Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate her Department has made of the trade generated by the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Sri Lanka since his appointment.
Answered by Greg Hands
It has not proved possible to respond to the Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what areas of the economy the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Sri Lanka has promoted during his tenure.
Answered by Greg Hands
It has not proved possible to respond to the Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she is taking steps to strengthen UK-Israel trade relations.
Answered by Greg Hands
It has not proved possible to respond to the Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many times the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Sri Lanka has visited Sri Lanka in the last 12 months.
Answered by Greg Hands
It has not proved possible to respond to the Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will take steps to cease the transfer of (a) weapons and (b) ammunition to countries that support Hamas (i) diplomatically and (ii) financially.
Answered by Alan Mak
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, on what dates the Trade Envoy for Bangladesh visited that country in each of the last three years.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy visited Bangladesh on the following dates in the last three years: 2021 - no visit undertaken; 2022 – 27 March-1 April; 2023 – 8-9 January and 20-23 March.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much her Department spent on equality, diversity and inclusion (a) events and (b) training in the last 12 months.
Answered by Greg Hands
(a) DBT has spent £684.40 excluding VAT on equality, diversity and inclusion events in the last 12 months.
(b) DBT has spent a total of £960 excluding VAT on equality, diversity and inclusion training in the last 12 months.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what targets her Department has set to help achieve the Government's commitments on net zero.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Government set out how we would meet our commitments in the Net Zero Strategy in 2021 which included a detailed breakdown of actions required across all sectors in the economy. This was updated in 2023 through the publication of 'Powering Up Britain'.
The UK has halved its emissions, ahead of every other major economy, and we have grown our economy by over 70% since 1990. The UK over-achieved against the first and second carbon budgets, and the latest projections show that we are on track to meet the third.
We have one of the most ambitious decarbonisation targets in the world, and we have set more stretching targets for 2030 than most countries. We plan to cut emissions by 68% by 2030, which is more than the EU, Japan or the United States.
The Department for Business and Trade’s activities contribute to these objectives by facilitating private investment into priority green sectors, supporting scale up of green businesses and building resilient supply chains for the net zero transition.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department is taking steps to ensure compliance with the working time directive for apprentices.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Apprentices have the same employment rights as other employees, including those under the Working Time Regulations.
The enforcement of sanctions under the Working Time Regulations is dependent upon the breach. Breaches of limits on maximum weekly working time, night work and patterns of work which generate health and safety risks are enforced by the Health and Safety Executive, other sector-specific state enforcement bodies, and local authorities for certain types of premises.
Workers may bring a complaint to an Employment Tribunal if they feel they have not been permitted to exercise their right to daily or weekly rest.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she plans to appeal the decision of Mr Justice Linden on 13 July 2023 relating to the use of agency workers to fill in for striking workers.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
We have carefully considered the judgment and decided not to appeal, given that it was solely restricted to the issue of whether sufficient consultation took place before this change was made.