Andrew Griffith

The published Civil Service Commission 2022/2023 Annual Report shows the current Interim Chief Executive began the role on 15 May 2023. An external recruitment process to appoint a permanent Chief Executive was launched in May 2024 and is expected to conclude in September 2024.

The Civil Service Commission is the independent regulator of Civil Service recruitment and carries out its functions independently of Government and in line with the provisions of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

On Friday 30 August the Civil Service Commissioner wrote to departments, including the CO, to say that they would carry out a short review of appointments made by exception since 1 July.

Appointments to the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council were made through direct ministerial appointment by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Council’s membership includes senior business leaders, policy experts and trade union representatives. Members have been appointed in a personal capacity and the Council will help to ensure our Industrial Strategy is informed by a broad and high-quality evidence base, and a diverse range of perspectives.

The Secretary of State has not yet had the opportunity to visit the Harland and Wolff Belfast site but looks forward to doing so in the future. However, as the Minister for Industry, I had the privilege of visiting Northern Ireland on 19th December to observe first-hand the potential of the site for job creation and manufacturing growth. The recent agreement between Navantia UK and Harland and Wolff, which was announced that day, will enable us to maintain our essential sovereign shipbuilding capacity and capability both now and in the long term.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has maintained regular communication with the Secretary of State for Defence on the Fleet Solid Support Ship programme. Together, they have worked closely with commercial partners Navantia UK and Harland and Wolff to facilitate an agreement that will ensure the delivery of these vital vessels for the Royal Navy. Both Departments agree this is a good deal for the Harland and Wolff shipyards, a good deal for its employees, and a good deal for the whole of British shipbuilding.

The Employment Rights Bill is the first phase of delivering our plan to Make Work Pay, supporting employers, workers, and unions to get Britain moving forward.

Establishing the Fair Work Agency will create a strong, recognisable single brand so individuals know where to go for help and lead to a more effective use of resources

We are committed to ensuring that the Fair Work Agency is established on a sound financial footing and operates effectively in fulfilling its mandate. Detailed annual budgets for the proposed Fair Work Agency are currently under development and will be communicated in due course.

At the announcement of Phase 2 of the 2025 Spending Review, departments have been set a target of identifying efficiency savings of 5% by 2029. Through the spending review process my department will be carrying out the required work to identify options for delivering my priorities while maximising value for money for the taxpayer.

Phase 2 will focus on supporting the government's missions by utilising technology and reforming public services to support delivery of the government's plans for a decade of national renewal.

My officials meet regularly with their counterparts in the European Commission to discuss areas such as implementation of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the Competition Cooperation Agreement, and trade. Officials have also recently presented the Industrial Strategy Green Paper to the EU Delegation and Member State representatives.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) officials also co-chair three UK-EU Trade Specialised Committees for Services, Investment and Digital, Regulatory Cooperation, and Technical Barriers to Trade, as well as the working groups that support them. The Committees last met in the autumn.

Questions 18414, 18415 and 18416 were answered on 19 December 2024.

The incoming US administration is still in the process of appointing senior staff.

The Prime Minister had a warm introductory call with President-Elect Trump on 6 November. During this call, the Prime Minister offered his congratulations and said he looked forward to working closely with President-elect Trump across all areas of the special relationship. The Prime Minister spoke to the President-elect again on 18 December. Neither the Secretary of State, Ministers, nor officials in the Department have had meetings with President-Elect Trump's transition team.

Appointments to the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council were made through direct ministerial appointment by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Council’s membership includes senior business leaders, policy experts and trade union representatives. Members have been appointed in a personal capacity and the Council will help to ensure our Industrial Strategy is informed by a broad and high-quality evidence base, and a diverse range of perspectives.

Appointments to the Industrial Strategy Advisory Council were made through direct ministerial appointment by the Secretary of State for Business and Trade and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Council’s membership includes senior business leaders, policy experts and trade union representatives. Members have been appointed in a personal capacity and the Council will help to ensure our Industrial Strategy is informed by a broad and high-quality evidence base, and a diverse range of perspectives.

The Department for Business and Trade made no settlement agreements or special severance payments in the last 12 months for either current or former employees.

We can confirm that since 5 July 2024, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade has taken:

28 commercial flights

1 non-commercial flight

The Department for Business and Trade does not routinely collect this information. It could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

The Government has not speculated on what President-elect Trump may or may not do when he is in office.

The Government will continue to make a strong case for open, transparent, and free trade. We are an open trading economy, and we benefit from that in our trading relationships other countries, including the US.

I refer the member for Arundel and South Downs to the answer I provided to UIN 17527 on 6 December.

(a) Since July, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade has met with counterparts from 16 G20 nations .

(b) The DBT ministerial team have met a total of 18 G20 nations.

It is expected that every Department for Business and Trade employee has personal objectives aligned to their role. Performance is monitored regularly against these objectives, as part of ongoing reviews.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has confirmed that no formal discussions have taken place with (a) the Office for National Statistics (ONS) or (b) the Chancellor of the Exchequer regarding the Public Services Productivity Review.

We’re working across government in partnership with trade unions and businesses to secure a bright future for steel in the UK, including working with British Steel on their future plans.

My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State has met with British Steel’s shareholder on 5 occasions in the last 5 months. The most recent meeting was on 29 October. Senior officials from this Department meet representatives from British Steel on a weekly basis.

Ministers regularly meet with their counterparts to discuss a wide range of key issues. The Secretary of State met with Canada’s Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade and Economic Development, Mary Ng at the G7 and the G20. I met with Minister Ng at the ASEAN Summit in September and at the CPTPP Commission meeting in November 2024, where I also had the opportunity to meet the Mexican Under Secretary of Economy, Luis Rosendo Gutierrez Romano.

