Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many employment tribunals were heard relating to employees of his Department between 1 August 2024 and 1 December 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
During the period stated, the Department for Business and Trade had 1 Employment Tribunal heard.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many new businesses were registered on Companies House in each month since July 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
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:
Monthly Incorporation Volumes | ||
Month | Incorporations | Published Incorporations, Quarterly |
July 2024 | 63,820 |
|
August 2024 | 62,956 |
|
September 2024 | 64,907 | 191,683 |
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.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what value of money assessment he has made of his Department's headcount and payroll data, published on 10 December 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
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.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many times (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have visited businesses in the UK since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
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.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many foreign trips (a) he and (b) Ministers in his Department have made since 5 July 2024; and where these trips were to.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
(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
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many businesses he expects to (a) apply for and (b) be granted awards under the new Fair Payment Code award tiers.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government would like to see as many businesses applying to the Fair Payment Code as possible, particularly larger businesses. Tackling late payments is a priority for the Department and the Fair Payment Code is one of a number of measures we are taking. Applying to the Fair Payment Code is a clear sign that businesses are prioritising paying their suppliers promptly and on time. The Office of Small Business Commissioner administer the Code on behalf of the Department and will announce the recipients in due course.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what budget his Department has allocated to the creation of the award tiers as part of the new Fair Payment Code.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Fair Payment Code is administered by the Office of Small Business Commissioner on behalf of the Department of Business and Trade. The Office of the Small Business Commissioner is grant in aid funded by the Department and in 2023/24 received £1.148m in grant funding. As had previously occurred with the Prompt Payment Code, the Fair Payment Code’s operation will be funded from the Office of Small Business Commissioner’s existing budget.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many away days or off-site team building exercises his Department has arranged for officials in each month of this year; and what the cost of these was.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for Business and Trade does not routinely collect this information. It could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he plans to appoint any additional Special Advisers.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Currently, the Secretary of State has no plans to appoint additional Special Advisors.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many searches have been made on his Department's subsidy database since July 2024.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
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.