Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many requests for consular support were made to each British Embassy or Consulate in 2023; and how many of those were responded to by officials within a period of 24 hours.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our consular staff endeavour to give appropriate and tailored assistance 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year, to British nationals overseas and their families in the UK who need support. In 2023, in addition to long running cases, we provided support to around 22,000 British nationals, see breakdown by Post in the table below. The FCDO reports publicly on consular delivery through the FCDO Outcome Delivery Plan [https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/foreign-commonwealth-development-office-outcome-delivery-plan]. Publishing our transparency data is currently on hold while we embed a new Case Management system.
COUNTRY | 2023 |
Afghanistan | 22 |
Albania | 63 |
Algeria | 23 |
Angola | |
Argentina | 34 |
Armenia | 8 |
Australia | 414 |
Austria | 92 |
Azerbaijan | 12 |
Bahrain | 48 |
Barbados | 113 |
Belarus | 6 |
Belgium | 152 |
Bolivia | 12 |
Bosnia and Herzegovina | 12 |
Botswana | 15 |
Brazil | 88 |
Bulgaria | 166 |
Cambodia | 112 |
Cameroon | 30 |
Canada | 181 |
Chile | 21 |
China | 143 |
Colombia | 73 |
Congo (Democratic Republic) | 22 |
Costa Rica | 39 |
Croatia | 114 |
Cuba | 29 |
Cyprus | 441 |
Czechia | 141 |
Denmark | 88 |
Dominican Republic | 67 |
Ecuador | 13 |
Egypt | 383 |
Estonia | 19 |
Ethiopia | 104 |
Fiji | 21 |
Finland | 49 |
France | 1027 |
Georgia | 27 |
Germany | 662 |
Ghana | 85 |
Greece | 936 |
Guatemala | 43 |
Guinea | |
Guyana | 17 |
Hong Kong SAR | 110 |
Hungary | 131 |
Iceland | 17 |
India | 360 |
Indonesia | 196 |
Iraq | 46 |
Ireland | 104 |
Israel | 39 |
Italy | 411 |
Ivory Coast | |
Jamaica | 179 |
Japan | 167 |
Jerusalem | 61 |
Jordan | 71 |
Kazakhstan | 14 |
Kenya | 146 |
Kuwait | 30 |
Kyrgyzstan | |
Laos | 29 |
Latvia | 20 |
Lebanon | 34 |
Liberia | |
Lithuania | 23 |
Luxembourg | 10 |
Madagascar | |
Malawi | |
Malaysia | 138 |
Malta | 106 |
Mauritius | 14 |
Mexico | 207 |
Moldova | 13 |
Mongolia | 6 |
Montenegro | 33 |
Morocco | 222 |
Myanmar (Burma) | 8 |
Namibia | 9 |
Nepal | 21 |
Netherlands | 287 |
New Zealand | 127 |
Nigeria | 74 |
Norway | 149 |
Oman | 50 |
Pakistan | 376 |
Panama | 17 |
Paraguay | |
Peru | 58 |
Philippines | 283 |
Poland | 242 |
Portugal | 524 |
Qatar | 96 |
Romania | 89 |
Russia | 28 |
Rwanda | 7 |
Saudi Arabia | 166 |
Senegal | 21 |
Serbia | 29 |
Seychelles | 11 |
Sierra Leone | 15 |
Singapore | 105 |
Slovakia | 38 |
Slovenia | 17 |
South Africa | 195 |
South Korea | 40 |
Spain | 4143 |
Sri Lanka | 86 |
St Lucia | 21 |
Sudan | 34 |
Sweden | 110 |
Switzerland | 157 |
Taiwan | 22 |
Tajikistan | 6 |
Tanzania | 36 |
Thailand | 1383 |
The Gambia | 48 |
Trinidad and Tobago | 40 |
Tunisia | 75 |
Turkey | 947 |
Uganda | 52 |
Ukraine | 56 |
United Arab Emirates | 658 |
United States | 1649 |
Uruguay | 10 |
Uzbekistan | 8 |
Venezuela | |
Vietnam | 188 |
Zambia | 22 |
Zimbabwe | 26 |
NB We do not publish data where figures are 5 or below to comply with GDPR
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the Goldman Sachs report entitled the Structural and Cyclical Costs of Brexit, published on 9 February 2024.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government keeps track of external analysis from third parties often based on a range of assumptions and hypothetical views. Since leaving the EU, the Department for Business and Trade has secured free trade deals with 73 countries in addition to the EU, partners which accounted for £1.1 trillion UK trade in 2022, and simplified import tariffs to lower costs for businesses and households.
