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 her Department had discussions with the Royal Mail on the Printed Postage Impressions system prior to 2013.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Operational matters, which include those relating to the Printed Postage Impressions service, are the direct responsibility of Royal Mail. The Government is not 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 and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate she has made of the number of prosecutions involving potential Printed Postage Impressions fraud in the last 15 years; and what estimate she has made of the number of cases alleging wrongful prosecutions in relation to those cases in the last 15 years.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Operational matters, which include those relating to the Printed Postage Impressions service, are the direct responsibility of Royal Mail. The Government is not 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 and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answers of 14 and 18 December 2023 to Questions 6067, 6068 and 6383 and the Answer of 10 January 2024 to Question 7471 on Tractors: Batteries, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact on the UK's transition to electric vehicles of tariffs on battery electric truck tractors from the EU in each year to 2030.
Answered by Greg Hands
The rules which apply to battery electric truck tractors to facilitate tariff free trade have been in force since 1 January 2021 and were not due to change in 2024. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) 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 the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade during the debate on UK Export Performance of 18 September 2023, Official Report, column 1200, how many people work in the dedicated free trade agreement utilisation team as of 17 January 2024; and how many people he plans to work in that team on average over the next two financial years.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Free Trade Agreement Utilisation team has around 20 full time employees who work closely with business-facing teams across the Nations and regions of the UK, teams based overseas, and across all of our Department’s export support ecosystem to raise awareness of our new FTAs and ensure business can seize the opportunities in those fast growing markets.
Future years' resourcing will be decided as part of business planning for each financial year.
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 many people who paid into the British Shipbuilders pension fund were not receiving pension payments on 15 January 2024.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
British Shipbuilder pensions were transferred to Legal & General on 1 December 1994. His Majesty’s Government does not hold any data on the number of former employees who are in receipt of pensions.
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, pursuant to the Answers of 14 and 18 December 2023 to Questions 6067, 6068 and 6383 on Tractors: Batteries, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of maintaining rules of origin import taxes on battery electric truck tractors from the EU on the UK's transition to electric vehicles.
Answered by Greg Hands
The rules which apply to battery electric truck tractors have been in force since 1 January 2021 and were not due to change in 2024. Zero emission vehicles will help the UK decarbonise and meet our Net Zero 2050 targets. The Government is committed to supporting the transition to these vehicles.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 7 December 2023 to Question 4799 on Small Businesses: Exports, how the £200 million of funding to support small and medium-sized enterprises (a) has been spent in each of the last three years and (b) will be spent on (i) the UK Export Academy, (ii) International Trade Advisors, (iii) Help to Grow, (iv) the Export Support Service and (v) the Business Support Helpline.
Answered by Greg Hands
Between 2022-2025, DBT currently plan to spend, including expenditure incurred, a maximum of £86.1 million on the Help to Grow: Management scheme and Business Support Helpline, £19.4 million on the Export Support Service Digital enquiry service and International Markets service, and Export Support delivered by DBT teams in the English Regions (which includes International Trade Advisers in England and the UK wide Export Academy) expect to spend £84.2 million
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 steps she is taking to ensure that the proposed three-year extension of the rules of origin for electric vehicles and batteries under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement will include electric (a) truck tractors and (b) truck tractor batteries.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Commission has proposed a 3-year delay to the rules of origin for certain electric accumulators and electrified vehicles. The scope of the proposal is limited to only those rules which were staged over several years and due to change in 2024 and in 2027. The rules which apply to battery electric truck tractors were not due to change in 2024 and have been in force since the end of the transition period.
We continue to listen closely to the concerns of the sector and work with industry to maximise the benefits provided by the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
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 assessment she has made of the potential impact of the rules of origin of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement on the production of battery electric vehicle truck tractors if they are not included in the proposed three-year postponement of the introduction of new rules of origin on electric car batteries.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Commission has proposed a 3-year delay to the rules of origin for certain electric accumulators and electrified vehicles. The scope of the proposal is limited to only those rules which were staged over several years and due to change in 2024 and again in 2027. The rules which apply to battery electric truck tractors were not due to change in 2024 and have been in force since the end of the transition period.
We continue to listen closely to the concerns of the sector and work with industry to maximise the benefits provided by the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
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 representations she has received from manufacturers of zero-emission tailpipe HGVs on including battery electric vehicle truck tractors in the proposed three-year delay to the introduction of new rules of origin.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Commission has proposed a 3-year delay to the rules of origin for certain electric accumulators and electrified vehicles. The scope of the proposal is limited to only those rules which were staged over several years and due to change in 2024 and again in 2027. The rules which apply to battery electric truck tractors were not due to change in 2024 and have been in force since the end of the transition period.
We continue to listen closely to the concerns of the sector and work with industry to maximise the benefits provided by the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.