Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what factors determine which of the UK's trading partners are allocated a trade envoy.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
The Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme supports British businesses overseas and attracts investment into the UK. The programme works in collaboration with other trade promotion activities, and it focuses on emerging and high growth markets where additional senior interactions can be valuable, or larger economies where multiple interactions at different levels are effective. Trade Envoys are appointed to markets where there are opportunities to increase bilateral trade.
The Department for International Trade is constantly reviewing suitable countries, regions, and markets to identify where the appointment of a Trade Envoy can be of greatest benefit to the trade and investment aims of the UK, with the Prime Minister ultimately making the decision to appoint.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what the current annual cost of the Trade Envoy programme is.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
In 2019-20 the cost of the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy Programme was £651,387. All costs incurred are subject to departmental restrictions and guidelines which apply to the programme’s use of public funds.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government to list the current trade envoys broken down by their membership of the (1) Conservative party, (2) Labour party, (3) Liberal Democrat party, (4) Crossbench group in the House of Lords, and (5) Non-affiliated peers in the House of Lords.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
There are currently 36 Trade Envoys. A full list including their political affiliation is below.
| Trade Envoy | Political party |
1 | Andrew Selous | Conservative (1) |
2 | Baroness Hooper | Conservative (1) |
3 | Baroness Meyer | Conservative (1) |
4 | Baroness Morris of Bolton | Conservative (1) |
5 | Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne | Conservative (1) |
6 | Conor Burns | Conservative (1) |
7 | Damien Moore | Conservative (1) |
8 | Daniel Kawczynski | Conservative (1) |
9 | Darren Henry | Conservative (1) |
10 | David Mundell | Conservative (1) |
11 | Dr. Andrew Murrison | Conservative (1) |
12 | Felicity Buchan | Conservative (1) |
13 | Heather Wheeler | Conservative (1) |
14 | Helen Grant | Conservative (1) |
15 | Katherine Fletcher | Conservative (1) |
16 | Laurence Robertson | Conservative (1) |
17 | Lord Astor of Hever | Conservative (1) |
18 | Lord Lamont | Conservative (1) |
19 | Lord Popat | Conservative (1) |
20 | Lord Risby of Haverhill | Conservative (1) |
21 | Marco Longhi | Conservative (1) |
22 | Mark Eastwood | Conservative (1) |
23 | Mark Garnier | Conservative (1) |
24 | Mark Menzies | Conservative (1) |
25 | Martin Vickers | Conservative (1) |
26 | Richard Graham | Conservative (1) |
27 | Theo Clarke | Conservative (1) |
28 | Lord Faulkner | Labour (2) |
29 | Rushanara Ali | Labour (2) |
30 | Stephen Timms | Labour (2) |
31 | Lord Botham | Crossbench (4) |
32 | Baroness Hoey | Non-affiliated (5) |
33 | Lord Austin | Non-affiliated (5) |
34 | Lord Davies of Abersoch | Non-affiliated (5) |
35 | Lord Walney | Non-affiliated (5) |
36 | Sir Jeffrey Donaldson | Democratic Unionist Party |
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the change in title from the Prime Minister's Trade Envoys to Trade Envoys indicates a change in accountability.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
There has been no change in title or accountability of the ‘Prime Minister’s Trade Envoys’, however the formal title is occasionally shortened to ‘Trade Envoys’ for brevity.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker, following the recent hereditary peers by-election after the retirement of Lord Elton, how many peers (1) were entitled to vote, (2) voted; how many ballot papers were spoilt; and what the percentage turnout was.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The details of the by-election to replace Lord Elton are as follows:
Vacancy Created By: | Number of Members eligible to vote: | Number of Members who voted: | Number of spoiled ballot papers: | Percentage turnout: |
Lord Elton | 785 | 237 | 0 | 30% |
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker, in the hereditary peers' by-election following the retirement of the Countess of Mar, (1) how many peers were entitled to vote, (2) how many peers voted, (3) how many ballot papers were spoiled, and (4) what was the percentage turnout.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The details of the by-election to replace the Countess of Mar are as follows:
Vacancy Created By: | Number of Members eligible to vote: | Number of Members who voted: | Number of spoiled ballot papers: | Percentage turnout: |
The Countess of Mar | 783 | 317 | 0 | 40% |
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government which parts of the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill would not have been allowed had the UK remained a member of the EU.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill goes further than Article 13 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU in a number of ways. In particular The Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill introduces a proportionate accountability mechanism, involving the Animal Sentience Committee. It applies to all policy areas and has no exemptions.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker what plans he has to arrange for media access to the counts for by-elections of hereditary peers.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Procedure and Privileges Committee agreed on 2 March that the forthcoming hereditary peer by-elections to replace the Earl of Selborne, Lord Denham, Lord Selsdon, the Countess of Mar, Lord Rea and Lord Elton should be carried out using electronic means. Electors will vote using a secure on-line portal. The count will be an electronic process with the manual addition of a small number of postal ballots. There are no plans to allow media access to the count as it is an electronic process. Full details of the results will be available to the media and other interested parties on-line after the result has been announced in the Chamber.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord True on 11 February (HL12711) and 8 March (HL13422), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, what is their assessment of the equivalent figures for (1) the Labour, and (2) the Liberal Democrat, Party when following a similar methodology to the one used to determine underrepresentation of the Conservative Party in the House of Lords.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
Reflecting the method in my previous answers, the Liberal Democrat party is over-represented; the Conservative Party is significantly under-represented; the Labour Party has a proportion of seats in this House that is less than its seat share in the Commons, but not by a significant amount.
Notwithstanding that, there are different ways of assessing the issue. For example, one may wish to consider the share of this House excluding cross-benchers and bishops, or look at composition of peers taking a political whip. Under both measures, Liberal Democrats are significantly over-represented.
The noble Lord will be able to make his own further calculations from public domain information, if he wishes.
Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel on 22 February (HL13173) and 9 March (HL13586), to list in the body of their answer which specific countries they have secured continuity trade agreements with since the UK’s departure from the EU.
Answered by Lord Grimstone of Boscobel
In addition to our deal with the EU, we have secured trade agreements with 66 non-EU countries, covering £890 billion of trade in total (2019 data). These are:
Albania;
Antigua and Barbuda;
Barbados;
The Bahamas;
Belize;
Botswana;
Cameroon;
Canada;
Colombia;
Côte d’Ivoire (The Ivory Coast);
Costa Rica;
Chile;
Dominica;
The Dominican Republic;
Ecuador;
Egypt;
El Salvador;
Eswatini (Swaziland);
The Faroe Islands;
Fiji;
Ghana;
Grenada;
Guyana;
Guatemala;
Georgia;
Honduras;
Iceland;
Israel;
Japan;
Jordan;
Jamaica;
Kenya;
Kosovo;
Lebanon;
Lesotho;
Liechtenstein;
Mexico;
Morocco;
Moldova;
Mozambique;
Mauritius;
Nicaragua;
Norway;
North Macedonia;
Namibia;
Peru;
Panama;
Papua New Guinea;
The Palestinian Authority;
Saint Lucia;
St. Vincent and the Grenadines;
Samoa;
The Solomon Islands;
St. Kitts and Nevis;
The Seychelles;
South Africa;
Switzerland;
Singapore;
South Korea;
Suriname;
Trinidad and Tobago;
Tunisia;
Turkey;
Ukraine;
Vietnam; and
Zimbabwe.