Lord Radice

The total value of UK imports from Greece was £2.6 billion in 2013. This comprised of £0.8 billion imports of goods and £1.9 billion imports of services.

The total value of UK exports to Greece was £2.8 billion in 2013. This comprised of £1.5 billion exports of goods and £1.3 billion exports of services.

These data are taken from the United Kingdom Balance of Payments - The Pink Book 2014, available at http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/bop/united-kingdom-balance-of-payments/2014/index.html

Data on the total value of UK trade with Greece for 2014 will be published in the Pink Book 2015, due for release 30 October 2015.

The amount spent on recruitment consultants for the following departments since 23rd June 2016 can be found in the table below:

*Excludes VAT.

No additional future liabilities, including success or retention bonuses, have been incurred as a result of engaging recruitment consultants for these departments.

The Industrial Strategy White Paper sets out a long-term plan to boost productivity with investment in the skills, industries and infrastructure of the future. This includes increased investment in maths, digital and technical education to address the shortage of science, technology, engineering and maths skills and creating a National Retraining Scheme that will support people to reskill. A summary of the government’s proposals for delivering a world-class technical education is attached from the Industrial Strategy White Paper.

We will be delivering on our commitment to create three million apprenticeships by 2020, and drive up the quality of apprenticeships to make sure they provide the skills that employers need.

The department is reforming the technical education system to be more responsive to the needs of employers. Our reforms will also offer employers the opportunity to develop the skilled labour they require to run their business and increase productivity.

From September 2020, we are introducing T levels to develop talent within the UK, starting with construction, education and childcare and digital. T levels are an integral part of our wider reforms to technical education to address skills gaps in our economy, including skills which we have previously relied on EU nationals for.

A key component of these reforms is the Skills Advisory Panel programme, which has recently been launched and will be rolled out across England. The programme will work with Mayoral Combined Authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships to help match skills provision with employer demand at a local level. The programme will also provide a greater understanding of regional, sectoral and national skills needs.

The 2016 referendum delivered a clear instruction to withdraw from the European Union, which the Government is committed to implementing. The Government remains focused on ensuring a smooth and orderly withdrawal from the EU with a deal as soon as possible.

In November 2018, the Government delivered on its commitment to provide appropriate analysis to Parliament with a robust, objective assessment of how exiting the EU may affect the economy of the UK in the long run (circa 15 years). The analysis considers a range of scenarios, including a no deal scenario. All scenarios are compared to today’s arrangements, but this is not a specific projection of future membership of the EU; the future direction of EU policy is uncertain, and could have both positive and negative impacts on the UK economy. Whilst all economic modelling is inherently uncertain, the analysis shows that compared to today’s arrangements, GDP in the modelled no deal scenario is estimated to be between 6.3% and 9% lower in the long run.

Additional EU Exit funding, allocated by HM Treasury to departments and the Devolved Administrations, covers all scenarios. ‘No deal’ spending cannot readily be separated from ‘deal’ spending given significant overlap in plans in many cases. HM Treasury has since 2016 allocated over £4.2 billion of funding, for all exit scenarios.

The Government has commissioned the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to gather evidence on patterns of EU migration and the role of migration in the wider economy, ahead of our exit from the EU. Their independent advice will inform our decisions about future immigration arrangements.

Additionally, the Government is undertaking a wide range of ongoing analysis in support of our EU exit negotiations and preparations. Our overall programme of work is comprehensive, thorough and is continuously updated. The Government is examining all areas of the UK economy and seeking input from a wide range of stakeholders.

Ministers and officials from the Department for Exiting the European Union are speaking with stakeholders from a variety of sectors, to understand their concerns and priorities regarding our exit from the EU. As part of this process, the Department has engaged with a range of domestic and EU-facing think tanks.

These organisations have contributed to the dialogue around our EU withdrawal with a range of insights and opinions on proposed future arrangements, as well as on areas of impact for stakeholders across industry and society.

Details of ministerial meetings are published in the Department’s Quarterly Transparency Returns, which are publicly available on GOV.UK.

The Prime Minister, during her speech in Florence, set out the Government's approach to regulatory alignment. In our negotiations with the EU, the UK starts from a unique position in that we have the same rules and regulations.

The question for the UK in building a new economic partnership with the EU is therefore not how we bring our rules and regulations closer together, but what we do when one of us wants to make changes.

