Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many (a) non-disclosure and (b) other confidentiality agreements relating to (i) employment, (ii) bullying, (iii) misconduct and (iii) harassment cases have been agreed by their Department in each year since 1 January 2010; and how much money from the public purse has been spent on (A) legal costs and (B) financial settlements for such agreements in each year since 1 January 2010.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Department for International Trade has not agreed to any non-disclosure or other confidentiality agreements of the nature described in your question since its establishment in July 2016. This response also includes UK Export Finance.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the cost to the public purse has been of legal advice sought by the Government on trade deals in each of the last seven years.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
As of 12 July 2022, the Department for International Trade (DIT) has spent £2,012,339 on external legal advice to support trade deals. This includes £11,643 in the 2022/23 financial year, £1,281,408 in the 2021/2022 financial year, £479,457 in the 2020/2021 financial year and £239,831 in the 2019/2020 financial year. There was no spend on advice of this nature prior to 2019. Government Legal Department supports a number of DIT’s policy objectives and therefore we cannot separately identify costs on trade deals.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what estimate she has made of (a) the number of officials in her Department involved in recording retained EU legislation for the purposes of the Retained EU Law Dashboard in the latest period for which figures are available and (b) the cost to the public purse of recording that information.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
Around 15 Department for International Trade officials were involved in recording retained EU legislation for the purposes of the Retained EU Law (REUL) Dashboard. This is an estimate as work was carried out within teams who lead on relevant policy areas rather than in a dedicated REUL team, and others might have been involved in a more limited capacity. The work was not undertaken on a full-time basis, and the work was completed within a defined window of time.
There has been no additional non-pay cost to the public purse by creating the dashboard. The process was led by the Cabinet Office, who commissioned Government Departments to find REUL within their legislation and compile an authoritative account of where REUL sits on the UK statute book.
The dashboard itself is made by the Government Strategic Management Office and is hosted on Tableau Public, which is a free platform. It will continue to be updated at no additional cost.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the human rights impact of support for clean energy projects overseas by the Government.
Answered by Mike Freer
UK Export Finance (UKEF) is committed to high standards of environmental, social and human rights (ESHR) risk management. It rigorously follows the requirements of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Common Approaches and Equator Principles, which set the framework for export credit agencies and international financial institutions in managing such risks and impacts (including modern slavery risks in supply chains) for all projects in any sector. In addition, UKEF has developed procedures for identifying and assessing potential human rights risks on solar energy transactions that may fall outside the scope of the OECD Common Approaches and Equator Principles, as the solar energy sector was identified as being particularly exposed to potential human rights risks.
UKEF’s specialist ESHR risk management team reviews relevant projects prior to UKEF taking a decision on whether to provide support. ESHR monitoring takes place throughout the lifetime of UKEF’s support for such projects.
Asked by: Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat - Oxford West and Abingdon)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2021 to Question 5534, what the exceptional circumstances are in which the Government would provide direct financial or promotional support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas.
Answered by Mike Freer
The limited exemptions available to the Government’s policy on support for new fossil fuel projects overseas are set out online at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/how-the-government-will-implement-its-policy-on-support-for-the-fossil-fuel-energy-sector-overseas.