Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the efficacy of the Royal Mail's Printed Postage Impressions IT system; and whether the Government was aware of any allegations of fraud by firms under declaring mail using Royal Mail's Printed Postage Impressions product prior to the privatisation of Royal Mail in 2013; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
Operational matters, which include matters relating to Royal’s Printed Postage Impressions service, are the direct responsibility of Royal Mail. The Government does not get involved in the day- to- day operations of the company and does not play a role in handling or resolving issues in relation to postage fraud.
Royal Mail has a well-established process in place to deal with suspected postage fraud. This is handled by the Royal Mail Revenue Protection team, who would be best placed to answer any queries in relation to this issue.”
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the scale of fraud that Royal Mail alleges was committed by firms under declaring mail using its Printed Postage Impressions product in the period from May 2008 to May 2018; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
Operational matters, which include matters relating to Royal’s Printed Postage Impressions service, are the direct responsibility of Royal Mail. The Government does not get involved in the day- to- day operations of the company and does not play a role in handling or resolving issues in relation to postage fraud.
Royal Mail has a well-established process in place to deal with suspected postage fraud. This is handled by the Royal Mail Revenue Protection team, who would be best placed to answer any queries in relation to this issue.”
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential to include QR code technology on covid-19 vaccine packaging as a possible route to enable the quick export of surplus vaccines which are redirected to developing nations without the need to repackage those vaccines for the destination market; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
When distributing vaccines, our primary concern is that we do so safely.
Barcodes are currently used on COVID-19 packaging and labels; QR codes may also be used, for example in some regions of the world as part of anti-counterfeiting processes. In the UK, the use of a bar code or a QR code format for vaccine distribution is agreed during the vaccine manufacturer’s application for regulatory authorisation.
Barcodes provide an effective, commonly accepted and reliable label format to enable the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines when part of the regulated distribution system. Use of barcodes or the use of QR codes is not the limiting factor in distribution choices. Neither can avoid the planning or re-planning time needed to re-pack or re-label vaccines, if re-packing or re-labelling is required to meet the regulatory requirements for a recipient country.
In order to account for necessary regulatory requirements, we ensure the safe and controlled distribution of vaccines through planning, re-planning, and the use of available, safety-regulated global technologies.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many individual covid-19 vaccine doses the Government (a) has used, (b) has in stock, (c) is due to receive as part of signed contractual agreements with suppliers and (d) has committed to share through Covax.
Answered by Nadhim Zahawi
As of 1 July, the total number of doses that have been administered is 77,592,212.
The UK Government has secured early access to 397 million vaccine doses through supply agreements with six separate vaccine developers, of which four have received regulatory approval and three are currently in deployment. This includes agreements with:
In addition, the Government has a reservation agreement with GlaxoSmithKline/Sanofi Pasteur for 60 million doses and a non-binding agreement with CureVac for 50 million doses.
The Government has announced that the UK will donate at least 100 million surplus COVID-19 vaccine doses within the next year, including 5 million by the end of September 2021 and a further 25 million by the end of 2021.
The Government has committed that 80% of our surplus vaccines will go to COVAX, the multilateral facility responsible for distributing COVID-19 vaccines to ensure equitable global access. The remainder will be shared bilaterally with countries in need and we will set out further details in due course.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the UK’s statement from the last TRIPS Council meeting on June 9th, what steps he is taking to (a) incentivise UK industries to participate in the Covid-19 Technology Access Pool and (b) encourage further engagement by other World Trade Organisation members with the C-TAP scheme.
Answered by Amanda Solloway
The UK has, and will continue to, engage extensively with all interested parties. We are in ongoing, constructive discussions with the World Health Organisation (WHO) as it refines both governance structures and operating model for the Covid Technology Access Pool (C-TAP). The UK has recently worked with the WHO on developing C-TAP, including with key partners such as the United Nations Development Programme and the Medicines Patent Pool, to share our approach to model licenses for IP. We are keen to see, and have facilitated, the WHO working with industry to incentivise participation in the scheme and we have encouraged WTO members to engage with C-TAP.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether people who held senior management posts at the Post Office from 2006 to date will be called to give evidence to the Post Office Horizon IT public inquiry; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
I announced to the House on 19 May that, with the agreement of the Prime Minister, I will put the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry on to a statutory footing on 1 June 2021. This change will give Sir Wyn Williams powers to compel organisations to provide documents and witnesses to give evidence, under oath if necessary to ensure the Inquiry can get to the bottom of what happened and get the postmasters the answers they are looking for.
The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry is independent of my Department and so my Department does not have information on who will be called to appear before it to give evidence at the Inquiry hearings. This is for Sir Wyn Williams to decide as Chair of the Inquiry.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what proportion of local authorities have included dry cleaning businesses in their Additional Restrictions Grant schemes; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) is a discretionary fund managed by Local Authorities. Local Authorities are free to put in place the support schemes they deem appropriate to their local economic circumstances. They may also spend ARG until the end of the 2021/22 financial year. The Department does not collate details of which sectors and sub-sectors are eligible for support in each Local Authority area.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether providers of complementary medicine teaching who have been unable to deliver practical training in close contact services since 5 January 2021 are eligible to apply for Local Restrictions Support Grants; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government has introduced an unprecedented package of support for businesses that are required to close, or which are severely affected by the restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives.
The Local Restrictions Support Grant provided grants of up to the equivalent of £4,500 for each 6 weeks of closure for those businesses mandated to close during the National Restrictions. Local Authorities are responsible for managing grants schemes locally and determining eligibility.
For those businesses who did not qualify for the Local Restrictions Support Grant further support maybe available through the Additional Restrictions Grant. The Chancellor has announced an additional £425m will be made available via the Additional Restrictions Grant meaning that more than £2bn has been made available to Local Authorities since November 2020. Local Authorities are free to provide support that suits their local area including to support those businesses not required to close but which have had their trade severely affected by the restrictions.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of UK businesses which have relocated to outside of UK territory since (a) 23 June 2016, (b) 31 January 2020 and (c) 1 January 2021; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Department works closely alongside other Government Departments such as HM Treasury to monitor economic metrics like Foreign Direct Investment, however these statistics do not provide a comprehensive assessment of where a business has chosen to set up a site outside UK territory as opposed to instances where businesses have chosen to fully relocate.
Internationally, the UK will operate an independent trade policy for the first time in 50 years. Our focus now is on making sure that any business that is still facing challenges gets the support they need to trade effectively with the EU, and that all businesses benefit from the new free trade agreements we are striking around the world.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will attempt to negotiate a reduction in the cost of business visas for working in (a) Spain, (b) France and (c) Germany, and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
The costs of visas is an exclusive competence of EU Member States. They are not negotiated with other trade partners, and the UK respects the rights of other countries to set their visa-pricing policy.