Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will publish the list of ministerial responsibilities for her Department.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Ministerial responsibilities can be found on GOV.UK here (under ‘Our Ministers’): https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-business-and-trade.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's data entitled DIT's ePCS spending over £500 for December 2022, for what purpose her Department spent £1,357.78 for hotels on 14 December 2022.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The hotel expenditure relates to 3 nights (12-14 Dec 22) accommodation for two UK Defence and Security Export (UKDSE) members of staff who supported Director UKDSE during his engagements at the International Chamber of Commerce in Saudi Arabia.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has had recent discussions with (a) Ministers and (b) officials at the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero on the Energy Charter Treaty.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Ministers and officials from the Department for Business and Trade have been engaging with ministers and officials from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero on the Energy Charter Treaty and will continue to do so, as appropriate.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's data entitled DIT's ePCS spending over £500 for November 2022, for what purpose her Department spent £3,265.60 for a hotel on 3 November 2022.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The hotel expenditure relates to 10 nights (29 October – 07 November 2022) accommodation for Director UK Defence and Security Exports (UKDSE), and four UKDSE members of staff who supported Director UKDSE during his engagements at Indo Defence 2022 in Indonesia.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent estimate she has made of the proportion of goods manufactured in the UK that meet the rules of origin requirements of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The opportunity to use the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will depend on individual firms’ supply chains and investment decisions, but will be additional to opportunities under a number of existing bilateral agreements with individual CPTPP member states.
Using CPTPP rules of origin, British businesses could take advantage of new export opportunities and trade more freely across the bloc. They could also help support UK efforts to diversify critical supply chains by deepening our trading links across the Asia-Pacific region.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the EU Retained Law Bill on the Government's policies on the (a) import and (b) export of (i) cat and (ii) dog fur.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by my Rt. Hon Friend, the Minister for Food, Farming and Fisheries to the Hon. Member for Ealing Central and Acton on 29th March 2023, UIN 171496.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had discussions with the Secretary of State for the Home Department on the vacancy for the Independent Anti-Slavery Commissioner post.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Since the recent machinery of Government change in February 2023, there have been no such discussions.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department have taken to help (a) monitor and (b) reduce the use of forced labour in global supply chains.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
Our Free Trade Agreements reaffirm our commitment to the International Labour Organization fundamental principle to eliminate forced or compulsory labour.
The Developing Countries Trading Scheme will enable the UK to suspend preferential trading arrangements on the grounds of serious and systematic violations of labour rights.
UK Export Finance conduct human rights due diligence and monitoring, including considering forced labour risk factors for transactions that fall within the scope of their Environmental Social and Human Rights policy.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
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 effectiveness of free trade agreements in improving gender equality in global supply chains.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to advancing women’s economic empowerment in the UK and around the world. We are using our free trade agreements to break down barriers and create new opportunities for women as business owners, entrepreneurs, and workers. We have already secured dedicated Chapters to this effect with Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Through our market access work, the Department for Business and Trade is supporting British businesses to build more diverse and resilient supply chains which will be crucial in tackling challenges both today and in the future.
Asked by: Ruth Cadbury (Labour - Brentford and Isleworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to monitor compliance with modern slavery provisions within free trade agreements.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) both include modern slavery provisions. These encourage good business practice and advance our mutual ambition to tackle modern slavery. All the UK’s FTAs include institutional mechanisms for monitoring compliance with all labour provisions in the agreements.