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Written Question
Department for Education: Written Questions
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Paul Blomfield (Labour - Sheffield Central)

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she plans to respond to Question 17725 on Academic Freedom tabled by the hon. Member for Sheffield Central on 8 March 2024.

Answered by David Johnston - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)

A response was published to the hon. Member for Sheffield Central to Question 17725 on 21st March 2024.


Written Question
UK Internal Trade: Northern Ireland
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much expenditure they have incurred since 2020 assisting businesses engaging with rules and regulations pertaining to the movement of goods between (1) Northern Ireland and Great Britain, and (2) Great Britain and Northern Ireland, following agreement with the EU on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, and subsequently the Windsor Framework.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

  • The Government is committed to supporting industry in moving goods smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including through schemes such as the Trader Support Service and Movement Assistance Scheme. There is no central provision made for support schemes.

  • As the Government announced in September last year, the current term of Trader Support Service will run to December 2024. Information about the costs of the Trader Support Service is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts. The total cost of the Movement Assistance Scheme up to the end of January 2024 was £29.8m. The Government also launched a £50m labelling financial assistance scheme, to assist businesses with the costs of meeting labelling requirements.

  • We have always been committed to taking steps necessary to support businesses - both through the WF arrangements for internal trade but also for those whose business models may not fall within them. This is entirely excepted funding support and so has no negative implications for the NI block grant, where of course the Government has also provided an unprecedented £3.3bn as part of the recent efforts to restore the Executive.

  • It is not the case that the money available to support schemes would be diverted to any other project in Northern Ireland - if the support scheme were to be withdrawn then no additional funding of any kind would be available in NI as a result.


Written Question
Windsor Framework: Private Sector
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are (1) the value, and (2) the term length, of each contract awarded to private sector companies to assist with the implementation of the Windsor Framework.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

  • The Government is committed to supporting industry in moving goods smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including through schemes such as the Trader Support Service and Movement Assistance Scheme. There is no central provision made for support schemes.

  • As the Government announced in September last year, the current term of Trader Support Service will run to December 2024. Information about the costs of the Trader Support Service is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts. The total cost of the Movement Assistance Scheme up to the end of January 2024 was £29.8m. The Government also launched a £50m labelling financial assistance scheme, to assist businesses with the costs of meeting labelling requirements.

  • We have always been committed to taking steps necessary to support businesses - both through the WF arrangements for internal trade but also for those whose business models may not fall within them. This is entirely excepted funding support and so has no negative implications for the NI block grant, where of course the Government has also provided an unprecedented £3.3bn as part of the recent efforts to restore the Executive.

  • It is not the case that the money available to support schemes would be diverted to any other project in Northern Ireland - if the support scheme were to be withdrawn then no additional funding of any kind would be available in NI as a result.


Written Question
Windsor Framework
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what financial provision they have made for the 2024–25 financial year to assist businesses dealing with the requirements of the Windsor Framework for the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

  • The Government is committed to supporting industry in moving goods smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including through schemes such as the Trader Support Service and Movement Assistance Scheme. There is no central provision made for support schemes.

  • As the Government announced in September last year, the current term of Trader Support Service will run to December 2024. Information about the costs of the Trader Support Service is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts. The total cost of the Movement Assistance Scheme up to the end of January 2024 was £29.8m. The Government also launched a £50m labelling financial assistance scheme, to assist businesses with the costs of meeting labelling requirements.

  • We have always been committed to taking steps necessary to support businesses - both through the WF arrangements for internal trade but also for those whose business models may not fall within them. This is entirely excepted funding support and so has no negative implications for the NI block grant, where of course the Government has also provided an unprecedented £3.3bn as part of the recent efforts to restore the Executive.

  • It is not the case that the money available to support schemes would be diverted to any other project in Northern Ireland - if the support scheme were to be withdrawn then no additional funding of any kind would be available in NI as a result.


Written Question
Israel: Arms Trade
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether there are pending applications for arms export licences for arms to Israel.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics, including data on outcome, end user destination, overall value, type (e.g. military, other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.The most recent Official Statistics cover the period 1 April - 30 June 2023. Information regarding export licensing decisions made between 1 July - 30 September 2023 will be published after April 2024 and information regarding export licensing decisions made between 1 October - 31 March 2024 will be published later this year.


Written Question
Import Controls: Northern Ireland
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much of the money allocated for the construction of border control posts in Northern Ireland is for (1) agricultural food inspections, and (2) customs.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The funding allocated for SPS facilities in Northern Ireland to deal with goods moving into the EU through the red lane - as the Government had also committed to do under the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill - is a maximum funding envelope. The figure is in line with a business case which was being prepared when that Bill was in Parliament.

The facilities will fulfil a number of functions and it is not possible to provide a breakdown of costs in the manner described.


Written Question
Developing Countries: Solar Power
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how much the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment has spent on increasing the capacity of solar photovoltaic manufacturing.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII) is a G7 initiative. The G7 plan to report in 2025 on amounts invested and mobilised. The UK is on track to meet our up to $40 billion contribution to the $600 billion target through our British Investment Partnerships work, which is supporting numerous renewable energy initiatives. In 2022, we improved access to clean energy for over 6 million people. Our investments include: $69 million by the Private Infrastructure Development Group; support by British International Investment to a $36 million solar PV storage plant in Mozambique; eight solar projects through Manufacturing Africa unlocking £26.7 million, and £6 million through the Transforming Energy Access platform.


Written Question
Migrant Workers: Domestic Service
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Stephen Kinnock (Labour - Aberavon)

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Independent Review the Overseas Domestic Workers Visa by James Ewins, published on 16 December 2015, what the Government's policy is on the implementation of proposed changes in that review to the overseas domestic worker visa rules that have not yet been implemented.

Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)

The Home Office keeps immigration route policy under review, including that for the Overseas Domestic Worker route. We have introduced a number of reforms to the route for overseas domestic workers since 2015; designed to build on existing safeguards and in line with the broader immigration system. Employers of overseas domestic workers must act in accordance with UK employment law, and workers who find themselves a victim of modern slavery are protected by the National Referral Mechanism and may be eligible to apply for permission to stay as a domestic worker who is a victim of modern slavery.


Written Question
Armed Conflict: International Law
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Liam Byrne (Labour - Birmingham, Hodge Hill)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether his Department has previously established a country-specific cell similar to the International Humanitarian Law Compliance Assessment Process Cell.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The International Humanitarian Law (IHL) Cell's approach to assessment of IHL compliance by Israel is informed by a methodology adopted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office following a request by the Campaign Against Arms Trade in 2017 for a judicial review of export licensing decisions for Saudi Arabia during the conflict in Yemen.

I refer the honourable member for Hodge Hill to the then Secretary of State for International Trade's statement of 7 July 2020 following the High Court judgment on military export licences to Saudi Arabia [Volume 678:Column 32-34WS].


Written Question
International Waters: Marine Protected Areas
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Afzal Khan (Labour - Manchester, Gorton)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, what steps he has taken with his international counterparts to create marine protected areas in the high seas in preparation for ratifying the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement.

Answered by Andrew Mitchell - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office) (Minister for Development)

The UK will continue to be proactive in preparing for implementation and entry into force and will work with international partners and stakeholders to identify potential areas for High Seas Marine Protected Areas. The UK is also funding a project to develop a shortlist of potential area-based management tools that could be developed into future proposals once the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement comes into force.