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 - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
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 - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
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 - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
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 - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
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.
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, on what date she was made aware of the £900 million in loans and guarantees made by UK Export Finance to the Mozambique LNG project.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
In line with the requirements of the OECD Common Approaches, the fact that UK Export Finance was considering support for the project was published on its website in August 2019. Following that consideration, my predecessor collectively consulted with ministerial colleagues before UK Export Finance support was made available.
More broadly, I would observe that in December 2020, the Prime Minister announced at the Climate Ambition Summit that the UK will end new direct support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas. The Prime Minister announced that the UK Government will no longer provide any new direct financial or promotional support for the fossil fuel energy sector overseas, other than in exceptional circumstances, and align its support to enable clean energy exports. This policy shift applies to any new official development assistance, investment, export credit and trade promotion activity overseas. Following consultation, this new policy came into effect from 31 March 2021.
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 UK arms export licences have been granted to (a) Jaguar Land Rover and (b) MDT Armor Corporation for exports of (i) armoured land rovers and (ii) other land rovers to Israel as at 18 May 2021.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
Our records indicate that, between 2000 and 2020, seven licences have been granted to Land Rover Exports Ltd; and no licences have been granted to MDT Armor Corporation.
Of the licences granted to Land Rover Exports Ltd, four were for Land Rover vehicles. Two of the licences were granted for armoured vehicles, for the protection of staff on diplomatic missions, and a further two licences were granted for non-armoured vehicles.
HM Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’).
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) standard individual export licences and (b) open individual export licences have been granted for the shipment of arms to Ethiopia in the last (i) six and (ii) 12 months.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government publishes Official Statistics on GOV.UK on a quarterly and annual basis on export licences granted, refused and revoked to all destinations. These reports contain detailed information including the overall value, type (e.g. Military, Other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This information is available at: gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data and the most recent publication was on 13th April 2021, covering the period 1st October to 31st December 2020.
Two Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs) were granted for military rated items to Ethiopia between July and December 2020 and no other licences were granted in the six months prior to this period.
Information on licences granted between 1st January to 31st March 2021 will be published as Official Statistics on 13th July 2021; and for licences granted from 1st April to 30th June 2021, information will be published in October 2021.
All export licence applications are assessed against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria (the ‘Consolidated Criteria’). HM Government will not grant an export licence if to do so would be inconsistent with the Consolidated Criteria.
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 impact assessment was conducted by her Department of the human rights record of the Turkish Government prior to the agreement of the UK-Turkey trade deal on 29 December 2020.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
The Agreement signed on 29th December transitions existing EU-Turkey trade provisions, as far as possible, into a bilateral arrangement between the United Kingdom and Turkey. The continuity of these provisions gives certainty to businesses trading between the United Kingdom and Turkey, ensuring goods can continue to flow without tariffs.
HM Government is clear that trade does not come at the expense of rights and responsibilities. We have a strong history of promoting our values globally, and we will continue to engage the Turkish Government on these important issues.
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 26 June 2020 to Question 60657 on Renewable energy, what plans her Department has to install solar panels and wind turbines on its buildings in the next five years.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
The Government Property Agency (GPA) does not have plans for the installation of solar panels and wind turbines on the DIT buildings for which GPA is responsible.
However, GPA is developing a ‘Government Office Net Zero Programme’ to support the following targets of HM Government:
To reduce the United Kingdom’s net emissions of greenhouse gases by 100% relative to 1990 levels by 2050, making our nation a ‘Net Zero’ emitter
To have at least a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across the public sector estate by 2032, against a 2017 baseline.
GPA has committed to the following objectives for the estate they manage:
Improve energy efficiency (reduce consumption/improve thermal efficiency)
Use green energy (decarbonise)
Generate and store green energy (locally)
Reduce embodied carbon (in construction)
To meet the third objective, GPA is currently assessing opportunities for the local generation and storage of green energy on a number of buildings within their estate, which may include solar panels and wind turbines.
GPA plans to request funding for the ‘Government Office Net Zero Programme’ as part of the 2020 Spending Review. The buildings that may be in scope, preferred technologies and precise funding are all subject to further development and approval.