Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the effect on trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland of the European Union's new General Product Safety Regulation.
Answered by Baroness Gustafsson - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The updated GPSR largely formalises how many businesses are already operating in the UK and the measures are therefore likely to have limited impact. However, we understand that, for some businesses, changes will be required.
Government continues to support businesses in adapting to these changes to ensure a smooth flow of goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK. We have published guidance on GPSR in Northern Ireland, which we will keep under review, and we are continuing to engage directly with businesses.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they had with the European Union on its General Product Safety Regulation and its implementation in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government maintains a dialogue with the EU on matters of mutual interest. The updated General Product Safety Regulation largely formalises the reality of how businesses are already operating in the UK and the measures are therefore likely to have limited impact. Where businesses need to make changes, we expect that they will be adapting anyway in order to continue trading with the EU. We are providing more guidance in this area, will keep this under review and continue to engage businesses directly to ensure we are supporting them to trade freely across the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the likely effect of the EU's General Product Safety Regulation on trade between businesses in Great Britain and customers in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The updated General Product Safety Regulation (GPSR) largely formalises the reality of how businesses are already operating in the UK and the measures are therefore likely to have limited impact in practice. Where businesses need to make changes, we expect that they will be adapting anyway to be compliant with the new Regulation to continue trading with the EU. However, we are providing more guidance in this area, will keep this under review and continue to engage businesses directly to ensure we are supporting them to trade freely across the whole of the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the amount of drone equipment and heavy machinery going from the UK to Armenia, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan which is then sent on to Russia.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
HMG has sanctioned every item that Ukraine has found Russia using on the battlefield to date. This includes goods that could be used for drones and heavy machinery.
We maintain a Common High Priority List (CHPL) of items critical to the Russian military, to thwart attempts to circumvent sanctions through third countries.
We continue to engage with relevant countries and monitor our exports for signs of circumvention, to do everything we can to ensure that sanctioned UK technologies do not make it to Russia.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government who are the members of the statutory inquiry established to investigate the Post Office Horizon scandal; and who chairs that inquiry.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry is chaired by Sir Wyn Williams FLSW, a former High Court judge, who is supported by an Inquiry team including counsel, solicitors, assessors, and the Secretariat.
The statutory roles to the Inquiry which support the Chair are Counsel to the Inquiry (Jason Beer, KC), Solicitor to the Inquiry (Segun Jide) and Secretary to the Inquiry (Leila Pilgrim). There are two assessors to the Inquiry (Erika Eliasson-Norris and David Page) who have been appointed to provide advice to the Chairman on their area of relevant expertise regarding the Inquiry.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the National Federation of SubPostmasters concerning the removal of DVLA services from Post Offices.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Shadow Minister (Defence)
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) meets with the National Federation of SubPostmasters (NFSP) regularly, both at official and at ministerial level. The NFSP have raised their concerns at the potential future removal of DVLA services from Post Office branches at these meetings, and officials have ensured these concerns are highlighted at Ministerial level and with Post Office Limited. The contract negotiations themselves represent a commercial matter between DVLA and Post Office.
Asked by: Baroness Hoey (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to using the Export Control Act 2002 to filter unsuitable items crossing from Northern Ireland into the Republic of Ireland to prevent a border in the Irish Sea.
Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Shadow Minister (Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Export Control Act 2002 provides the legal basis for our export control legislation on military and certain dual-use goods. Military list items and certain dual-use items specified within the European Union (EU) Dual-use Regulation (“the Dual-use Regulation”), require an export licence for export from Northern Ireland to Ireland. Export licence applications for these items would be assessed against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria, which is statutory guidance issued by the Secretary of State and laid before Parliament under section 9 of the Export Control Act 2002. We would not issue an export licence in response to an application where to do so would be inconsistent with the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. Unless specified within Annex IV of the Dual-use Regulation, dual-use items exported from Northern Ireland to Ireland would not require a licence.
The Windsor Framework ensures the free flow of trade from Great Britain to Northern Ireland through a new green lane, removing unacceptable customs processes. The only checks conducted will be risk-based to target smuggling or criminality in the green lane, highly-controlled goods, or any goods bound for the EU in the red lane.