There will be areas where regulation is outside the scope of our trade and economic relations or where we want to achieve the same goals in the same ways. But there will be areas which do affect our economic relations where we and our European partners may have different goals; or where we share the same goals but want to achieve them through different means. Our task is to find a new framework that allows for a close economic partnership but holds these rights and obligations in a new and different balance.

The UK’s contributions to aid provided by the European Commission to Ukraine totalled £11.7 million in 2011, £17.9 million in 2012 and £17.4 million in 2013. Official European Commission spending figures are yet to be released for 2014.

The UK Government has committed £10 million of bilateral support for governance and economic reform in Ukraine for financial years 2014/15 to 2015/16. In addition £15 million of humanitarian assistance to Ukraine was announced by the Prime Minister on 23 February 2015.

In 2014/2015 the UK also allocated £9 million through the Conflict Pool to support activities in Ukraine.

In 2013/14 the UK provided £713,000 of support through the Conflict Pool to Ukraine to the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission.

During the financial year 2012/13 the UK Government did not provide Ukraine with bilateral assistance.

The Government’s overall aim is to seek a liberalised access for commercial haulage through the negotiations with the EU. The arrangements that apply to UK hauliers once the UK leaves the European Union will depend on the withdrawal deal we negotiate. The Government has introduced the Haulage Permits and Trailer Registration Bill, to provide a flexible framework for any system that may be is needed as part of our deal with the EU. We are confident that any such arrangement will cover all EU countries.

As the Secretary of State announced in his statement to the House on 11 January 2018, we are not agreeing to early termination of a contract in 2020 but the franchise is not delivering the profits the operator expected. The Department is preparing contingency plans as we do not believe the franchise will be financially viable through to 2020. The Secretary of State will report back to the House when a decision is made on contingency planning.

It is important to understand that all premiums due to date under the contract have been paid and we currently receive premiums in line with their contractual obligations. From 2020 we intend to commence the East Coast Partnership, one of the first of a new generation of integrated regional rail operations. This will also include appropriate contributions from the new private partner under a long-term competitively procured contract.

A total of 57.1 miles of the M1 between Junction 10 and Junction 43 for Leeds are currently subject to restrictions in respect of road works.

These road works all relate to upgrades to this section of the M1, part of an ambitious £15.2 billion plan to triple annual levels of spending on England’s motorways and major ‘A’ roads by the end of the decade to improve capacity and condition.

The works associated with these restrictions are set out in the table below.

Fines are issued by each individual police force though which the M1 passes. Therefore, the Department for Transport does not collect this specific data.

Enforcement of speed limits through roadworks has an important role in maintaining road safety.

The following schemes have committed construction budgets.

There are other interventions planned on the M1 which do not yet have confirmed costs, but timescales are:

- M1 J24-25 Smart Motorway starting 2016/17 and completing 2017/18

- M1 Junction 45 improvement starting in 2017, completion not yet confirmed

- M1 J23a-24 Smart Motorway starting before end 2019/20, completion not yet confirmed

Annual data from the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) shows that in September 2015, there were 1,151,138 people employed in the National Health Service in England. In the period between September 2014 and September 2015 there were 136,168 leavers and 155,326 joiners.

Information on how many leavers and joiners were not United Kingdom citizens is not held centrally.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has created approximately 550 EU Exit roles in the UK and overseas. We have used these roles to strengthen our diplomatic network in the UK and across Europe so that we are better able to represent and promote British interests and engage with our European partners in support of a successful EU Exit. In addition, other staff are also engaged on EU Exit planning as part of their wider responsibilities. We continue to keep staffing levels under constant review to ensure that they are appropriate to deliver the Government's objectives.

We undertake regular reviews of our estate portfolio around the world. This is a continuing process to ensure the estate is fit for purpose and offers the best value for money in delivering Her Majesty's Government objectives. No major estates projects were undertaken because of the result of the referendum. A number of Posts have carried out small changes to their office layouts as well as routine maintenance.

Reports about harassment of BBC Persian staff and their families in Iran are deeply worrying. The Foreign Secretary specifically raised our concerns about harassment of BBC Persian staff and their families in Iran with his Iranian counterpart during his visit to Tehran on 9-10 December. Officials at the British Embassy in Tehran have also twice raised our concerns with the Iranian Government.

