Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the review into attracting foreign direct investment will consider the potential merits of attracting investment into domestic recycling infrastructure.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
Lord Harrington’s review into attracting foreign direct investment is primarily, though not exclusively, focused on the Chancellor’s five key growth sectors. One of the key growth sectors is Green Industries, and the review will consider actions to improve investment across Green Industries, including recycling infrastructure.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department plans to take to encourage investment in (a) new green technology and (b) chemical recycling.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government works with public finance institutions such as UK Infrastructure Bank, British Business Bank, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), Export Credit Agency and UK Export Finance, to support investment in green technologies.
Chemical recycling covers a range of emerging technologies that could potentially offer a complementary recycling route for plastics where mechanical recycling is impractical or uneconomic. The Government has funded innovative demonstrator projects, including on chemical recycling, through UKRI’s Smart Sustainable Plastic Packaging programme. In April of this year HM Treasury announced plans to consult on whether and how chemically recycled content could be accounted for in the Plastics Packaging Tax using a mass balance chain of custody model.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress her Department has made on the introduction of a Home Shipbuilding Credit Guarantee Scheme.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
Building on constructive industry engagement, the Department for Business and Trade is working at pace to launch a Shipbuilding Credit Guarantee Scheme in due course.
I invite interested stakeholders, including those from the finance community as well as vessel builders and operators, to make contact with the National Shipbuilding Office and with my Department as we make preparations for the launch.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism within the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on the UK’s climate ambitions, including the aim of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Government is clear that where we negotiate investment protection and ISDS provisions, we will maintain our right to regulate in the public interest, including in areas such as the environment.
CPTPP protects the rights of members to regulate for their own levels of environmental protection to achieve their ambitious net zero goals and contains commitments to protect the environment.
To meet our ambitions on climate change and the environment, the Government is committed to protecting its right to regulate in the public interest. Our independent investment policy will continue to protect this right.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether exemptions from the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism were sought by Government during accession negotiations to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) with all member states.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership’s (CPTPP’s) investment chapter includes investor protections that are backed by a modern and transparent investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. These commitments guarantee the treatment investors will receive when accessing and operating in CPTPP markets and provides an independent form of legal redress should investors not receive such treatment.
The UK already has investment agreements containing ISDS provisions with seven of the eleven CPTPP countries: Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Having ISDS provisions in a treaty is not new for the UK with the majority of CPTPP countries.
In light of the investment relationship the UK has with Australia and New Zealand, we have agreed to disapply the ISDS provisions in CPTPP between our countries.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of a reduction in the Post Office's Universal Service Obligation to five days on letters sent by hospitals and courts.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government has no current plans to change the statutory minimum requirements of the universal postal service, set out in the Postal Services Act 2011, which requires Royal Mail to deliver letters to every UK address, six days a week at standard price.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of a reduction in the Universal Service Obligation to five days on UK advertising mail and print magazine advertising.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Government has no current plans to change the statutory minimum requirements of the universal postal service, set out in the Postal Services Act 2011, which requires Royal Mail to deliver letters to every UK address, six days a week at standard price.