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 potential merits of improving the transparency of the reasons given for rejecting applications for duty suspension on products where there is no domestic production in the 2021 duty suspension window; and if she will make a statement.

Following the outcome of the 2021 application window, the Government contacted all applicants whose suspension applications had been rejected, providing reasons. This included applications on products where there is no domestic production.

The Government is always open to discussing rejected applications with applicants via tariffsuspensions@trade.gov.uk. All criteria and considerations relevant to the assessment of duty suspensions applications continue to be available on https://www.gov.uk/guidance/duty-suspensions-and-tariff-quotas.

Ahead of the 2023 application window, the Government is reviewing where improvements can be made, including in its communications.