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) 16,174 jobs safeguarded in 2020-21 and (b) 6,665 jobs safeguarded 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, whether payments made under the contract for the provision of the Export Support Services Contact Centre have been made on an (a) available or (b) productive hours basis in the period between 1 April 2022 and 30 September 2022.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Payments made under the contract for the Provision of Export Support Services Contact Centre have been made on an available hour basis for the period 01 April 2022 to 20 September 2022.
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 the average number of full-time agents employed by the Export Support Services Contact Centre was between 1 April 2022 and 30 September 2022; and what the average agent utilisation rate was during core operating hours in each month of that period.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Between 01 April 2022 and 20 September 2022, the average number of agents was 16.3 FTE, and the average agent utilisation was 7%. Any activity not included in the overall target includes breaks, holidays, sickness, training, coaching and other non-customer facing activity.
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, how many and what proportion of calls to the Export Support Services Contact Centre resulted in an agent (a) resolving the caller’s query using her Department’s scripts and knowledge bank and (b) raising a complex query form and referring the caller to her Department’s digital enquiry team in each month between April 2022 and September 2022.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
In April, 48% (231) of enquiries were resolved using the knowledge bank, 57% (210) in May, 55% (196) in June, 50% (147) in July, 60% (163) in August and 56% (90) in September (to 20 September).
In April, 44% (212) of customers were referred to the digital enquiry team, 37% (137) in May, 36% (126) in June, 44% (129) in July, 33% (88) in August and 36% (58) in September (to 20 September).
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, how many calls were received by the Export Support Services Contact Centre (a) inside and (b) outside its core operating hours in each month between April 2022 and September 2022; and how many and what proportion of these calls were answered within 30 seconds.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Between 1 April 2022 and 20 September, the Export Support Services (ESS) Helpline received 2,731 calls within core operating hours (827 April, 501 May, 459 June, 392 July, 336 August, 216 September). The service received 89 calls outside core operating hours (21 April, 19 May, 23 June, 9 July,11 August, 6 September). 98% of calls received during core operating hours were answered within 30 seconds.
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, how many and what proportion of calls received by the Export Support Services Contact Centre were about (a) imports and exports affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and (b) subsequent restrictions and sanctions imposed on trade with (i) Russia and (ii) Belarus in the period between 1 April 2022 and 30 September 2022.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
Between 01 April 2022 and 20 September 2022, there were 1,520 calls relating to imports and exports affected by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and subsequent sanctions imposed on Russia and Belarus.
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, how many callers to the Export Support Services Contact Centre took part in customer satisfaction surveys in each month between April 2022 and September 2022; and how many and what proportion of those callers said that they were satisfied with (a) the professionalism of the call handler and (b) the overall service they received.
Answered by Marcus Fysh
During Quarter 2 (April to June) 2022, 42% of users responded to the Helpline’s Customer Satisfaction survey. Of these, 88% said they were satisfied with the professionalism of the call handler, and 75% said they were satisfied with the overall service. During Quarter 3 (July to 20 September) 2022, 43% of users responded to the survey. Of these, 92% said they were satisfied with the professionalism of the call handler, and 80% said they were satisfied with the overall service.
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, how many payments were fraudulently charged to the budgets of (a) her Department and (b) UK Export Finance using electronic purchasing cards in the financial years (i) 2019-20, (ii) 2020-21 and (iii) 2021-22; and what was the total value of fraudulent payments (A) made and (B) recovered in each of those years.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Department for International Trade (DIT) had a single case of fraud in 2020-21 of £986.98 which DIT recovered the full amount of from the card provider, Barclaycard. DIT fraud and error losses are published in the Cross-Government Fraud Landscape report which is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cross-government-fraud-landscape-bulletin-2019-20
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 18 May 2021 to Question 146 on Trade Agreements: Japan, whether she plans to correct her Department’s declaration of ministerial travel published on 7 May 2021 to reflect the cost to the public purse of her predecessor’s subsistence and expenses excluding travel when visiting Japan in October 2020.
Answered by James Duddridge
Ministerial transparency returns publish costs incurred specifically by departmental Ministers. This uses a different methodology than asked in the subsequent parliamentary questions, about the overall cost to the public purse.
There were some ancillary costs incurred by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) overseas embassy team (billed separately), related to the costs incurred by the Department for International Trade (DIT). This included the cost of translation services.
In the interests of transparency, the Department will update the DIT return with the subsequent ancillary FCDO costs.
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 announcement of the updated Developing Countries Trading Scheme on 15 August 2022, which product lines continue to have tariffs for Low Income Countries and Lower-Middle Income Countries to avoid preference erosion for Least Developed Countries.
Answered by James Duddridge
The Developing Countries Trading Scheme is one of the most generous trade preferences schemes in the world and provides duty free access on everything but arms to Least Developed Counties.
During the consultation into the scheme in 2021, the majority of respondents that raised the issue of preference erosion for Least Developed Countries did not specify individual product lines of concern. Those that did, highlighted the following product lines: cocoa, sugar and bananas.
Tariffs remain unchanged for non-Least Developed Countries within the scheme on these product lines.