Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, on what date representatives of UK Export Finance last met renewable energy developers in Argentina.
Answered by Graham Stuart
Over the past year, UK Export Finance (UKEF) has had frequent and ongoing engagement with multiple stakeholders on renewable energy in Argentina. Most recently, in September 2019, a UKEF official participated in a panel on renewable energy organised by the British Argentine Chamber of Commerce at the EIC Connect Energy event in Manchester.
UKEF officials last visited Argentina in February 2018 where they met representatives from the renewable energy sector.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what plans he has to issue guidance to businesses on the extent of the continuity of EU Free Trade Agreements with EFTA countries after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Conor Burns
The Government is committed to ensuring that businesses are prepared for the UK to leave the EU on 31 October. This includes accurate, up-to-date information on how the trading environment will change and guidance on actions they need to take.
Guidance for business on the trade continuity agreements signed with EFTA states is available on GOV.UK. This includes the text of the agreement, a summary document and a Parliamentary Reports, which explains any significant changes from existing terms.
Furthermore, No Deal export guides in a No Deal scenario are also available for Switzerland, Norway and Iceland:
A summary of the UK-Switzerland-Liechtenstein Trade Agreement can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/summary-of-the-uk-switzerland-liechtenstein-trade-agreement
This guidance is regularly reviewed to ensure that it is up-to-date and provides businesses with relevant advice.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what preparations his Department is making for the UK leaving the EU without an agreement; and how much funding has been allocated to those preparations.
Answered by George Hollingbery
Like all government departments, we have been preparing to minimise any disruption in the event of no deal for nearly three years. The Department for International Trade is putting in place a range of mitigations, which include signing trade continuity agreements with partner countries, developing a temporary tariff policy that will apply in the event of no deal and communicating relevant information to businesses.
The Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as £412m over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (Autumn Statement 2016); £286m of additional funding for 2017/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 2017/18); over £1.5 billion for 2018/19 (Supplementary Estimates 2018/19); and over £2 billion for 2019/20 (Main Estimates 2019/20).
This funding is to cover all exit scenarios and is in addition to departmental efforts to reprioritise from business as usual toward preparations for the UK’s departure from the EU. Work on no-deal exit preparations cannot be readily separated from other EU exit work, given the significant overlap in plans in many cases.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the recent Court of Appeal ruling on arms exports to Saudi Arabia and criterion 2c of the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria which states that licences should not be granted if there is a clear risk the equipment to be exported might be used in a serious violation of international humanitarian law, if he will suspend arms sales to (a) Bahrain and (b) the United Arab Emirates.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Government is carefully considering the implications of the Court of Appeal judgment of 20 June for decision making under Criterion 2c of the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export licensing Criteria. While we do we will not grant any new licences for exports to Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners (UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt) for possible use in the conflict in Yemen.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many and what proportion of officials in his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in the last 12 months; what proportion that leave was of total sick leave taken in his Department; and what the cost was to his Department of officials taking sick leave over that period.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The number of employees in the Department for International Trade from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 who were absent due to mental health reasons including stress was 39. This represented approximately 1% of employees. The proportion of sickness absence related to stress related reasons was 8.6% of the overall sickness absence for the department for the same time period.
Recorded sickness absence figures include employees working in the UK and overseas and for UK Export Finance. They do not include contractors, secondees from other organisations or military staff.
The estimated cost to the department from 1 April 2018 to 31 March 2019 for employees taking sickness absence due to mental health reasons, including stress is estimated at £116,920.
DIT continues to recognise and take seriously the wellbeing of its employees. DIT has in place policies and processes to identify, prevent and manage stress. The DIT policies introduced the provision of mental health first aiders who can provide a range of support to both employees and managers including access to our Employee Counselling Service.
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what recent estimate he has made of the cost to his Department of preparations for the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
Answered by George Hollingbery
The Department for International Trade (DIT) was created in July 2016 following the result of the EU referendum and was specifically established as part of the government’s EU exit strategy.
DIT integrates scenario planning for EU exit into its overall programmes of work. ‘No deal’ planning is not undertaken by a distinct team and it is therefore not possible to separately identify the spend associated with the UK leaving the EU without a deal.
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of additional funding to departments and the devolved administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This includes the £1.5 billion of additional funding HM Treasury announced in the Autumn Budget for 2018/19. A full breakdown of how this has been allocated to departments can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March 2018 (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/).
Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on compliance with WTO rules of the UK applying no controls on the Northern Ireland border in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.
Answered by George Hollingbery
We are confident the policy is in line with our WTO obligations, taking into account the unique set of social, political and economic circumstances of Northern Ireland. In developing our policy, alongside WTO rules, we have also had to take into consideration a broader set out of international obligations, including those under the Good Friday Agreement. Furthermore, as we have set out, these arrangements are strictly temporary.