Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Treasury has approved funding required for the Steel Strategy.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government has committed up to £2.5 billion to rebuild the steel sector, delivered in part through the National Wealth Fund. This is in addition to the £500m we have invested in the transformation of Port Talbot.

We are also committed to delivering a steel strategy. A robust position on trade is a critical element of this strategy, underpinning our approach to defending against unfair practices and global over-capacity. We are prioritising developing robust measures in light of the UK steel safeguard expiring during 2026. These measures will protect our domestic sector, ensuring its future viability and securing steel supply chains. This will follow a Call for Evidence which was open throughout July and sought views from across the steel supply chain on future steel trade measures. We will therefore publish the steel strategy in early 2026.

Where required, we will work with Parliament to implement measures under domestic law.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement published on 10 December 2025, what specific robust measures regarding trade are currently under development; and whether these measures require primary legislation to be introduced following the publication of the Steel Strategy.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government has committed up to £2.5 billion to rebuild the steel sector, delivered in part through the National Wealth Fund. This is in addition to the £500m we have invested in the transformation of Port Talbot.

We are also committed to delivering a steel strategy. A robust position on trade is a critical element of this strategy, underpinning our approach to defending against unfair practices and global over-capacity. We are prioritising developing robust measures in light of the UK steel safeguard expiring during 2026. These measures will protect our domestic sector, ensuring its future viability and securing steel supply chains. This will follow a Call for Evidence which was open throughout July and sought views from across the steel supply chain on future steel trade measures. We will therefore publish the steel strategy in early 2026.

Where required, we will work with Parliament to implement measures under domestic law.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will publish a timeline for the remaining milestones to be met before the Steel Strategy is presented to Parliament.

Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government has committed up to £2.5 billion to rebuild the steel sector, delivered in part through the National Wealth Fund. This is in addition to the £500m we have invested in the transformation of Port Talbot.

We are also committed to delivering a steel strategy. A robust position on trade is a critical element of this strategy, underpinning our approach to defending against unfair practices and global over-capacity. We are prioritising developing robust measures in light of the UK steel safeguard expiring during 2026. These measures will protect our domestic sector, ensuring its future viability and securing steel supply chains. This will follow a Call for Evidence which was open throughout July and sought views from across the steel supply chain on future steel trade measures. We will therefore publish the steel strategy in early 2026.

Where required, we will work with Parliament to implement measures under domestic law.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent analysis she has undertaken of the competitiveness of UK border processes compared with those of key trading partners.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The UK is a member of the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and a contracting party to the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA).

The UK is fully committed to the standards set by the WCO and the obligations set out in the TFA. The TFA aims to modernise and simplify international trade procedures to reduce costs, delays, and uncertainties at borders.

The UK also engaged constructively with the WTO’s recent Trade Policy Review of the UK. Further information on which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/united-kingdoms-trade-policy-review-closing-statement-from-the-uk

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assumptions his Department uses in relation to trade elasticities when modelling the long-term effects of UK accession to plurilateral digital trade agreements.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department for Business and Trade has not undertaken modelling of the long-term effects of UK accession to plurilateral digital trade agreements. Consequently, no assumptions regarding trade elasticities have been applied in this context.

The OECD has published analysis on the potential economic impacts of concluding the WTO’s Joint Initiative on E-Commerce. However, this analysis is not UK-specific.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department has updated its computable general equilibrium models to incorporate post-2024 trade flow data.

Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

DBT uses data provided by the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) for CGE modelling. The latest publicly available data is GTAP 11 with the latest reference year 2017. As a consortium member of the Project, we have early access to forthcoming newer versions before they are published. Making use of this we used the pre-publication GTAP 12 dataset, with latest reference year 2019, for the modelling presented in the Impact Assessment of the UK-India Free Trade Agreement.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of expanding digital customs clearance systems on levels of administration undertaken by UK traders.

Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC uses the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) to manage the clearance of goods. This digital service successfully handles millions of customs declarations every month.

No specific assessment of the potential impact of expanding digital customs clearance systems on levels of administration undertaken by UK traders has been undertaken. Estimates of the administrative burden of import and export declarations for trade between Great Britain and the European Union are published at the following link: Estimating the customs administrative burden of 2022 declarations - GOV.UK.

HMRC is committed to making customs processes as simple as possible while ensuring effective checks are in place at the border, and we continue to work closely with the border industry to streamline processes and support the flow of legitimate goods.

The Government recognises the benefits from trade digitalisation for business and management of the goods border. The UK was the first G7 country to put electronic trade documents on the same legal footing as paper documents. The Trade Strategy sets out plans to make sure government and traders alike harness digitalisation to speed up and simplify process. As part of this HMRC is working with industry partners to test how commercial data drawn directly from electronic paperwork can be read and processed by HMRC to meet customs requirements.

Found: Bristol Central) Barry Gardiner (Labour; Brent West) Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat; Chippenham) Alison Griffiths

Found: Bristol Central) Barry Gardiner (Labour; Brent West) Sarah Gibson (Liberal Democrat; Chippenham) Alison Griffiths

Found: the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Antonia Bance; John Cooper; Sarah Edwards; Alison Griffiths

Found: the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Antonia Bance; John Cooper; Sarah Edwards; Alison Griffiths

Found: the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Antonia Bance; John Cooper; Sarah Edwards; Alison Griffiths

Found: the meeting Members present: Liam Byrne (Chair); Antonia Bance; John Cooper; Sarah Edwards; Alison Griffiths

Found: Audit Committee members present: Jonathan Davies; Carla Denyer; Barry Gardiner; Sarah Gibson; Alison Griffiths