Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many calls were received by the Export Support Services Contact Centre (a) inside and (b) outside its core operating hours in each month between April 2022 and September 2022; and how many and what proportion of these calls were answered within 30 seconds.

Between 1 April 2022 and 20 September, the Export Support Services (ESS) Helpline received 2,731 calls within core operating hours (827 April, 501 May, 459 June, 392 July, 336 August, 216 September). The service received 89 calls outside core operating hours (21 April, 19 May, 23 June, 9 July,11 August, 6 September). 98% of calls received during core operating hours were answered within 30 seconds.