Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what processes are in place to help ensure that consumers who submit complaints to Trading Standards through Citizens Advice receive feedback on the outcome of their complaint.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Trading Standards are provided by local authorities who operate independently from central government and make enforcement decisions according to local need.
Trading Standards act in the collective interest of consumers rather than resolving individual matters. In most cases, Trading Standards will not need to contact a complainant directly but will use information provided to prioritise intervention or enforcement action against rogue traders causing the most harm.
Citizens Advice consumer service received over 827,000 contacts in 2023-24. Every contact received by Citizens Advice is logged on a national database, which is accessible by consumer enforcement agencies, including local Trading Standards, to analyse trends and inform their enforcement activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the Trading Standards system meets consumer needs.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Trading Standards are provided by local authorities who operate independently from central government and make enforcement decisions according to local need.
Trading Standards act in the collective interest of consumers rather than resolving individual matters. In most cases, Trading Standards will not need to contact a complainant directly but will use information provided to prioritise intervention or enforcement action against rogue traders causing the most harm.
Citizens Advice consumer service received over 827,000 contacts in 2023-24. Every contact received by Citizens Advice is logged on a national database, which is accessible by consumer enforcement agencies, including local Trading Standards, to analyse trends and inform their enforcement activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the Trading Standards complaints process.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Trading Standards are provided by local authorities who operate independently from central government and make enforcement decisions according to local need.
Trading Standards act in the collective interest of consumers rather than resolving individual matters. In most cases, Trading Standards will not need to contact a complainant directly but will use information provided to prioritise intervention or enforcement action against rogue traders causing the most harm.
Citizens Advice consumer service received over 827,000 contacts in 2023-24. Every contact received by Citizens Advice is logged on a national database, which is accessible by consumer enforcement agencies, including local Trading Standards, to analyse trends and inform their enforcement activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, for what reason consumers in England are not able to deal directly with Trading Standards services; and whether he plans to review this approach.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Trading Standards are provided by local authorities who operate independently from central government and make enforcement decisions according to local need.
Trading Standards act in the collective interest of consumers rather than resolving individual matters. In most cases, Trading Standards will not need to contact a complainant directly but will use information provided to prioritise intervention or enforcement action against rogue traders causing the most harm.
Citizens Advice consumer service received over 827,000 contacts in 2023-24. Every contact received by Citizens Advice is logged on a national database, which is accessible by consumer enforcement agencies, including local Trading Standards, to analyse trends and inform their enforcement activities.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will review the UK Export Finance model to ensure that financial support available to overseas critical minerals projects is accessible to UK-based critical minerals producers.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
In addition to its critical minerals supply finance facility, which guarantees a commercial loan to an overseas project which has an offtake agreement in place with a UK exporter, UK Export Finance (UKEF) can support UK-based critical minerals producers in a variety of ways. These include through its Export Development Guarantee and General Export Facility if the company is an exporter, and also in certain circumstances where the producer in question supplies UK exporters.
Through these two products, UKEF can provide guarantees to commercial loans for working capital, which can be used to pay suppliers or staffing costs, invest in research and development or support bids for higher value contracts.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when he plans to publish a green paper on the long-term future of the Post Office.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We aim to publish a Green Paper later this year which will set out several proposals for discussion on the future direction of the Post Office. As part of this work, Government will be carefully considering what customers, communities and postmasters would like to see from a modern Post Office network.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to integrate critical minerals recycling into the circular economy strategy; and if he will support the development of a processing hub for (a) tin and (b) other critical minerals in the South West.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
A secure supply of critical minerals is vital for the UK's economic growth and security, industrial strategy, and clean energy transition. We recognise the importance of recycling critical minerals and as we work with DEFRA to develop the Circular Economy Strategy for England, we will consider the evidence for action and evaluate what interventions may be needed.
The South West of England is home to significant deposits of tin, tungsten and lithium, and the new Critical Minerals Strategy, which will be published this year, will set out how we will enhance the UK’s domestic capabilities, including mining, processing and recycling. The National Wealth Fund’s recent investment of £28.6m into the South Crofty tin mine will support our endeavour to onshore more of the value chain for critical minerals.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of funding for junior mineral exploration companies in the UK; and if he will introduce financial incentives to increase exploration of critical minerals.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department for Business and Trade recognises the challenges that junior mining companies face when fundraising for mineral exploration projects. A secure supply of critical minerals is vital for the UK's economic growth and security, industrial strategy ambitions, and clean energy transition. As we work through our industrial and critical mineral strategies, we will further explore funding mechanisms which will encourage UK companies to play a role in securing our supplies and capitalise on economic opportunities, as the demand for resilient and responsible sources of critical minerals grows. UK junior mining companies have already benefitted from HMG funding including grants available through the Automotive Transformation Fund.
Asked by: Anna Gelderd (Labour - South East Cornwall)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to support (a) Liskeard and (b) other rural communities to maintain access to (i) banking and (ii) other essential services after the closure of local post offices.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government provides an annual £50m Network Subsidy funding to support the delivery of a minimum number of branches, including Liskeard and other rural & urban communities and to provide a geographical spread of branches in line with published access criteria. The access criteria ensure that however the network changes, Post Office delivers essential services, including banking and cash services, across the UK via its network of 11,500 branches.
The Government understands the importance of face-to-face banking to communities and high streets, and is committed to championing sufficient access for all. We have committed to work closely with banks to roll out at least 350 banking hubs, which will provide individuals and businesses up and down the country with critical cash and banking services.