Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Free Trade Agreement with the Maldives will include specific provisions that prioritise the trade of tuna caught by low-impact methods over industrially-caught tuna.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
I refer the Noble Lord to the answers I gave on 27 November 2025 to questions UIN HL12107, UIN HL12108 and UIN HL12109.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what safeguards for the marine environment they plan to include in the Free Trade Agreement with the Maldives.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
I refer the Noble Lord to the answers I gave on 27 November 2025 to questions UIN HL12107, UIN HL12108 and UIN HL12109.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current status of the proposed Free Trade Agreement with the Maldives.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
I refer the Noble Lord to the answers I gave on 27 November 2025 to questions UIN HL12107, UIN HL12108 and UIN HL12109.
Asked by: Lord Callanan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the Exchange of notes constituting an agreement between the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the United States of America concerning the availability for defence purposes of the British Indian Ocean Territory, London, 30 December 1966 on the legal status of the Chagos Archipelago, including the term that “The Territory shall remain under United Kingdom sovereignty”.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Agreement between the UK and Mauritius secures the important UK-US military base on Diego Garcia. The Agreement was tested at the highest levels of the United States' security establishment, across multiple agencies, and it has been backed by our key allies and international partners, including the US and all our Five Eyes partners. Talks are ongoing to update the UK-US Exchange of Letters on the operation of the Diego Garcia Base. There are no agreements with the Maldives that would impact the operation of the base.
Asked by: Lord Callanan (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether there are any extant agreements, notes or exchanges of letters with the government of the Maldives that impact the governance of the British Indian Ocean Territory or the treaty with Mauritius.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Agreement between the UK and Mauritius secures the important UK-US military base on Diego Garcia. The Agreement was tested at the highest levels of the United States' security establishment, across multiple agencies, and it has been backed by our key allies and international partners, including the US and all our Five Eyes partners. Talks are ongoing to update the UK-US Exchange of Letters on the operation of the Diego Garcia Base. There are no agreements with the Maldives that would impact the operation of the base.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the current status of the proposed free trade agreement with the Maldives.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
The previous Government, of which the noble lord was a member, launched a public consultation into a potential UK/Maldives FTA in 2023. The Department for Business and Trade has subsequently evaluated its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) programme and decided not to progress a UK-Maldives FTA at this time. It would be inappropriate to speculate on what might or might not be included in an FTA which we are not pursuing.
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of foreign investment in the UK comes from countries situated in (1) the European Union, (2) the Commonwealth and (3) the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership area.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
Darren Tierney | Permanent Secretary
The Lord Risby
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
25 November 2025
Dear Lord Risby,
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question to asking what proportion of foreign investment in the UK comes from countries situated in (1) the European Union, (2) the Commonwealth and (3) the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership area (HL12070).
Our statistics for inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) positions measure the investment held by UK-resident companies that have foreign immediate parent companies. These are essentially the stock of investment held at a point in time. Table 3.1 of our annual Foreign direct investment involving UK companies (directional): inward statistics shows that the stock of inward direct investment from the European Union was £758,137 million at the end of 2023[1]. This was equivalent to 34.8% of the UK total inward FDI position.
We do not publish a total value for inward FDI with the Commonwealth. However, we have published FDI statistics for all countries. Table 1 below includes the FDI inward FDI position values and percentage of the UK total FDI position accounted for by each Commonwealth country in 2023.
