Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether she plans to upgrade the Department’s website to attract more foreign investment.
Answered by Mark Garnier
Great.gov.uk was launched in November 2017. The platform’s purpose is to help UK businesses secure their place on the global stage and present and promote the UK as a natural choice for overseas investment. DIT continuously monitors the site for opportunities to upgrade.
In addition, invest.great.gov.uk was launched in January 2017 and for China from February 2017.
invest.great.gov.uk targets investors in eight languages: from November 2016 in German, Chinese and English; from January 2017 in Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese; from February 2017 Arabic; and, French followed in February 2017.
Sector content is also updated regularly which now includes: Automotive, Creative, Health and Life Sciences, Energy, Financial Services, and Technology, with later additions in Retail, Food and Drink, Aerospace, and Advanced Manufacturing.
All content and features will be developed according to the processes outlined in the Government’s Digital Service Standard. We continuously research the needs of investors, iterate content and collect feedback to improve the service, as set out in the standard. As such, updates to ensure the site remains relevant are ongoing.
Asked by: Anna McMorrin (Labour - Cardiff North)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimates his Department has made of changes in staff levels needed to negotiate trade deals after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department is already increasing staff levels to support future trade negotiations.
Since July 2016 our Trade Policy Group has grown significantly from 45 to around 400 today. The Group includes lawyers, analysts, trade policy and country specialists drawn from across all relevant Government departments that will be involved in developing policy for and negotiating trade deals.