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Written Question
World Expo: United Arab Emirates
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how much the UK pavilion at the EXPO 2020 in Dubai cost to (a) design, (b) build and (c) maintain; and whether that pavilion is still being utilised to promote UK exports and trade.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)

The UK pavilion recorded 1.1 million visits. To note ‘visits’ does not necessarily equate to separate individuals, who may have visited more than once. The number of individual visitors is not known.

Although not directly comparable, for planning purposes, the UK at Expo 2020 anticipated 10% of overall visits to the wider Expo event which was based on visitor attendance at the previous Expo. The organisers of Expo in Dubai announced 24.1m actual visits, whilst the UK registered 1.1m, equating to 4.6%. Our assessment is that this was due to the much larger scale of the Dubai Expo, and the site configuration which resulted in less overall footfall past the UK Pavilion.

The number of business contacts was not set or captured as a key success metric.

The cost to design the pavilion was £2.83m. The cost to build and maintain was covered under one contract and therefore these costs are being finalised as decommissioning (including dismantling) of the pavilion has only recently been completed.


Written Question
World Expo: United Arab Emirates
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will make an estimate of the number of business contacts that were made at the UK pavilion during the EXPO 2020 in Dubai in each month of that event; and whether her Department adjusted its forecast of the number of business contacts that would be made during that event.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)

The UK pavilion recorded 1.1 million visits. To note ‘visits’ does not necessarily equate to separate individuals, who may have visited more than once. The number of individual visitors is not known.

Although not directly comparable, for planning purposes, the UK at Expo 2020 anticipated 10% of overall visits to the wider Expo event which was based on visitor attendance at the previous Expo. The organisers of Expo in Dubai announced 24.1m actual visits, whilst the UK registered 1.1m, equating to 4.6%. Our assessment is that this was due to the much larger scale of the Dubai Expo, and the site configuration which resulted in less overall footfall past the UK Pavilion.

The number of business contacts was not set or captured as a key success metric.

The cost to design the pavilion was £2.83m. The cost to build and maintain was covered under one contract and therefore these costs are being finalised as decommissioning (including dismantling) of the pavilion has only recently been completed.


Written Question
World Expo: United Arab Emirates
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will make an estimate of whether the number of people who attended the UK pavilion during the EXPO 2020 in Dubai was higher than her Department had anticipated in advance of that event.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)

The UK pavilion recorded 1.1 million visits. To note ‘visits’ does not necessarily equate to separate individuals, who may have visited more than once. The number of individual visitors is not known.

Although not directly comparable, for planning purposes, the UK at Expo 2020 anticipated 10% of overall visits to the wider Expo event which was based on visitor attendance at the previous Expo. The organisers of Expo in Dubai announced 24.1m actual visits, whilst the UK registered 1.1m, equating to 4.6%. Our assessment is that this was due to the much larger scale of the Dubai Expo, and the site configuration which resulted in less overall footfall past the UK Pavilion.

The number of business contacts was not set or captured as a key success metric.

The cost to design the pavilion was £2.83m. The cost to build and maintain was covered under one contract and therefore these costs are being finalised as decommissioning (including dismantling) of the pavilion has only recently been completed.


Written Question
World Expo: United Arab Emirates
Tuesday 22nd November 2022

Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if he will make an estimate of the number of people who attended the UK pavilion during the EXPO 2020 in Dubai.

Answered by Andrew Bowie - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)

The UK pavilion recorded 1.1 million visits. To note ‘visits’ does not necessarily equate to separate individuals, who may have visited more than once. The number of individual visitors is not known.

Although not directly comparable, for planning purposes, the UK at Expo 2020 anticipated 10% of overall visits to the wider Expo event which was based on visitor attendance at the previous Expo. The organisers of Expo in Dubai announced 24.1m actual visits, whilst the UK registered 1.1m, equating to 4.6%. Our assessment is that this was due to the much larger scale of the Dubai Expo, and the site configuration which resulted in less overall footfall past the UK Pavilion.

The number of business contacts was not set or captured as a key success metric.

The cost to design the pavilion was £2.83m. The cost to build and maintain was covered under one contract and therefore these costs are being finalised as decommissioning (including dismantling) of the pavilion has only recently been completed.


Written Question
Tradeshow Access Programme
Thursday 15th July 2021

Asked by: Douglas Chapman (Scottish National Party - Dunfermline and West Fife)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent discussions her Department has held with relevant business stakeholders on the Tradeshow Access Programme.

Answered by Graham Stuart

I refer the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for North Durham on 15 July 2021, UIN: 28980.


Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 14 Jan 2021
Oral Answers to Questions

" What discussions she plans to have with her EU counterparts on developing the relationship on services. ..."
Douglas Chapman - View Speech

View all Douglas Chapman (SNP - Dunfermline and West Fife) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 14 Jan 2021
Oral Answers to Questions

"Within a day of leaving the EU, shares worth billions of euros normally traded in the City of London flooded out of the EU to other European capitals such as Paris and Amsterdam. One trader told the Financial Times that this was a “stunning own goal” and only the beginning …..."
Douglas Chapman - View Speech

View all Douglas Chapman (SNP - Dunfermline and West Fife) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 19 Nov 2020
Oral Answers to Questions

" What discussions she has had with (a) business representatives and (b) Cabinet colleagues on reducing the administrative burden on businesses seeking to (i) export for the first time and (ii) increase their volume of exports. ..."
Douglas Chapman - View Speech

View all Douglas Chapman (SNP - Dunfermline and West Fife) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 19 Nov 2020
Oral Answers to Questions

"Around 250,000 businesses export to the EU and not to the rest of the world. Many of them are small, not VAT-registered and difficult to reach, and to continue to trade they will need to go through a long and tedious process to acquire an economic operator registration and identification …..."
Douglas Chapman - View Speech

View all Douglas Chapman (SNP - Dunfermline and West Fife) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions

Speech in Commons Chamber - Thu 14 Mar 2019
Oral Answers to Questions

"T4. Given the inevitable downturn that will come from any kind of Brexit that we end up with, what consideration has the Minister given to the introduction of free ports to boost economic activity in areas of low economic performance just now?..."
Douglas Chapman - View Speech

View all Douglas Chapman (SNP - Dunfermline and West Fife) contributions to the debate on: Oral Answers to Questions