Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff in his Department have been allocated to deal with issues related to international trade in (a) each of the past five years and (b) the next two years; and if he will make a statement.

HM Treasury is the government’s economic and finance ministry, maintaining control over public spending, setting the direction of the UK’s economic policy, and working to achieve strong and sustainable economic growth.

Free and fair trade is fundamental to the prosperity of the United Kingdom and the world economy, and HMT takes a flexible and dynamic approach to resourcing in order to meet this objective. As a result, there are a number of HMT officials, across groups, working on issues related to international trade matters, and total numbers of staff fluctuate within and across years.

The number of paid full time equivalent staff in the Treasury was as follows over the past 5 years.