Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2022 to Question 51512 on UK Trade with EU: Telephone Services, how many phone calls were made to the Export Support Service (a) inside and (b) outside its core operating hours between 20 and 30 September 2022; how many and what proportion of those calls were (i) resolved using the knowledge bank and (ii) referred to the digital enquiry team; and how many of those calls related to trade with (A) Ukraine, (B) Russia and (C) Belarus.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Between the 20 and 30 September, 138 number of calls were received by the service during core operating hours. Of these calls, 95 users indicated they were calling about trading with Europe, and 43 users indicated they were calling about trade with Russia, Ukraine or Belarus. On the 10 October the ESS Helpline service was replaced by the facility to arrange a call back with a DIT trade specialist, leveraging the recently in-housed International Trade Advisors. This has allowed DIT to switch to an integrated model across our services. The Export Support Digital Enquiry Service, which can be accessed via gov.uk, will continue to function as we seek positively to adapt our offer.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September to Question 51514 on UK Trade with EU: Telephone Services, what action was taken with respect to the (a) 8 per cent of enquiries in April, (b) 6 per cent of enquiries in May, (c) 9 per cent of enquiries in June, (d) 6 per cent of enquiries in July, (e) 7 per cent of enquiries in August and (f) 8 per cent of enquiries in September, that were neither resolved using the knowledge bank nor referred to the digital enquiry team.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
The enquiries which were not resolved using the knowledge bank or referred to the digital enquiry team were referred to another government department to provide a response.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2022 to Question 51515 on UK Trade with EU: Telephone Services and with reference to the Answer of 18 November 2021 to Question 74918, when the number of full-time agents employed by the Export Support Services Contact Centre reduced from 24; and what the average agent utilisation rate was (a) before and (b) after this change.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
The utilisation performance for the service has been provided to the Rt. Hon Member for Islington South and Finsbury in answers to Question 151022 and Question 51515. A decision was taken in June 2022 to not extend the Export Support Service Helpline, so the contract expired effective from the 07 October 2022. For the duration of the contract, active steps were taken to manage utilisation.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2022 to Question 51512 on UK Trade with EU: Telephone Services, what action was taken with respect to the approximately (a) 367 calls in April, (b) 151 calls in May, (c) 128 calls in June, (d) 108 calls in July, (e) 77 calls in August and (f) 64 calls in September 2022, that are not accounted for by the figures provided in the Answer of 28 September 2022 to Question 51514.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
The data used to answer Question 51514 was taken from the supplier’s Customer Relationship Management system, whereas the data used to answer Question 51512 is taken from the supplier’s telephony system. As the contract expired on 07 October 2022, we do not have access to the supplier’s telephony system to provide the breakdown as requested.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what was the cost to the public purse of (a) payments to Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd. for the operation of her Department’s Export Support Service and (b) other costs associated with (i) the preparation of material for its knowledge bank, (ii) the promotion of the service to businesses and (iii) other work connected to the (A) establishment and (B) operation of the service between 1 April 2021 and 30 September 2022.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
The Export Support Service helpline was launched in October 2021. The preparation of material for its knowledge bank was carried out by DIT, and Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd (HGS UK) uploaded it to their system. The cost was included within the initial implementation period, with the total cost of implementation being £145,666. The total cost associated with the operation of the service in between October 2021 and 30 September 2022 was £1,002,158.
DIT delivered a single marketing campaign to promote the Export Support Service helpline and Digital Enquiry Service. Paid marketing activity ran from October 5th 2021 until March 31st 2022, and the total cost is £925,327.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what accounts for the difference between the total number of calls to the Export Support Service between 1 April and 20 September 2022 implied by the percentage figures contained in the Answer of 28 September 2022 to Question 51514 of 1,925.5 calls and the 2,820 calls reported in the Answer of 28 September 2022 to Question 51512.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Any users which were not accounted for in the figures provided in the answer to Question 51514 either refused to provide their data or were not businesses, and this data is stored on separate systems. The number of calls received by the Export Support Service is reported using the supplier’s telephony system, which was used to answer Question 51512. The case outcome data is reported using the supplier’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which was used to answer Question 51514. The difference between these figures is the number of calls logged on the telephony system, and the number of cases entered into the CRM system.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Answer of 9 March 2022 to Question 133933 on Trade Agreements: Japan, whether the first batch of 38 new UK geographical indications will be formally designated by the Japanese authorities by 24 October 2022.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
On 30 April 2021 the UK shared a list of 77 UK geographical indications (GIs) with Japan. All these GIs need to go through examination and opposition procedures in Japan, as required in their domestic procedures. Due to the large number of GIs, Japan requested they be split into two batches to facilitate the necessary domestic procedures in Japan.
All 77 UK GIs will undergo Japan’s procedures as quickly as possible. Concurrently the UK will run procedures on a list of Japanese GIs provided by Japan. The intention is to protect the first tranche of UK GIs and Japanese GIs on the same date once these processes are complete.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, on how many occasions the provision of mandatory training for staff in (a) her Departmental, and (b) UK Export Finance regarding their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 has been cited by those departments as a defence against Section 109 proceedings since the commencement of that Act.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Department for International Trade and UK Export Finance have not cited the provision of mandatory training given to staff as a defence against Section 109 of the Equality Act 2010 in any proceedings brought in relation to the Equality Act 2010.This is based on the records held in accordance with its retention policies.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to her Department’s inward investment results published on 28 June 2022, how many of the (a) 47,784 new jobs created in 2020-21 and (b) 72,906 new jobs created in 2021-22 related to involved FDI projects verified as net-zero investments aligned to the ten point plan for a green industrial revolution.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Recently released statistics show the Department for International Trade (DIT) supported inward investment that contributes to the Government’s green industrial revolution agenda. These statistics can be found by accessing https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/department-for-international-trade-inward-investment-results-2021-to-2022
This shows that DIT supported nearly £13 billion of net zero aligned foreign investment in the financial year 2021 to 2022, creating almost 9,000 new jobs.
A previous DIT publication related to the green industrial revolution agenda can be found by accessing
This shows that since the 10 Point Plan was announced on 18 November 2020 to 24 September 2021, DIT supported £2.6 billion worth of net zero aligned foreign investment, creating nearly 3,000 new jobs.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to her Department’s inward investment results published on 28 June 2022, how many of the (a) 1,131 involved FDI projects recorded in 2020-21 and (b) 1,174 involved FDI projects recorded in 2021-22 have been verified as net-zero investments aligned to the ten point plan for a green industrial revolution.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Recently released statistics show the Department for International Trade (DIT) supported inward investment that contributes to the Government’s green industrial revolution agenda. These statistics can be found by accessing https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/department-for-international-trade-inward-investment-results-2021-to-2022
This shows that DIT supported nearly £13 billion of net zero aligned foreign investment in the financial year 2021 to 2022, creating almost 9,000 new jobs.
A previous DIT publication related to the green industrial revolution agenda can be found by accessing
This shows that since the 10 Point Plan was announced on 18 November 2020 to 24 September 2021, DIT supported £2.6 billion worth of net zero aligned foreign investment, creating nearly 3,000 new jobs.