Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the value of exports facilitated by his Department was in each of the last five financial years by destination country.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department supported businesses to deliver export wins worth £16.9bn in 2020/21, £17.3bn in 2021/22, and £19.6bn in 2022/23. In 2023/24 over £36bn and almost £24bn in 2024/25 export wins were delivered.
The Department does not provide country-specific wins due to the risk of disclosing commercially sensitive deals.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what timeline and industry roadmap he has established for ending male chick culling.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has set out in the recently published Animal Welfare Strategy that it will encourage the egg industry to move away from the practice of killing day-old chicks. The Government will discuss with them a roadmap to reach the objective of ending male chick culling.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of financial support available to off-grid households in England reliant on heating oil; and whether park home residents in England are included within the scope of any such support.
Answered by Martin McCluskey - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government recognises that families and businesses across the country will see the recent global events and once again be concerned about the impact on their energy bills. The Government will continue to monitor the situation closely over coming days and weeks.
My Rt. Hon. Friend the Chancellor has announced £53m for low income families, who heat their homes with oil to help tackle surging prices. This funding will be available to the Northern Ireland Executive, Wales, and Scotland. This funding is allocated as part of the Crisis Resilience fund, and will be distributed by local authorities. Local Authorities have responsibility for distributing funds to households.
Households using heating oil also benefit from wider cost‑of‑living support, including electricity bill reductions announced in the Autumn Budget, and the Warm Home Discount, which provides eligible households with £150 off energy bills until 2030/31.
The Government continues to keep the needs of all energy consumers under review, including park home residents, who benefit from Maxiumum Resale Price protections where the site owner’s name is on the energy contract.
More information on this can be found here: Alternative homes energy guidance | Ofgem
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the resilience of UK critical digital services in relation to the level of concentration in the cloud infrastructure market.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In July last year, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud market investigation identified a number of potential competition concerns which may impact the resilience of UK’s digital infrastructure. The CMA recommended that its Board consider prioritising a future Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into cloud services under its new digital markets powers.
The Government is committed to promoting a competitive and innovative digital economy and therefore prioritised the commencement of these powers last year, alongside a clear expectation that they be used to support competition and innovation in digital markets. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on which markets to investigate are a matter for its Board alone.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment she has made of the impact of delays to competition solutions in the cloud services market on market concentration; and what consideration she has given to the implications for growth and innovation in the technology sector.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In July last year, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud market investigation identified a number of potential competition concerns. The CMA recommended that its Board consider prioritising a future Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into cloud services under its new digital markets powers.
The Government is committed to promoting a competitive and innovative digital economy and therefore prioritised the commencement of these powers last year, alongside a clear expectation that they be used to support competition and innovation in digital markets. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on which markets to investigate are a matter for its Board alone
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions her Department has had with the Competition and Markets Authority on the proposed timetable for the next stages of its cloud market investigation; and what assessment she has made of the implications of that timetable for competition enforcement in digital infrastructure markets.
Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In July last year, the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) cloud market investigation identified a number of potential competition concerns. The CMA recommended that its Board consider prioritising a future Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into cloud services under its new digital markets powers.
The Government is committed to promoting a competitive and innovative digital economy and therefore prioritised the commencement of these powers last year, alongside a clear expectation that they be used to support competition and innovation in digital markets. Neither the Secretary of State nor Ministers have discussed future SMS prioritisation decisions with the CMA. The CMA is independent of Government, and decisions on which markets to investigate are a matter for its Board alone.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many directors with responsibility for human resources are employed across their department and its executive agencies; and how many of those directors hold professional HR qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or equivalent professional bodies.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Home Office has two Directors with responsibility for human resources, both of which hold qualifications from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
Asked by: Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat - Maidenhead)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential (a) implications for his Department's policies and (b) investment in UK digital infrastructure of recent survey evidence on barriers to competition in the UK cloud market.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
There are currently no plans to undertake such an assessment. The Competition and Markets Authority’s cloud services market investigation examined the state of competition in the market. The Government remains committed to supporting investment in high‑quality, secure and resilient digital infrastructure across the UK.