Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what support her Department is providing to businesses in Essex to increase the export of goods and services.
Answered by Greg Hands
Businesses in Essex and across the UK can access the Department for Business and Trade’s wealth of export support through great.gov.uk. This includes our self-serve digital offer, the Export Support Service, which includes our network of International Trade Advisers, International Markets in overseas regions and the Export Academy.
In addition, British businesses can benefit from access to, and support from, DBT Export Champions, 9 of which are Essex based, like Wilkin & Sons.
UK Export Finance also has a network of export finance managers based all around the country, including one covering Essex, Norfolk, and Suffolk.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what weighting the Post Office Horizon compensation scheme gives to individual sub-postmaster’s (a) mental health, (b) physical health and (c) family circumstances when calculating compensation offers.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
Across the compensation schemes, cases are assessed individually on their facts in accordance with established legal principles. On the Horizon Shortfall Scheme (HSS) and GLO scheme, postmasters can claim for any losses they have experienced as a result of Horizon shortfalls. Similarly, postmasters with overturned convictions can claim for any loss they have suffered as a result of their conviction. These losses can include the impact on their mental or physical health.
Where family members have also been affected, the joint losses are also recoverable under the various Horizon-related compensation schemes.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of Royal Mail's compliance with the universal service obligation in each postal code area in Witham constituency in each week of (a) 2023 and (b) 2024; on how many occasions each post code area in (i) Essex and (ii) Witham constituency did not receive (A) letters and (B) parcels in accordance with the universal service obligation since 1 January 2023; and what steps she is taking to ensure that Royal Mail complies with the universal service obligation in (1) Essex and (2) Witham constituency.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
As the independent regulator for the postal sector, it is for Ofcom to monitor Royal Mail’s delivery of the universal service obligation and decide how to respond should Royal Mail fail to meet its obligations.
Ofcom fined the business £5.6m for failing to meet its service delivery targets in 2022-23 and is closely monitoring Royal Mail’s performance to ensure service issues are addressed as a priority.
I met Mr Seidenberg, the CEO of Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services, to directly raise concerns about performance and will continue to do so if service levels do not improve.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will publish (a) reports and (b) briefings provided to (i) Ministers and (ii) officials in her Department and its predecessor Departments by the (A) former UK Shareholder Executive and (B) UK Government Investments on the Horizon IT system.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Minister without Portfolio
The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry is looking into the nature of information provided to Ministers and officials on the Horizon system. It would be wrong for the Government to prejudice its work. Government continues to cooperate fully with the Inquiry.