Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to her Department’s published spending by electronic purchasing card solution over £500 for July 2022, what travel services were purchased from Brightsun.co.uk for £8,110.00 on 20 July 2022; for which individuals were those services purchased; and what was the purpose of that travel.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This spend was in relation to travel by the Deputy Director in the Sponsorship and World Events team, who was requested to accompany Minister Adams in support of the Osaka 2025 Expo. This was a last-minute business class booking to Tokyo and had extremely limited availability. The department does not ordinarily book travel in this way.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to her Department’s publication of electronic purchasing card spending over £500 for October 2022, who attended the meal purchased for £1,120.00 at One Lombard Street on 20 October 2021; and whether that included any expenditure on alcoholic beverages.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This spend was by the Director General Trading Systems who hosted a dinner for her counterparts attending the G7 Trade Working group ahead of the G7 Trade Ministers meeting on 21st October 2022. A total of 17 people attended the dinner, and no alcoholic beverages were purchased or consumed.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to her Department’s publication of electronic purchasing card spending over £500, for what purpose was (a) £1,686.40 paid to the NDIA on 25 April 2022 and (b) £954.48 paid to Peli Products UK Ltd on 31 March 2022.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) spend was to purchase additional conference and exhibition passes purchased for the UK delegation attending the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference (SOFIC) 2022 exhibition in Tampa, USA. The exhibition space came with 16 complimentary passes, but a further 14 were required to meet the needs of the delegation attending.
The spend on Peli Products UK Ltd relates to purchases of a range of Peli cases to protect items of equipment required to support overseas trade negotiations.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to her Department’s publication of electronic purchasing card spending over £500 for July 2022, where was the hotel accommodation on which £63,300 was spent on 27 July 2022; for which individuals was that accommodation purchased; and what was the purpose of their stay at that hotel.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This hotel booking was for Department for International Trade staff involved with delivering the UK House Business Programme at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games over a 16-night period. 422 rooms were booked at a cost of £150 per night inc breakfast. UK House was a key component of the Commonwealth Games Business and Tourism Programme which has to date recorded over £13m of export business for UK companies.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what was the total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to staff working for (a) her Department and (b) UK Export Finance as performance-related bonuses in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Bonuses paid out as non-cash vouchers is a standard practice across Government. The EdenRed contract came into effect in 2017 which allows departments access to non-cash vouchers for staff. The total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to staff working for the Department for International Trade and UK Export Finance as performance-related bonuses is as below:
Department | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 |
DIT | £15,818 | £32,841 | £69,057 | £136,235 | £142,537 |
UKEF | £3,750 | £1,900 | £2,610 | £870 | £765 |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to her speech on 14 November 2022 to the Cato Institute in Washington DC, what was the source for her statement that the current amount of investment by US businesses into the UK economy is higher than the annual gross domestic product of Sweden.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Latest statistics from the Office for National Statistics show that the level of Inward FDI stock in the UK from the United States at the end of 2020 was £479.2 billion.
Source: ONS foreign direct investment involving UK companies 2020 (directional): inward
Latest statistics from the International Monetary Fund show that the gross domestic product of Sweden (in US dollars current prices) for the same year was $547.1 billion. Using the Bank of England average spot exchange rate for 2020 this converts to £426.2 billion.
Sources: IMF World Economic Outlook Database: October 2022 and Bank of England spot exchange rates
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what total amount of money has been paid out by her Department in severance payments for former (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers since 29 June 2022; how much of that money has subsequently been repaid to her Department as a result of individuals (A) rejecting the payment or (B) returning to new roles; and in how many cases where individuals were in post for (I) 0-3 months, (II) 3-6 months, (III) 6-12 months and (IV) more than 12 months has their full severance payment been retained as of 2 November 2022.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Provision of severance payments for Ministers is set out in legislation (Section 4 of the Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991). Details of the severance payments made to ministers when leaving office are published in departments’ annual reports and accounts.
Similarly, the provision of severance payments for special advisers is set out in the Model Contract, which is available on gov.uk, including provisions for repayment of severance if reappointed. The cost of severance payments made to special advisers across government is published annually by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the statement of losses and special payments in her Department’s annual report for 2021-22, what organisation was her Department’s contracted supplier of in-market support to UK businesses exporting to China in 2021-22; what the original (a) effective date, (b) duration and (c) value was of that contract; and (c) what revisions were made to the value of the contract for the remainder of its term.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Grant Thornton LLP was the department’s contracted supplier.
a) The effective date of the contract was the 3rd August 2020
b) The duration of the contract is for 3 years with termination due on the 28th July 2023.
c) The total, non-committed value that can be spent under the contract is £4.6m over 3 years
d) No revisions were made to the total value of the contract noted above; however the monthly fixed rate was reduced to reflect the demand for services in market.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the answer of 8 September 2020 to Question 81659 on Trade Agreements, how much public money was spent by her Department in each of the financial years from 2017-18 to 2021-22 on expenditure related to the proposed establishment of a dedicated Trade Negotiation Facility to support future trade negotiations.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Government switched to remote technology to conduct trade negotiations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our success in doing so means countries now operate international dialogues on a hybrid basis with a blend of remote and face-to-face discussions. This contrasts with the pre-pandemic international norm of always conducting trade negotiations in person.
This change, spearheaded by the UK, has negated the requirement for a dedicated Trade Negotiation Facility.
The spend by financial year on developing a potential dedicated venue is as follows:
Year | Spend |
2017/18 | £0 |
2018/19 | £0 |
2019/20 | £760,000 |
2020/21 | £249,000 |
2021/22 | £0 |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the answer of 8 September 2020 to Question 81659 on Trade Negotiations, if it remains the intention of her Department to establish a dedicated Trade Negotiation Facility to support future trade negotiations.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Government switched to remote technology to conduct trade negotiations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our success in doing so means countries now operate international dialogues on a hybrid basis with a blend of remote and face-to-face discussions. This contrasts with the pre-pandemic international norm of always conducting trade negotiations in person.
This change, spearheaded by the UK, has negated the requirement for a dedicated Trade Negotiation Facility.
The spend by financial year on developing a potential dedicated venue is as follows:
Year | Spend |
2017/18 | £0 |
2018/19 | £0 |
2019/20 | £760,000 |
2020/21 | £249,000 |
2021/22 | £0 |