Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate the Department has made of the financial value to businesses in the Tees Valley of trade agreements since July 2024; how many businesses in the Tees Valley are expected to benefit and how much by; and whether the Department has made any assessment of sectors or businesses in the region that may be negatively affected, and how much by.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
The Department does not produce such specific estimates. For new free trade agreements (FTAs), the Government publishes impact assessments to support the parliamentary scrutiny process of FTAs, which include an assessment of the UK’s regions and nations. We expect all English regions and UK nations to benefit from from the new FTAs we have already signed. The Department’s latest impact assessment for the UK-India FTA (published July 2025) estimated that the gross-value added (GVA) in the North East of England could grow by £70 million (0.12%) in the long run due to the FTA.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many people receive the Minimum Wage or the National Living Wage in the Tees Valley region; what estimate the Department has made of the additional wage income received by workers in the Tees Valley as a result of increases to those rates in 2025/26; and what estimate it has made for 2026/27.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
Estimates by local authority and parliamentary constituency are not always available due to data reliability constraints.
Around 140,000 workers in the North East were expected to benefit from a direct pay rise following National Minimum Wage (NMW) and National Living Wage (NLW) increases in April 2025; and around 130,000 workers following the increases in April 2026. The 2026 NLW uplift is worth around £900 annually for a full-time worker, and over £1,500 for 18–20-year-olds on the NMW.
Further details can be found in the The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2026.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his policies of the trade deficit.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
In the 12 months to February 2026, the UK trade deficit (excluding precious metals) was £14.8bn, comprising a £210.1bn trade in services surplus, and a £225.0bn trade in goods deficit. The UK trade deficit (excluding precious metals) has remained broadly similar year-on-year, and stood at £14.9bn in the 12 months to February 2025 (ONS, 2026).
The Department for Business and Trade’s primary objective is to promote economic growth. As set out in Industrial and Trade Strategies published in 2025, we seek to improve UK productivity and competitiveness, strengthen our export capability, attract inward investment, and support resilient supply chains.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to ensure that his Department's trade policies promote resilience in (a) steel, (b) energy, (c) advanced manufacturing and (c) other strategically important domestic supply chains.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
This government recognises the importance of secure and resilient supply chains to the UK’s growth and economic security. DBT is strengthening the UK’s resilience both through sector programmes and the upcoming Trade and Industrial Strategies. These Strategies, which are unreservedly pro-business, will outline more on our plans for resilience-building, including in the growth and foundational sectors targeted by the Industrial Strategy.
In collaboration with business, we are already acting to bolster the resilience of key UK industries, for example reviewing all options to ensure a secure future for our domestic steel industry and building a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain through the Automotive Transformation Fund.
Asked by: Luke Myer (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support the growth of the (a) electric vehicle and (b) lithium salts supply chains.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Home Office)
We support the Automotive sector via the Automotive Transformation Fund to build a globally competitive electric vehicle supply chain, including gigafactories and their supply chains. The Budget committed over £2 billion of capital and R&D funding to 2030 for zero emission vehicle manufacturing and supply chains. We will set out more information on this in due course as part of the Industrial Strategy.