In the financial year from April 2015 – March 2016, UK support to Tunisia doubled to around £7 million for programmes to support governance, economic reform (including job creation and entrepreneurship) and security sector capacity building. We expect this high level of support to continue in the coming year, reaching at least £8 million for projects including capacity building for democratic institutions and anti-corruption bodies, and support for financial sector reform and entrepreneurship. We continue to encourage Tunisia to set out its plans for its economic development and reform, and have particularly underlined the importance of creating jobs for young people.

British nationals make around 2 million visits to Greece every year. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not have data on the amount of money British tourists spend. The Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises estimate that British tourists spend on average 1000 Euros per visit. Based on Bank of Greece data, 740 Euros out of the 1000 Euros is retained in Greece. They do not provide figures or estimates for expenditure in the UK by British tourists going to Greece.

We estimate that there are approximately two million British visitors to Greece each year.

The Government has not provided similar advice to UK citizens. HM Treasury works closely with the other Financial Authorities, Intelligence Agencies and Law Enforcement to ensure that the system is robust to a wide range of operational risks, including cyber. The Financial Authorities have well-established mechanisms to respond to operational disruption were it to occur.

The government has committed to create a United Kingdom Shared Prosperity Fund following Brexit. The fund will support regions across the UK to achieve sustainable, inclusive growth, based on our modern industrial strategy. Further details on the fund will be set out in due course.

Since the introduction of a smaller version in 1992, newly minted ten pence pieces have had a weight of 6.5 grammes. This remained the case from January 2012, when the composition was changed from a cupronickel alloy to nickel-plated steel. The weight of a ten pence piece does not change materially over the course of its lifecycle.

The Royal Mint works closely with a number of trade associations and manufacturers of coin operated equipment on an ongoing basis, and consulted with them when determining the precise specification of the nickel-plated steel ten pence piece. Whilst no formal assessment of acceptance has been made, members and operators are all routinely encouraged to upgrade their equipment.

The government has secured a deal that protects UK taxpayers from any risk from financing euro area bailouts now and in the future. This deal gives legal force to the commitment secured in 2010 that UK taxpayers would not be drawn into a euro area bailout. Under the European Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) short term financing agreement concluded on Friday 17 July, Greece’s International Monetary Fund (IMF) arrears have also been cleared.

As the Chancellor has said, we should not underestimate the impact that a Greek exit from the euro area would have on the European economy – or the knock-on effects on the UK. But the economic plan we’ve pursued in Britain these last five years has increased our resilience – and we will take whatever further steps are needed to protect the UK from new risks to our economic security.

The government has secured a deal that protects UK taxpayers from any risk from financing euro area bailouts now and in the future. This deal gives legal force to the commitment secured in 2010 that UK taxpayers would not be drawn into a euro area bailout.

As the Chancellor has stated, private sector exposures to Greek banks and the Greek economy are far lower than they were in 2012.

As at 22 February 2018, net EU migration stood at 90,000 for the year ending September 2017. The comparable figure for the year ending June 2016 is 189,000.

Net migration statistics are published by the office for National Statistics and can be found at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populationandmigration/internationalmigration

The United Kingdom fulfils its enduring commitment through the provision of the two-star Operation Commander (Commander United Kingdom Maritime Forces and Commander United Kingdom Amphibious Forces in rotation). The UK also contributes Operation Headquarters facilities (OHQ) at Northwood and on average 60 members of OHQ staff, approximately 40% of the total OHQ.

The Royal Navy (RN) will continue to contribute to Operation Atalanta. In addition the RN maintains a constant presence in the Gulf region. Anti-piracy and anti-terrorism measures are among a number of concurrent tasks carried out by the RN and supporting assets.

The UK is making a significant contribution to Operation Sophia, the European Union's naval operation countering migrant smugglers in the central Mediterranean. HMS ENTERPRISE has been deployed since 4 July 2015 (with a Merlin helicopter between July and October), and was joined by HMS RICHMOND for October and November. The UK is also contributing five staff officers in the Operational Headquarters.

HMS ENTERPRISE's work has been valuable in developing a picture of the maritime environment and smuggling routes, and UK ships have picked up almost a third of the total number of migrants rescued. HMS ENTERPRISE will remain deployed to Operation Sophia until the end of August. The UK contribution to Operation Sophia is one part of the Government's overall comprehensive approach to tackling the migrant crisis, which seeks to address the root causes of migration as well as its consequences.

The percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) the United Kingdom has spent on Defence in each of the last five years, is shown below.

The United Kingdom expects to spend 2% of GDP on Defence this year and next year. Decisions for 2016-17 and beyond will be a matter for the next Spending Review.