The UK’s total trade with the world (including goods and services) increased by £43bn (inflation adjusted) in 2023 compared to 2018. Since the referendum, the UK has grown faster than Germany, Italy, and Japan and the IMF forecasted that the UK will see the 3rd fastest cumulative growth in the G7 over 2024-2029, ahead of Germany, Italy, France, and Japan.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to his speech to the Conservative Party conference on 2 October 2023, on what evidential basis he said that the UK was one of the fastest growing European G7 countries since the date of the EU referendum.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The calculations underlying this statistic were based on public information available on the 29 September 2023, including quarterly GDP data published by the Office for National Statistics for the UK and OECD data for the remaining G7 European economies.
The data showed that cumulative GDP growth in the UK since the referendum (change on 2016 Q2) through to 2023 Q2 of 8.2% was greater than that of Germany (5.7%) and Italy (4.7%) and slightly lower than France (8.6%).
Asked by: Lord Birt (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they have any plans to commission a review into the (1) economic, and (2) other, (a) benefits, and (b) disbenefits, of Brexit.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade has no plans to commission a review into the economic, and other benefits or disbenefits of Brexit. However, to mark the fourth anniversary of Brexit, on 31st January this year, the Department for Business and Trade published an overview of Brexit successes: Brexit 4th Anniversary
Since the referendum the UK has grown faster than Germany, Italy, and Japan. Latest figures show that UK exports are £862bn in current prices and 2% above pre-COVID (2018) levels when adjusting for inflation. The lnternational Monetary Fund (lMF) predicts that between 2024-2029 the UK will see the third fastest growth in the G7.
The Department has secured free trade deals with 73 countries plus the EU, partners that accounted for £1.1 trillion UK trade in 2022 and simplified import tariffs to lower costs for businesses and households.
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the evidential basis is for his Department's tweet of 29 September 2023 that the UK was the fastest growing European G7 country since 2010.
Answered by Bim Afolami - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
The calculations underlying this statistic were based on public information available on the 29 September 2023, including quarterly GDP data published by the Office for National Statistics for the UK and OECD data for the remaining G7 European economies.
The data showed that cumulative GDP growth in the UK from the beginning of 2010 (change on 2009 Q4) through to 2023 Q2 of 24.2% was greater than that of France (16.4%), Italy (3.5%) and Germany (21.2%).
Asked by: Simon Jupp (Conservative - East Devon)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the evidential basis is for his Department's tweet of 6 January 2024 that the UK had the lowest effective average personal tax rate in the G7; and what the effective average personal tax rate is in each G7 country.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government is committed to rewarding hard work through a fair and simple tax system that is also competitive internationally. The Government is taking a responsible approach by delivering tax cuts within the fiscal rules.
The tweet of 6 January 2024 was based on the most recently published data from the OECD’s Taxing Wages 2023 publication. This shows the total personal tax liability divided by salary for a single employed individual with no children on average earnings for Germany (37.4%), Italy (28.8%), France (27.7%), Canada (25.6%), the US (24.8%) and Japan (22.3%). Following the 2p NICs cut made at Autumn Statement, the effective personal tax rate for an employee on £44,300 (the OECD’s figure for UK average earnings) reduced from 23.6% to 21.5%, which would be the lowest rate in the G7, according to the latest available OECD data. This has fallen to 20.1% following the further 2p NICs cut made at Spring Budget.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the (a) location is of and (b) deployment levels are at each NATO (i) owned and (ii) operated sites.
