Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many staff have been seconded into his Department from outside the Civil Service in the last six months.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for International Trade, including UK Export Finance, have had 22 staff seconded to the department from outside the Civil Service in the last six months.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many staff in his Department respond to Freedom of Information requests.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for International Trade (DIT) does not have a specific number of staff tasked with responding to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests. On receipt, FOI requests are allocated to officials in the area of the Department relevant to the subject of the request, who then provide the response.
The Department for Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Information Rights Unit (IRU) processes all FOI requests on behalf of DIT and provides advice and assistance to staff on the application of information rights legislation. The IRU consists of eight members of staff.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, on how many occasions his Department took longer than 30 working days to respond to a freedom of information request in each month since July 2016.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for International Trade, of 24 March to UIN: 68048.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the average response rate was of his Department to individual Freedom of Information requests in each month since July 2016.
Answered by Mark Garnier
FOI statistics are Official Statistics and are governed by the standards set out by the UK Statistics Authority (UKSA) in their Code of Practice. To publish information outside of the release timetable would be a breach of Protocol 2 of the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
The latest Freedom of Information statistics were published in December 2016 and are available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/freedom-of-information-statistics-july-to-september-2016--2
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether his Department has had discussions with representatives from Japan on arrangements for Japanese pharmaceutical companies in the UK.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for International Trade (DIT) works with new investors from Japan as well as Japanese companies across many sectors that have a UK presence. The Life Sciences Organisation (LSO) in this Department as well as the overseas market team in Japan have been engaging directly with Japanese pharmaceutical companies in Japan and those with a UK footprint. We welcome engagement from Japan and senior officials will continue to engage in a structured way on all levels.