Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has had recent discussions the Devolved Administrations on conducting periodic impact assessments of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is a comprehensive free trade deal which maintains zero tariffs and zero quotas on trade in goods between the UK and the EU. It also secures market access across a broad range of key service sectors and establishes close cooperation in areas like transport, digital, and fighting crime.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has not prepared an economic Impact Assessment on the TCA. The Government is taking action to support businesses across the UK to trade effectively with Europe, including through the free-to-use Export Support Service. The Government is committed to working with the Welsh Government where it has an interest in TCA implementation.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has conducted an impact assessment of the impact of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on the Welsh labour market.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is a comprehensive free trade deal which maintains zero tariffs and zero quotas on trade in goods between the UK and the EU. It also secures market access across a broad range of key service sectors and establishes close cooperation in areas like transport, digital, and fighting crime.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has not prepared an economic Impact Assessment on the TCA. The Government is taking action to support businesses across the UK to trade effectively with Europe, including through the free-to-use Export Support Service. The Government is committed to working with the Welsh Government where it has an interest in TCA implementation.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has conducted an impact assessment of the impact of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on (a) Holyhead, (b) Fishguard and (c) Pembroke Dock.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is a comprehensive free trade deal which maintains zero tariffs and zero quotas on trade in goods between the UK and the EU. It also secures market access across a broad range of key service sectors and establishes close cooperation in areas like transport, digital, and fighting crime.
The Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has not prepared an economic Impact Assessment on the TCA. The Government is taking action to support businesses across the UK to trade effectively with Europe, including through the free-to-use Export Support Service. The Government is committed to working with the Welsh Government where it has an interest in TCA implementation.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether she has conducted an impact assessment of the cost of increased UK-EU trade barriers to the Welsh economy.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) is a comprehensive free trade deal which maintains zero tariffs and zero quotas on trade in goods between the UK and the EU. It also secures market access across a broad range of key service sectors and establishes close cooperation in areas like transport, digital, and fighting crime.
Given the tight Parliamentary timetable the Government faced in December 2020, we were unable to produce and publish an impact assessment of the TCA before passing the EU (Future Relationship) Act 2020.
The Government is taking action to support businesses across the UK to trade effectively with Europe, including through the free-to-use Export Support Service. We are also making use of the freedoms we now enjoy as a result of leaving the EU, including amending our subsidy control regime to help all public authorities, including the Welsh Government, attract investment into the United Kingdom.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to provide UK citizens with expert volunteer humanitarian assistance in (a) Ukraine, (b) Poland, (c) Slovakia, (d) Romania and (e) Hungary.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
As of 8 March, 2 million people are known to have fled Ukraine to neighbouring countries, according to UNHCR [link: https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine]. These numbers will continue to rise. The UK government has so far pledged £395 million of aid, which includes £220 million of humanitarian assistance, some of which will go to countries neighbouring Ukraine. Our humanitarian support will help partners stand up their responses to the deteriorating humanitarian situation, creating a lifeline for Ukrainians with access to immediate assistance. HMG will also match-fund the public's first £25m of donations to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, our largest ever aid-match contribution.
In addition to the humanitarian assistance already mentioned, the UK has deployed humanitarian experts to Poland, Moldova and Romania to provide logistics, advice and analysis of the refugee situation, and a medical assessment team to Romania and Moldova to assess options for rapidly deploying UK Emergency Medical Team (UKEMT) capabilities.
Asked by: Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru - Arfon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she has had with the UK permanent representative to the UN on the feasibility of initiating global governance arrangements limiting the use of anti-satellite weaponry including (a) direct ascent anti-satellite missiles, (b) co-orbital anti-satellite weaponry and (c) ground or space-based directed energy weapons.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The United Kingdom is playing a leading role on both space security and space sustainability. We work through UK Missions in New York, Geneva and Vienna. The United Kingdom is leading discussions on responsible space behaviours, particularly at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) but also at the Conference on Disarmament and UN Disarmament Commission, that aim to reduce the risks of miscalculation and escalation leading to conflict. In 2020 at UNGA the UK ran a resolution calling for a report by the UN Secretary-General on "Reducing Space threats through norms, rules and principles of responsible behaviour" and submitted our views to https://www.un.org/disarmament/topics/outerspace-sg-report-outer-space-2021/ in April 2021, including on counterspace weapons. In December 2021 UNGA adopted the UK-led follow-on resolution to set up an Open Ended Working Group.