Answered by James Heappey
The UK is one of the largest contributors of personnel to NATO, underlining our commitment to deterrence and defence of the Euro-Atlantic Area.
The table below shows the number of UK personnel posted to NATO Peacetime Establishment locations, with personnel in 39 NATO locations in 19 countries all over Europe and the Continental US, and the UK has proportional workforce equity at all locations.
Country | Location | UK Fill |
| Country | Location | UK Fill |
Belgium | Brussels | 50 |
| Netherlands | Brunssum | 110 |
Mons | 170 |
| Norway | Stavanger | 30 | |
Bulgaria | Sofia | ~ |
| Poland | Bydgoszcz | ~ |
Estonia | Tallin | ~ |
| Elblag | ~ | |
France | Lille | 10 |
| Szczecin | ~ | |
Germany | Geilenkirchen | 10 |
| Portugal | Lisbon | 10 |
Munster | 10 |
| Oeiras | ~ | ||
Oberammergau | ~ |
| Romania | Bucharest | ~ | |
Ramstein | 70 |
| Slovakia | Bratislava | ~ | |
Uedem | 20 |
| Spain | Torrejon | 20 | |
Ulm | 20 |
| Valencia | ~ | ||
Wesel | 30 |
| Türkiye | Istanbul | 10 | |
Greece | Thessaloniki | ~ |
| Izmir | 30 | |
Italy | Milan | 20 |
| UK | Blandford | 50 |
Naples | 120 |
| Molesworth | 10 | ||
Poggio | 20 |
| Northwood | 60 | ||
Sigonella | ~ |
| Yeovilton | ~ | ||
Latvia | Adazi | ~ |
| USA | Norfolk | 50 |
| Riga | ~ |
| Tampa | ~ |
"~" denotes a number less than or equal to 5.
Data have been rounded to 10 and therefore totals may not always equal the sum of the parts.
Asked by: Lord Boateng (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask His Majesty's Government what communication they have had with the governments of (1) Italy, and (2) Spain, about the regulation of building materials used in the construction of high-rise dwellings.
Answered by Baroness Scott of Bybrook - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
Government regularly looks at construction practices in other jurisdictions, seeks to learn from any significant incidents and, where appropriate, are always willing to share our experiences with other countries and collaborate further. We should be mindful though that construction practices and methods can be quite different across different countries and so the actions and mechanisms that the UK has put in place would not necessarily be directly transferrable. Experts from the UK participate in both the CEN and ISO committees which facilitate the sharing of international standards. The UK is a member of the Inter-jurisdictional Regula-tory Collaboration Committee (IRCC) which promotes effective international collaboration concerning ‘best current practice’ building regulatory systems.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many asylum claims have been successfully made by citizens of (a) Israel, (b) the United States, (c) Canada, (d) New Zealand, (e) Australia, (f) Germany, (g) Spain, (h) France and (i) Italy in each of the last five years.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Home Office publishes data on asylum in the ‘Immigration System Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on asylum applications received, and the initial decisions on claims, is published in tables Asy_D01 and Asy_D02 of the ‘Asylum applications, decisions and resettlement detailed datasets’. This data includes nationality breakdowns.
Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of each workbook. The latest data relates to 31 December 2023. Data up to the end of March 2024 will be published on 23 May 2024.
Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’.
Asked by: Stephen Timms (Labour - East Ham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps his Department is taking to collaborate with its counterparts in other countries to tackle fraud.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Last week the Government hosted the first ever Global Fraud Summit.
This brought together Ministers and senior representatives from the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Singapore and the Republic of Korea as well as the United Nations, European Union, Financial Action Task Force and INTERPOL to emphasise the need for international collaboration to tackle fraud.
We agreed an ambitious communiqué which sets out a new international framework to better understand and address the threat and keep our citizens safe.
We will continue to build upon these commitments whilst also engaging bilaterally with key countries to build capability and strengthen their ability to tackle and disrupt fraud before it reaches the UK.