Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether his Department was made aware of the meetings that Crawford Falconer has had with the policy adviser Shanker Singham since July 2017.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser has had no official meetings with Shanker Singham. All meetings on official business are declared in the transparency returns and can be found on the gov.uk page:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-international-trade&publication_type=transparency-data
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether his Department was made aware of what was discussed at the meetings held between Crawford Falconer and Shanker Singham that have taken place since July 2017.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser has had no official meetings with Shanker Singham. All meetings on official business are declared in the transparency returns and can be found on the gov.uk page:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-international-trade&publication_type=transparency-data
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many leak enquiries his Department has undertaken in the last two years.
Answered by Greg Hands
It has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on security matters other than in exceptional circumstances when it is in the public interest to do so.
The leak of any Government information or material is not acceptable and the Government takes such incidents very seriously.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2018 to Question 136349, on Department for International Trade: ICT, if he will list the IT systems referred to.
Answered by Greg Hands
Due to national security concerns it would be inappropriate to make this public.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 26 April 2018 to Question 136349, which the IT systems referred to are.
Answered by Greg Hands
Due to national security concerns it would be inappropriate to make this public.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what apps his Department has approved for use of mobile phones issued by his Department.
Answered by Greg Hands
Due to national security concerns, it would be inappropriate to publicly supply a list of applications approved for use on mobile phones issued by the Department. To do so facilitates attacks against official systems by hostile actors.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many IT systems which his Department uses are more than (a) three, (b) five and (c) eight years old; and what steps he is taking to ensure that all his Department's IT systems are updated promptly.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department for International Trade (DIT) uses three IT systems that are between three and five years old, three that are between five and eight years old, and five that are more than eight years old. Some of these systems are provided by other Government departments.
IT and digital systems are promptly patched and updated as required in accordance with security requirements, DIT's Digital strategy and Government Digital Service best practice.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2018 to Question 132221, on Department for International Trade: Buildings, what the annual cost of renting each type of accommodation is.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The DIT leasehold buildings rental costs are £5.26M.
The freehold building in Whitehall attracts a nominal rental cost of £1.
The remaining DIT accommodation costs are £973k, which includes an element of rent under the memorandum of terms of occupation arrangements with other government departments.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what proportion of his Department's estate is (a) rented, (b) owned and (c) occupied through any other type of agreement.
Answered by Greg Hands
The proportion of the Department for International Trade’s estate that is (a) rented, (b) owned and (c) occupied through any other type of agreement is detailed in the table below. The Department occupies 22 buildings, and pays rent for all of them.
Leasehold | % | Freehold | % | Other | % | Memorandum of Terms of Occupation | % | Total |
2 | 9.1 | 1 | 4.5 | - | 0 | 19 | 86.4 | 22 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, which members of his Department's board are responsible for ensuring the proper application of the business appointment rules for former Ministers and senior civil servants.
Answered by Greg Hands
Applications by former Ministers are considered by the independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments directly.
For applications from former Senior Civil Servants, the Department for International Trade Audit and Risk Committee, which is chaired by a Departmental Non-Executive Director, will monitor compliance issues relating to the Business Appointment Rules at regular intervals. For UK Export Finance this function is carried out by the UKEF Audit Committee, chaired by a Non-Executive Board Director.