Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how the Official Development Assistance expenditure managed by the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy was redistributed following the machinery of Government changes in February 2023.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
No Official Development Assistance (ODA) budget was allocated to my department when it was created in February 2023 through the machinery of Government changes.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data his Department holds on the potential impact of non-EU bicycle imports on (a) cycle distributors in the North East and (b) the bicycle manufacturing sector.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Department does not hold data on the potential impact of non-EU bicycle imports on cycle distributors in the North East or the bicycle manufacturing sector.
At the Budget, the Government announced we would be continuing funding for key business support programmes in 2025-26: Growth Hubs in England, and the Help to Grow: Management programme. We also announced we are extending Made Smarter Innovation with up to £37m funding. Funding for the Made Smarter Adoption programme will double to £16 million in 2025-26, supporting more small manufacturing businesses to adopt advanced digital technologies and enabling the programme to be expanded to all nine English regions.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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) innovation and (b) growth in the bicycle manufacturing industry.
Answered by Sarah Jones - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Small businesses and manufacturers are vital to high streets and communities, and essential to the success of the Government’s growth mission.
At the Budget, the Government announced we would be continuing funding for key business support programmes in 2025-26: Growth Hubs in England, and the Help to Grow: Management programme. We also announced we are extending Made Smarter Innovation with up to £37m funding. Funding for the Made Smarter Adoption programme will double to £16 million in 2025-26, supporting more small manufacturing businesses to adopt advanced digital technologies and enabling the programme to be expanded to all nine English regions.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 potential impact of reports of incidents involving (a) e-bike batteries and (b) conversion kits on consumer trust in e-bike technology.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
While e-bikes and e-scooters are used safely by millions of people every day, unsafe, non-compliant or improperly used lithium-ion batteries in e-bikes can cause serious fires. Public safety is our priority, and this Department’s recent “Buy Safe. Be Safe” campaign was launched last month to raise awareness of the steps consumers can take to reduce the risk of fires. This is part of a wider programme lead by the Office for Product Safety and Standards to tackle the causes of fires so that consumers are protected and can have confidence in these technologies.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
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 (a) adequacy of safety standards of imported e-bikes from outside the EU and (b) implications for his policies of risks associated with non-EU lithium-ion batteries.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK product safety legislation requires manufacturers or importers placing products on the UK market, including e-bikes to ensure those products are safe. Those importing international products must ensure that they comply with UK product safety rules.
Earlier this year, OPSS banned certain models of Unit Power Pack-branded e-bike batteries manufactured in China, and they and local regulators have powers to prevent any unsafe goods identified from entering the UK at the border.
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will preserve the UK’s status as a global leader in product regulation, supporting businesses and protecting consumers.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether his Department plans to amend negotiating objectives in active free trade agreement negotiations.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Economic growth is the first priority of this government. To deliver on this, one of our first steps after taking office was to announce that we were resuming Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with: the Gulf Cooperation Council, India, Israel, South Korea, Switzerland, and Turkey.
Having carefully reviewed our negotiation objectives we have now started talks with some of these key partners. We will not sacrifice quality for speed and will only agree deals that are mutually beneficial.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data her Department holds on the use of (a) arms and (b) non arms exports to Israel.
Answered by Greg Hands
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics, including data on outcome, end user destination, overall value, type (e.g. military, other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what the value of arms exports to Israel was in each of the last five years.
Answered by Greg Hands
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics, including data on outcome, end user destination, overall value, type (e.g. military, other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department supports foreign investment in science and technology by region.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Investment is at the very heart of the UK economy - it supports economic growth, creates jobs and enables improvements in productivity for new and existing firms. It is also essential for successful delivery of the Government's objective to make the UK a science and technology superpower by 2030.
The Department for Business and Trade promotes a range of investment opportunities across the science & technology sector. DBT works to attract foreign corporates to the UK, developing compelling investment propositions for DBT's international network to bring to prospective investors, this includes both sector-wide and place-based opportunities. DBT has dedicated based staff across the UK who work with the DAs/their agencies, wider DBT teams, Office for Investment and other UK government departments to deliver investment in priority areas, including science and technology. DBT teams work closely with partners to deliver events to attract investment, such as the Northern Ireland Investment Summit that was held in Belfast, September 2023.
The UK has 13 new Investment Zones which will benefit from £160 million each of Government funding to unlock foreign investment across priority sectors, especially science and technology, with a focus on driving innovation and creating quality jobs. These will be new hubs for investment and innovation across the UK and the funding spread over 10 years, will be spent on fiscal incentives and/or flexible spend to support attracting FDI. In line with the government's levelling up objectives, they are established in places with significant unmet productivity potential, where existing strengths and assets aligned to priority sectors can be leveraged to increase opportunities for local communities. Investment Zones will be established in partnership between central government, local government, research institutions and the private sector. The Investment Opportunity Fund is intended to double down on the objectives of Freeports and Investment Zones by providing a flexible, agile pot of funding that government can use to secure and respond to opportunities in these areas as they emerge.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to promote the development of a domestic battery industry.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
We continue to work with industry via the Automotive Transformation Fund to support the creation of an internationally competitive electric vehicle supply chain in the UK, including gigafactories. With Government support, completion of AESC’s second Sunderland gigafactory and Tata-Agratas' £4bn gigafactory announcement will increase the UK’s committed battery capacity to over half of estimated 2030 demand.
We are also investing record sums in battery R&D through the Faraday Battery Challenge, to establish the UK as a battery science superpower, with £610m committed since 2017.
In November 2023, the Advanced Manufacturing Plan announced over £2bn of capital and R&D funding over five years to 2030, unlocking investment in zero emission vehicles, batteries and the wider supply chain. Alongside the AMP, we published a UK Battery Strategy, which outlined the Government’s vision for the UK to achieve a globally competitive battery supply chain by 2030 that supports economic prosperity and the net zero transition.