Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will ask the British Business Bank to support credit unions to offer loans to small businesses.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The British Business Bank is backing Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) with £150 million of capital through the Community ENABLE Funding programme, to support small businesses that are under-served by commercial lenders.
Credit unions play a valuable role in providing both loans and savings, with 2.2 million members across the UK. Unlike CDFIs, which are not authorised to offer bank accounts, credit unions are able to attract customer deposits and are not reliant on wholesale finance. For this reason, the British Business Bank has no current plans to support credit unions to offer loans to small businesses.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) pubs and (b) other hospitality businesses with outstanding covid-19 loans.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This information is not held centrally by the Department for Business and Trade.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much funding her Department and its predecessor Department allocated to the (a) Turkish-British Chamber of Commerce, (b) British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce, (c) British Chamber of Commerce in Brazil, (d) UK-India Business Council, (e) Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce and (f) British Chamber of Business in Southern Africa in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Department for Business and Trade and the former Department for International Trade have not provided any funding to the Chambers of Commerce requested except for the UK-India Business Council. The funding provided to it is as follows:
Year | Spend |
2013 (October-March inclusive) | £441,344.54 |
2014 | £3,428,243.20 |
2015 | £2,269,682.03 |
2016 | £1,955,098.94 |
2017 | £1,499,191.33 |
2018 | £1,311,455.20 |
2019 | £1,059,669.00 |
2020 | £828,695.00 |
2021 | £1,115,025.00 |
2022 | £270,835.00 |
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she will make an assessment of the potential impact of tariffs on battery electric truck tractors on net zero targets.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The UK's trade policy is intended to support the achievement of government objectives and is kept under review. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles works across government to support the transition to zero emission vehicles. Zero Emission vehicles will help the UK decarbonise and Government remains committed to the Net Zero 2050 target.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to Appendix 1, Section B, Subsection 1, A, 2 of the Annex Modifications to Annex 1 to the UK-Andean Trade Agreement, signed in Quito on 15 May 2019, CP 122, what the (a) timing and (b) process is of the examination of the improvement of tariff liberalisation of goods included in staging category BA; against what criteria she plans to assess the potential impact of that improvement; what plans she has to consult countries potentially affected; and whether she plans to publish an impact assessment.
Answered by Greg Hands
The examination of goods included in Appendix 1, Section B, Subsection 1, A, 2 of the Annex Modifications to Annex 1 to the UK-Andean Trade Agreement must take place within two years of entry into force of the UK-Andean Countries Trade Agreement. The agreement entered into force for all parties in June 2022.
In the review, the UK will consider the interests of businesses and consumers alongside our development objectives. The Government will engage stakeholders and meet our existing commitments for consultation in the UK-Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement.
There are no plans to publish an impact assessment.