Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many officials are working on the negotiations of a trade deal with the United States.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
DBT’s Trade Policy, Implementation and Negotiations (TPIN) Group operates a flexible resourcing model to maximise efficiency across priorities. In January 2025, DBT had 675 staff working in TPIN.
The US is the UK’s largest single country trading partner, with trade worth around £300 billion in the year to September 2024.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether the Government considers increased trade with China to be an inherent risk to national security.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
China is the world’s second largest economy and predicted to be the largest driver of global growth from 2021 to 2035. Identifying opportunities to build secure and resilient growth through a mature, stable, and balanced relationship with China is in our national interest.
National security and growth are not opposed – they are mutually reinforcing. The UK must engage with international partners, including China, on trade and investment to grow our economy, while ensuring we uphold our security and values by challenging China on areas where we disagree.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of negotiating a free trade agreement with the United States.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK-US trading relationship is already worth around £300 billion, supporting over a million jobs and representing 17% of total UK trade. This government's priority is economic growth and increasing trade with international partners is a major part of that. The Prime Minister had a warm call with President Trump on 26 January where they discussed trade and the economy and agreed to meet soon for further discussions.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to secure a trade deal with the United States.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK-US trading relationship is already worth around £300 billion, supporting over a million jobs and representing 17% of total UK trade. This government's priority is economic growth and increasing trade with international partners is a major part of that. The Prime Minister had a warm call with President Trump on 26 January where they discussed trade and the economy and agreed to meet soon for further discussions.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a strategic industry register to document key industries and companies of national significance.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The modern Industrial Strategy focuses on eight growth-driving sectors: Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy Industries, Creative Industries, Defense, Digital and Technologies, Financial Services, Life Sciences, and Professional and Business Services.
For each, an ambitious sector plan will be designed in partnership with business, devolved governments, regions and other stakeholders, through bespoke arrangements tailored to each sector. The industrial strategy, alongside sector plans for the growth-driving sectors, will be published in spring 2025, aligned with the multi-year spending review.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
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 help promote retail entrepreneurship in Bromsgrove constituency.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government supports entrepreneurs, including those in Bromsgrove, through Start-up Loans via the British Business Bank and through programmes such as Growth Hubs in England and Help to Grow: Management across the UK. We will publish our Small Business Strategy later this year, which will signal a clear overarching ambition to promote entrepreneurship and articulate a new vision for business support, built around the new Business Growth Service. The strategy will enable scale-ups and other small businesses to grow, empowering entrepreneurs to innovate, export, and create new jobs.
Our Industrial Strategy is unreservedly pro-business, engaging on complex issues that are barriers to investment, like skills, recruitment of international talent, data, R&D, technology adoption, access to finance, competition, regulation, energy prices, grid connections, infrastructure, and planning – all through the lens of promoting investment.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions he has had with the United States State Department on trade.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK looks forward to working with President Trump and his administration to deepen our trading relationship with the US. The Prime Minister had a warm call with President Trump on 26 January where they discussed trade and the economy, and agreed to meet soon for further discussions.
The US Government has clear rules that preclude other governments from formally engaging with members of the US Cabinet before they are officially confirmed by the Senate. We are still waiting for both the Commerce Secretary and the US Trade Representative to be confirmed by the Senate.
Asked by: Bradley Thomas (Conservative - Bromsgrove)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps he is taking to support the long-term viability of pubs (a) in Bromsgrove constituency and (b) nationally.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Pubs, including those in Bromsgrove, are at the heart of our communities and vital for economic growth. That is why the Government is creating a fairer business rate system by introducing permanently lower tax rates for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses from 2026-27 and extending the current relief for 1 year at 40%.
The government is also reducing alcohol duty on qualifying draught products, representing an overall reduction in duty bills of over £85m a year.
We will transform the apprenticeship levy into a more flexible growth and skills levy to better support business and boost opportunity for people to work in Pubs.
Through the Hospitality Sector Council, we are addressing strategic issues for the sector related to high street regeneration, skills, sustainability, and productivity.