Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many staff their Department has seconded from Hakluyt since July 2024.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Office has had no staff in the department seconded from Hakluyt since July 2024.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many of their Department's officials have been seconded from (a) the Institute for Economic Affairs, (b) the Policy Exchange, (c) the Adam Smith Institute and (d) Labour Together since July 2024.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Office has not had any staff seconded from the Institute for Economic Affairs, the Policy Exchange, the Adam Smith Institute and Labour Together since July 2024.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what steps he is taking to support Spirit AeroSystems (a) production and (b) jobs.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government is working with the Northern Ireland Executive to help ensure the best outcome for Spirit Aerosystems and all its skilled and hardworking staff.
The Northern Ireland Office and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) are fully aware of the commercial discussions taking place about the potential acquisition of the Spirit business. DBT continues to be in contact with Spirit, Airbus, Boeing and other potential buyers, and we want to see an outcome that includes a commitment to develop Spirit and its supply chain as part of any acquisition and provides the best possible opportunity for growth in Northern Ireland.
DBT continues to provide support for Spirit’s Research and Development activity through the Aerospace Technology Institute programme.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the break up of Spirit on the Northern Ireland economy.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Government is working with the Northern Ireland Executive to help ensure the best outcome for Spirit Aerospace and all its skilled and hardworking staff.
The Northern Ireland Office and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) are fully aware of the commercial discussions taking place about the potential acquisition of the Spirit business. DBT continues to be in contact with Spirit, Airbus, Boeing and other potential buyers and we want to see an outcome that includes a commitment to develop and grow the aerospace industry in Northern Ireland both directly and through the supply chain.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Airbus not completing the takeover of the Spirit AeroSystems site in Belfast on jobs (a) at Airbus and (b) throughout the supply chain in (i) Northern Ireland and (ii) Britain.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
My Department and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) is fully aware of the commercial discussions taking place about the potential acquisition of Spirit AeroSystems business. The Government is working with the Northern Ireland Executive to help ensure the best outcome for Spirit and all its skilled and hard working staff.
DBT continues to be in contact with Spirit, Airbus, Boeing and other potential buyers. We want to see an outcome for Spirit that includes a commitment to develop Spirit and its supply chain as part of any acquisition and provides the best possible opportunity for growth and jobs in Northern Ireland.
The UK Government is aware Spirit employs nearly five thousand staff at its sites in Northern Ireland and Scotland supplying world-class aerospace products across the globe. It is for this reason, and its contribution to the UK’s economy, that UKG has a keen interest in seeing that any acquisition provides the best opportunity for growth and investment.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much their Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Steve Baker
We do not routinely publish this data, as has been the case under successive administrations. All Business Units within the Northern Ireland Office have a responsibility to keep official hospitality costs as low as possible and demonstrate good value for money.
Details of ministerial and senior official hospitality are published on a quarterly basis, and are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much his Department spent on taxi cabs for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in each of the last three years.
Answered by Steve Baker
My Department has spent to following on taxi cab travel:
| Ministers | Staff |
Financial Year 2019/20 | Nil | £4,425.14 |
Financial Year 2020/21 | Nil | £43.34 |
Financial Year 2021/22 | Nil | £728.73 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much his Department spent on first class train travel for (a) ministers and (b) civil servants in (i) 2020, (i) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Steve Baker
My Department has spent to following on first class train travel:
| Ministers | Staff |
2020 | £822.20 | Nil |
2021 | Nil | Nil |
2022 | £433.20 | Nil |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much his Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Conor Burns
The amount spent by the Department on:
(a) Agency workers is:
(i) 2020 - £741,407
(ii) 2021 - £728,137
(iii) 2022 - £1,634,083; and
(b) Agency retainer fees is nil for each of the three years.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much their Office has spent on air travel for (a) Ministers and (b) officials in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Conor Burns
The amount spent by the Department on air travel is:
(a) Ministers
(i) 2020 - £163,557
(ii) 2021 - £36,845
(iii) 2022 - £79,474
(b) Officials
(i) 2020 - £350,749
(ii) 2021 - £24,981
(iii) 2022 - £198,316
Please note that the Officials totals include Special Adviser air travel costs and that the spend reported does also not distinguish between commercial and non-commercial air travel.
Ministers commercial air travel is captured in departmental transparency returns and published on gov.uk.