Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how much his Department has spent on (a) art, (b) wine and (c) hospitality since it was established.
Answered by Robin Walker
The Department for Exiting the European Union has procured the following according to the information held by the Department’s finance system:
£580 was spent on the removal and installation of artwork in Departmental offices.
There are no identifiable transactions specifically relating to the purchase of wine.
The Department has spent £10,971 on hospitality since the creation of the Department.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether electronic communications from hon. Members to Ministers in his Department are passed through any third parties before they reach their recipient.
Answered by Steve Baker
Electronic communications are passed across the internet via internet service providers, and the routing of an email between an Hon Member and a Government department is dependent on which system and service an email is sent through. Ministers’ Private Offices and correspondence teams routinely handle and respond to emails on behalf of their Ministers.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many officials of his Department have expertise in health.
Answered by Steve Baker
The information requested is not held centrally and therefore, we are not in a position to provide this for particular groups of staff.
The Department for Exiting the European Union now has over 500 staff and is drawing together expertise from a wide range of departments where there is specific relevant knowledge. All departments are equipping themselves with the resources they need to get the best deal for the UK.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what steps he plans to take to mitigate the potential effect of the UK leaving the EU on UK machinery manufacturers who wish to continue to export to EU countries.
Answered by Robin Walker
We fully recognise the importance of the UK’s machinery sector. The Government’s objective remains to secure trade with Europe that is tariff-free and as frictionless as possible in all sectors, including in heavy machinery. We will pursue an ambitious and comprehensive free trade agreement with the EU to achieve this. This includes zero tariffs on trade in goods and minimising the regulatory and market access barriers for both goods and services.
We will need to build a bridge from our exit to our future partnership, to allow business time to adjust, and to allow new systems to be put in place. Therefore we are proposing a time-limited implementation period where we continue to have access to one another’s markets on current terms. We expect this to last for a period of around two years. We are pressing to agree this as early as possible, so as to provide certainty but will of course be subject to ongoing negotiations.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what recent discussions he has had with representatives of the automotive manufacturing industry.
Answered by Steve Baker
The Government has frequent conversations with key stakeholders in the automotive sector, including through our partnership with the Automotive Council. Since the Department was created, we have pursued a wide-ranging programme of engagement in order to build a national consensus around our negotiating position.
This engagement has included a roundtable held in December 2016 with key automotive businesses held by the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, joined by Ministers from the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy. This dialogue will continue as negotiations progress.
Details of Ministerial and senior official meetings will be published in the Department’s Quarterly Transparency Returns, which will be made publicly available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how much his Department has spent on (a) hotels, (b) hospitality, (c) food and drink and (d) transport in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by David Jones
Information on ministerial and senior officials gifts, hospitality and travel will be released as part of regular transparency publications on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what the five most visited websites were by staff of his Department in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Robin Walker
The Department utilises a shared IT platform with the Cabinet Office, as such we cannot extrapolate this information from the data available. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 3 April 2017 to the Question 69112.
The top five websites visited by Cabinet Office (incorporating the Department for Exiting the European Union and 10 Downing Street) in the past 12 months (March 2016 – March 2017) are;
http://www.telegraph.co.uk
https://www.google.co.uk
http://www.bbc.co.uk
https://civilservicelearning.civilservice.gov.uk
http://www.bing.com