We will continue to work with our Canadian and Mexican counterparts to push for ratification of our accession so that businesses can begin to reap the rewards of this trade agreement.

We will release statistics on export licensing outcomes relating to this period one quarter at a time via our regular Strategic Export Controls Licensing Statistical Releases.

Export licensing statistics for 1 January to 30 June 2024 were published on 12 December 2024: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/strategic-export-controls-licensing-statistics-1-january-to-31-march-2024 and https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/announcements/strategic-export-controls-licensing-statistics-1-april-to-30-june-2024.

Statistics for July to September 2024 will be available by March 2025, and statistics for October to December 2024 will be available by June 2025. In addition, we will publish data from 2024 as a whole in the 2024 Annual Report, including the number of licensing applications we have received during the year, which we will publish in the Summer 2025.

The information requested will be released in the next publication of the transparency return. The latest version can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dbt-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-overseas-travel-and-meetings

The information requested will be released in the next publication of the transparency return. The latest version can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dbt-ministerial-gifts-hospitality-overseas-travel-and-meetings

The Consultative Committee on Construction Industry Statistics (CCCIS) is a long running forum for producers and users of official statistics on construction to engage with expert users. The meetings are chaired by the Department for Business and Trade, and include cross-government statisticians, representatives of industry bodies and academics. Information from discussions at the meeting in October will contribute to improving the reliability of official statistics on the construction sector and drive policy development, alongside engagement with key stakeholders and evidence gathering.

Data from the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme should be publicly available in 2025. Other loan applications for British Business Bank products are managed through delivery partners, such as banks, leasing companies, venture capital funds and web-based platforms.

A new Fair Payment Code which is more credible, enforceable, and ambitious was launched earlier this month to replace the former Prompt Payment Code. This followed feedback from small business stakeholder groups, including Federation of Small Businesses, Enterprise Nation and others.

The Disability Finance Code for Entrepreneurship has been led in partnership with founding signatories: Barclays, HSBC UK, Lloyds Banking Group and NatWest, alongside delivery partners, UK Finance and the British Business Bank. This forms part of the government backed Lilac Review led by Small Business Britain which is examining ways to address barriers facing disabled entrepreneurs.

The Department for Business and Trade keeps guidance on the subsidy control regime under regular review. The last substantive update to the statutory guidance was in December 2023 and the next update is planned for early 2025. The Department has also recently published two new guides to assist public authorities in completing subsidy control principles assessments.

The Department for Business and Trade does not have data for completed searches for this period. However, following recent improvements to the Department’s analytical capabilities, numbers of searches on the database will be available for periods starting on or after 1 December 2024.

Currently, the Secretary of State has no plans to appoint additional Special Advisors.

Official statistics on company incorporation are published quarterly. These are made publicly available online by Companies House. We have excerpted and reproduced the relevant figures for your convenience below:

The most recent complete datasets can be found here:

Incorporated companies in the UK July to September 2024 - GOV.UK

Statistics for previous periods are available here.

Companies House will publish the next quarterly release on 30 January 2025 which will cover the period from October to December 2024.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) publishes Workforce Management Information regularly on data.gov.uk. DBT does not publish value for money assessments on this headcount and payroll data.

During the period stated, the Department for Business and Trade had 1 Employment Tribunal heard.

(a) Since 5 July 2024, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade has carried out four international visits. These were:

Italy to attend the G7 Trade Ministers Meeting

Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to help progress GCC negotiations

Brazil to attend the G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial Meeting

Qatar to attend the GCC Trade Ministers’ meeting & UAE (joint visit)

(b) Since 5 July 2024, Junior Ministers in the Department for Business and Trade have carried out fourteen international visits. These were:

Minister Jones to Italy to attend the Ambrosetti Forum

Minister Alexander to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Oman to progress GCC FTA negotiations, to Thailand for the Enhanced Trade Partnership and to Laos for the ASEAN Economic Ministers Meeting (combined visit)

Minister Jones to France to visit Airbus Toulouse

Minister Madders to France for the OECD for a Consumer Ministerial meeting

Minister Alexander to Ireland for the British Ireland Chamber of Commerce Annual Conference

Minister Alexander to Switzerland to visit the WTO

Minister Alexander to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the Future Investment Initiative conference

Minister Gustafsson to the Netherlands for the World Pension Summit

Minister Jones to Poland for the Rebuild Ukraine conference

Minister Alexander to Azerbaijan for COP29

Minister Gustafsson to Spain for the UK-Spain Business Awards

Minister Thomas to Italy for Pontignano

Minister Alexander to Vancouver for the CPTPP Commissioners Meeting

Minister Gustafsson to Hong Kong & China for MIPIM Asia

A) Since 5 July 2024, the Secretary of State has carried out 11 domestic visits across the UK. All domestic visits include substantive engagement with businesses, through multiple site visits, roundtables and meetings with business leaders.

B) Since 5 July 2024, Junior Ministers in the Department for Business and Trade have carried out 15 domestic visits. These visits have also included substantive engagement with businesses, through site visits, roundtables and meetings with business leaders.

These visits form part of an extensive business engagement that SoS and ministers have led since July, which helped addressing issues raised by business leaders.

My Rt. Hon. friend the Secretary of State works closely with all his Cabinet colleagues and has regular discussions with them, including the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

According to central records, 16 chairs and 10 desks have been procured since 5 July 2024. These have been provided to colleagues as reasonable adjustments and are in use in homes and offices.