Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda and Ogmore)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse is of the Great Futures programme in Saudi Arabia.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
GREAT FUTURES showcases how UK expertise can help Saudi Arabia deliver against Vision 2030, their ambitious strategy to drive economic and societal change across the country. Including trade, investment, tourism, education and cultural engagement, GREAT FUTURES is designed to create opportunities, connect with senior government and business decision-makers from Saudi Arabia’s ultra-ambitious giga-projects, and establish long-lasting relationships.
The requested information is not currently available as the final costs are still being reconciled.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda and Ogmore)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Ministers attended the Great Futures conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on 14 and 15 May 2024.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
5 UK Ministers attended the conference.
The GREAT FUTURES launch event in Riyadh on 14-15 May 2024 is the flagship moment that kickstarts a year-long programme bringing to life the sheer scale of opportunities for UK businesses in Saudi Arabia linked to Vision 2030. The purpose is to forge partnerships across a number of sectors by gathering together some of the UK's most creative and innovative companies with their Saudi counterparts.
The Deputy Prime Minister led a strong Ministerial delegation comprising Kemi Badenoch, Secretary of State for Business and Trade; Lucy Frazer, the Culture Secretary; Lord Johnson, Minister for Investment; Lord Markham, Minister of Health; and Sir Steve Smith the PM’s Special Representative for Higher Education. The delegation of more than 450 UK companies made this the largest trade delegation the UK has sent anywhere for a decade.
Some 50+ agreements and MOUs were signed during the two days. The Deputy Prime Minister and Saudi Minister of Commerce convened a Pillar 1 meeting of the UK-Saudi Strategic Partnership where they agreed the ambition of increasing bilateral trade from £17bn to £30 billion by 2030.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda and Ogmore)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Government will publish a list of meetings he held with Dominic Cummings in (a) 2022 and (b) 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Since May 2010, the Government has published on gov.uk details of official government meetings with external organisations.
In 2011, this was extended to include details of meetings with senior media executives, covering official government, social and political meetings.
But otherwise, the Government does not record political meetings.
I would observe that since 2016, the Labour Party has stopped publishing its own meeting data on shadow frontbench meetings with senior media executives, breaking a commitment made by the then Labour Party leader (the Rt Hon Member for Doncaster North) during the Leveson Inquiry. The Hon. Member may recall how previous data illustrated his engagement with Evgeny Lebedev (now Lord Lebedev). As a shadow DCMS spokesman, the Hon. Member may wish to raise this subsequent shyness with his Opposition colleagues.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda and Ogmore)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether any (a) parliamentary private secretary and (b) hon. Members have travelled on overseas visits organised by Government Departments since December 2019.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
As set out in the Ministerial Code, official overseas travel by a Parliamentary Private Secretary would be exceptional. There have been no approvals by 10 Downing Street for such Parliamentary Private Secretary travel under this Administration.
Official overseas travel is permitted for trade envoys in line with their responsibilities. In that respect, I refer the hon. Member to the answer to him of 29 June 2023, PQ 190260.
This answer also serves as a reply to the hon. Member to his recent question to the Prime Minister at the Liaison Committee.
Asked by: Chris Bryant (Labour - Rhondda and Ogmore)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, when he plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Rhondda dated 18 April 2023.
Answered by Rishi Sunak
I refer the hon. Member to the letter from the Immigration Minister (my right hon. Friend, the Member for Newark) of 25 April, which serves as a substantive reply to the points the hon. Member raised in his letters of 18 April.
Regretfully, due to an administrative error, the reply was not clearer that the letter was being sent in response to both his letters.
A copy of that reply is in the Library (Deposited paper DEP2023-0421).