Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure Royal Mail complies with its legal obligations on the delivery of post.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Universal Service Obligation requires Royal Mail to deliver letters six days a week and parcels five days a week to every address in the UK at a uniform price.
Ofcom, as the independent regulator of postal services, is responsible for monitoring Royal Mail’s performance and ensuring that Royal Mail complies with its legal obligations. It sets Royal Mail enforceable targets to deliver a certain proportion of items on time each year. Ofcom takes compliance with its regulatory targets seriously and this involves conducting thorough investigations where failures have been identified.
In October, Ofcom fined Royal Mail £21 million for failing to meet its quality-of-service targets and has told Royal Mail it must urgently publish and deliver a credible plan that delivers major and continuous improvement.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to introduce legislation to ban the importation of goods produced in Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Secretary of State for Scotland
The UK Government has a clear position that Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal under international law. Goods originating in these settlements are not entitled to benefit from preferential tariff treatment under the UK's current trade agreements with the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
There are clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the settlements, and we do not encourage or offer support to such activity. UK Government guidance equips individuals and businesses to make their own informed choices regarding such commercial activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what processes are in place to help ensure that consumers who submit complaints to Trading Standards through Citizens Advice receive feedback on the outcome of their complaint.
Answered by Justin Madders
Trading Standards are provided by local authorities who operate independently from central government and make enforcement decisions according to local need.
Trading Standards act in the collective interest of consumers rather than resolving individual matters. In most cases, Trading Standards will not need to contact a complainant directly but will use information provided to prioritise intervention or enforcement action against rogue traders causing the most harm.
Citizens Advice consumer service received over 827,000 contacts in 2023-24. Every contact received by Citizens Advice is logged on a national database, which is accessible by consumer enforcement agencies, including local Trading Standards, to analyse trends and inform their enforcement activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the Trading Standards system meets consumer needs.
Answered by Justin Madders
Trading Standards are provided by local authorities who operate independently from central government and make enforcement decisions according to local need.
Trading Standards act in the collective interest of consumers rather than resolving individual matters. In most cases, Trading Standards will not need to contact a complainant directly but will use information provided to prioritise intervention or enforcement action against rogue traders causing the most harm.
Citizens Advice consumer service received over 827,000 contacts in 2023-24. Every contact received by Citizens Advice is logged on a national database, which is accessible by consumer enforcement agencies, including local Trading Standards, to analyse trends and inform their enforcement activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the Trading Standards complaints process.
Answered by Justin Madders
Trading Standards are provided by local authorities who operate independently from central government and make enforcement decisions according to local need.
Trading Standards act in the collective interest of consumers rather than resolving individual matters. In most cases, Trading Standards will not need to contact a complainant directly but will use information provided to prioritise intervention or enforcement action against rogue traders causing the most harm.
Citizens Advice consumer service received over 827,000 contacts in 2023-24. Every contact received by Citizens Advice is logged on a national database, which is accessible by consumer enforcement agencies, including local Trading Standards, to analyse trends and inform their enforcement activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason consumers in England are not able to deal directly with Trading Standards services; and whether he plans to review this approach.
Answered by Justin Madders
Trading Standards are provided by local authorities who operate independently from central government and make enforcement decisions according to local need.
Trading Standards act in the collective interest of consumers rather than resolving individual matters. In most cases, Trading Standards will not need to contact a complainant directly but will use information provided to prioritise intervention or enforcement action against rogue traders causing the most harm.
Citizens Advice consumer service received over 827,000 contacts in 2023-24. Every contact received by Citizens Advice is logged on a national database, which is accessible by consumer enforcement agencies, including local Trading Standards, to analyse trends and inform their enforcement activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will review the UK Export Finance model to ensure that financial support available to overseas critical minerals projects is accessible to UK-based critical minerals producers.
Answered by Gareth Thomas
In addition to its critical minerals supply finance facility, which guarantees a commercial loan to an overseas project which has an offtake agreement in place with a UK exporter, UK Export Finance (UKEF) can support UK-based critical minerals producers in a variety of ways. These include through its Export Development Guarantee and General Export Facility if the company is an exporter, and also in certain circumstances where the producer in question supplies UK exporters.
Through these two products, UKEF can provide guarantees to commercial loans for working capital, which can be used to pay suppliers or staffing costs, invest in research and development or support bids for higher value contracts.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when he plans to publish a green paper on the long-term future of the Post Office.
Answered by Gareth Thomas
We aim to publish a Green Paper later this year which will set out several proposals for discussion on the future direction of the Post Office. As part of this work, Government will be carefully considering what customers, communities and postmasters would like to see from a modern Post Office network.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to integrate critical minerals recycling into the circular economy strategy; and if he will support the development of a processing hub for (a) tin and (b) other critical minerals in the South West.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
A secure supply of critical minerals is vital for the UK's economic growth and security, industrial strategy, and clean energy transition. We recognise the importance of recycling critical minerals and as we work with DEFRA to develop the Circular Economy Strategy for England, we will consider the evidence for action and evaluate what interventions may be needed.
The South West of England is home to significant deposits of tin, tungsten and lithium, and the new Critical Minerals Strategy, which will be published this year, will set out how we will enhance the UK’s domestic capabilities, including mining, processing and recycling. The National Wealth Fund’s recent investment of £28.6m into the South Crofty tin mine will support our endeavour to onshore more of the value chain for critical minerals.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of funding for junior mineral exploration companies in the UK; and if he will introduce financial incentives to increase exploration of critical minerals.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Department for Business and Trade recognises the challenges that junior mining companies face when fundraising for mineral exploration projects. A secure supply of critical minerals is vital for the UK's economic growth and security, industrial strategy ambitions, and clean energy transition. As we work through our industrial and critical mineral strategies, we will further explore funding mechanisms which will encourage UK companies to play a role in securing our supplies and capitalise on economic opportunities, as the demand for resilient and responsible sources of critical minerals grows. UK junior mining companies have already benefitted from HMG funding including grants available through the Automotive Transformation Fund.