies to export globally.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK Export Finance (UKEF) offers support to businesses across the whole of Northern Ireland. It has a network of Export Finance Managers who are valuable contacts for businesses with export potential, including those based in Northern Ireland. Contact details are available at: Find an Export Finance Manager - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
UKEF has a proud history of supporting business in Northern Ireland. For instance, in February 2024, UKEF announced it was guaranteeing a $100 million dollar facility to EOS IT Holdings, based in Country Down.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of figures by the Office for National Statistics which show UK services exports grew 63 per cent in real terms between 2010 and 2023, while goods exports grew only seven per cent, what steps they are taking to boost the export of goods.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade is backing British businesses to export by knocking down trade barriers and signing new trade deals.
In 2022, the Government committed to resolving a ‘hit list’ of priority barriers worth more than £20 billion over five years. Since the start of 2022, we have resolved barriers all over the world estimated to be worth over £15 billion (over a five-year period) to UK businesses.
Businesses can access the department’s wealth of export support options on great.gov.uk, including trade advisers, Export Champions, the Export Academy, our International Markets network and UK Export Finance.
Asked by: Kwasi Kwarteng (Conservative - Spelthorne)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's Response to the Government consultation on measures to reform post-termination non-compete clauses in contracts of employment, published on 12 May 2023, when she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a statutory limit of three months on the length of such clauses.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Introducing the statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses of 3 months will require primary legislation. The Government will introduce this legislation when parliamentary time allows.
Asked by: Lord Patten (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of occasions on which scaffolding around domestic and commercial buildings was erected illegally in England in the most recent year for which figures are available, and whether this figure is decreasing or increasing.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade does not hold this data.