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 steps his Department is taking to ensure that food standards are maintained in future trade deals after the UK leaves the EU.
Answered by Greg Hands
The UK has very high standards of food safety and environmental protection, and maintaining public confidence in the food we eat is vitally important. I am clear that we will maintain our high standards on food safety and environmental protection as part of any future trade deals.
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 advice is available from his Department for SMEs that (a) export to the EU and (b) are planning to export to the EU to enable them to prepare for the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department for International Trade supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its regional network of International Trade Advisers, sector teams, overseas network, international events programme, and online services. The great.gov.uk website offers digital tools to help businesses export and has had over 3 million visitors. Ministers from across Government have carried out extensive engagement on EU Exit with businesses and industry bodies from all sectors of the economy and all regions of the UK.
UK Export Finance (UKEF) has dedicated Export Finance Managers across the UK to help SMEs identify their export finance requirements and find solutions. In 2016-17, 79% of UK companies supported by UKEF were SMEs. In October 2017 UKEF partnered with high street banks to offer SMEs, including businesses that supply exporters, access to government-backed trade finance directly from their banks.
The Government is developing a new Export Strategy which will be published in the coming months, and has engaged with numerous companies, organisations such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Chamber of Commerce, and other Government departments, including BEIS, to consider how best to support all businesses, including SMEs, to export or import as appropriate.
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 advice is available from his Department for SMEs that (a) import from the EU and (b) are planning to import from the EU to enable them to prepare for the UK leaving the EU.
Answered by Graham Stuart
The Department for International Trade supports small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its regional network of International Trade Advisers, sector teams, overseas network, international events programme, and online services. The great.gov.uk website offers digital tools to help businesses export and has had over 3 million visitors. Ministers from across Government have carried out extensive engagement on EU Exit with businesses and industry bodies from all sectors of the economy and all regions of the UK.
UK Export Finance (UKEF) has dedicated Export Finance Managers across the UK to help SMEs identify their export finance requirements and find solutions. In 2016-17, 79% of UK companies supported by UKEF were SMEs. In October 2017 UKEF partnered with high street banks to offer SMEs, including businesses that supply exporters, access to government-backed trade finance directly from their banks.
The Government is developing a new Export Strategy which will be published in the coming months, and has engaged with numerous companies, organisations such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Chamber of Commerce, and other Government departments, including BEIS, to consider how best to support all businesses, including SMEs, to export or import as appropriate.
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 (a) staff and (b) consultants in his Department are paid more than the Prime Minister pro-rata.
Answered by Greg Hands
Information on high earning staff in the Civil Service is in the public domain, accessible via the transparency data reports on gov.uk. The most recent version is the senior officials 'high earners' salaries as at 30 September 2017. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/693864/_150k_2017_Master_for_publication_March_18_update.csv/preview
The Department does not hold information on the pay received by individual consultants from their employing company.
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 Written Statement of 13 March 2018, Spring Statement, HCWS 540, if he will publish a list of where the £74 million in EU exit funding for his Department will be allocated.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department for International Trade has been allocated £74m, for essential EU exit preparations in 2018-19.
This will be spent on work to support the UK’s future trade policy, which will allow us to maximise our trade opportunities globally.
This includes setting up a new trade remedies authority (subject to Parliament approving the Trade Bill) and providing trade policy function for future negotiations.
As with all Reserve funding, finalised allocations will be confirmed at Supplementary Estimates 2018-19 in early 2019.
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 the cost was to his Department as a result of officials taking sick leave in the last year.
Answered by Greg Hands
The total cost of sickness pay to domestic staff within the Department for International Trade (DIT), from 1 January 2017 – 31 December 2017 is as follows:
DIT domestic payroll: £241,333 |
UKEF payroll: £97,829 |
Total: £339,162 |
DIT and UKEF have reported data separately as two payroll providers are used.
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 estimate he has made of the (a) amount of time and (b) resources that his Department allocated to the production of impact assessments on the UK leaving the EU; and on what date work on those impact assessments started.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department for International Trade (DIT) has not produced, or is preparing, any Impact Assessments on the UK leaving the EU. Analysis on the UK’s exit from the EU falls under the remit of the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU), which is leading the Government’s ongoing programme of analytical work.
DIT has produced Impact Assessments to accompany the Trade Bill, as is typical prior to introducing specific legislation to Parliament.