We also do not routinely publish a total value for inward FDI with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) countries. However, we have published FDI statistics for all countries. Table 2 below includes the FDI inward position values and percentage of the UK total accounted for by each member of the CPTPP in 2023.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
Table 1: Inward foreign direct investment positions with Commonwealth countries at the end of 2023, £ million and as a percentage of the UK total inward FDI position[2],[3],[4],[5],[6]
Economy | Value (£ million) | Percentage of UK total |
Antigua and Barbuda | 2 | 0.0 |
Australia | 20,781 | 1.0 |
The Bahamas | c | z |
Bangladesh | 1,060 | 0.0 |
Barbados | 19,190 | 0.9 |
Belize | 44 | 0.0 |
Botswana | 16 | 0.0 |
Brunei Darussalam | 6 | 0.0 |
Cameroon | 3 | 0.0 |
Canada | 29,513 | 1.4 |
Cyprus | 6,065 | 0.3 |
Dominica | 6 | 0.0 |
Eswatini | low | 0.0 |
Fiji | 8 | 0.0 |
Gabon | 1 | 0.0 |
The Gambia | 4 | 0.0 |
Ghana | 674 | 0.0 |
Grenada | low | 0.0 |
Guyana | 1 | 0.0 |
India | 12,419 | 0.6 |
Jamaica | 37 | 0.0 |
Kenya | 24 | 0.0 |
Kiribati | low | 0.0 |
Lesotho | low | 0.0 |
Malawi | 4 | 0.0 |
Malaysia | 1,679 | 0.1 |
Maldives | low | 0.0 |
Malta | 6,554 | 0.3 |
Mauritius | 689 | 0.0 |
Mozambique | low | 0.0 |
Namibia | 3 | 0.0 |
Nauru | low | 0.0 |
New Zealand | 908 | 0.0 |
Nigeria | 489 | 0.0 |
Pakistan | 90 | 0.0 |
Papua New Guinea | 2 | 0.0 |
Rwanda | 671 | 0.0 |
St Kitts and Nevis | 31 | 0.0 |
Saint Lucia | 7 | 0.0 |
St Vincent and the Grenadines | 19 | 0.0 |
Samoa | 219 | 0.0 |
Seychelles | 152 | 0.0 |
Sierra Leone | 2 | 0.0 |
Singapore | 19,107 | 0.9 |
Solomon Islands | low | 0.0 |
South Africa | 3,641 | 0.2 |
Sri Lanka | 13,124 | 0.6 |
Tanzania | 2 | 0.0 |
Togo | low | 0.0 |
Tonga | low | 0.0 |
Trinidad and Tobago | 1 | 0.0 |
Tuvalu | low | 0.0 |
Uganda | 5 | 0.0 |
Vanuatu | 8 | 0.0 |
Zambia | 3 | 0.0 |
Table 2: Inward foreign direct investment positions with Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership countries at the end of 2023,
£ million and as a percentage of the UK total 3,5,6,[7]
Economy | Value (£ million) | Percentage of UK total |
Australia | 20,781 | 1.0 |
Brunei Darussalam | 6 | 0.0 |
Canada | 29,513 | 1.4 |
Chile | c | z |
Japan | 78,424 | 3.6 |
Malaysia | 1,679 | 0.1 |
Mexico | c | z |
New Zealand | 908 | 0.0 |
Peru | 7 | 0.0 |
Singapore | 19,107 | 0.9 |
Vietnam | 9 | 0.0 |
[2] There were 55 other members of the Commonwealth plus the UK as of 21 November 2025 according to the Commonwealth Secretariat: https://thecommonwealth.org/our-member-countries
[3] “c” denotes value suppressed to protect confidentiality so that individual companies cannot be identified.
[4] “low” denotes a value below £0.5 million.
[5] “z” is used where the country value is suppressed, and the percentage of the UK total will not be available.
[7] CPTPP membership was taken from gov.uk, and includes the members that had ratified the UK’s accession and those that had yet to ratify as of 21 November 2025
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the free trade agreement with the Maldives will include specific provisions that prioritise tuna caught by low impact methods over industrially caught tuna.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
The previous Government, of which the noble lord was a member, launched a public consultation into a potential UK/Maldives FTA in 2023. The Department for Business and Trade has subsequently evaluated its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) programme and decided not to progress a UK-Maldives FTA at this time. It would be inappropriate to speculate on what might or might not be included in an FTA which we are not pursuing.
Asked by: Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what safeguards for the marine environment they plan to include in any free trade agreement with the Maldives.
Answered by Lord Stockwood - Minister of State (HM Treasury)
The previous Government, of which the noble lord was a member, launched a public consultation into a potential UK/Maldives FTA in 2023. The Department for Business and Trade has subsequently evaluated its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) programme and decided not to progress a UK-Maldives FTA at this time. It would be inappropriate to speculate on what might or might not be included in an FTA which we are not pursuing.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what (a) discussions and (b) correspondence he has had with his counterpart in the Maldives on the future sovereignty of the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The issue of British Indian Ocean Territory sovereignty featured in the Foreign Secretary's meeting with the Maldives Foreign Minister at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting on 25 October 2024 and in the Minister for the Indo-Pacific meeting with the Maldives Foreign Minister on 14 October 2024. Our High Commissioner in Male also briefed the Maldivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Treaty when it was signed on 22 May 2025.