Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
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 impact of (a) pubs and (b) other hospitality businesses extending their Bounce Back Loans for (i) an additional five years beyond the current maximum limits and (ii) at the same rate of interest.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Pay As You Grow (PAYG) was introduced to give businesses that borrowed under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) greater flexibility, including extended repayment terms and short-term interest only payments. The Department’s multi-year published evaluation of the Covid-19 Loan Guarantee Schemes indicated that closure rates among BBLS borrowers using PAYG were relatively low compared to others, suggesting PAYG may have had an important role in ensuring the survival of some businesses. The department has not conducted a sector specific assessment in relation to PAYG impact.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will ask the British Business Bank to support credit unions to offer loans to small businesses.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The British Business Bank is backing Community Development Finance Institutions (CDFIs) with £150 million of capital through the Community ENABLE Funding programme, to support small businesses that are under-served by commercial lenders.
Credit unions play a valuable role in providing both loans and savings, with 2.2 million members across the UK. Unlike CDFIs, which are not authorised to offer bank accounts, credit unions are able to attract customer deposits and are not reliant on wholesale finance. For this reason, the British Business Bank has no current plans to support credit unions to offer loans to small businesses.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) pubs and (b) other hospitality businesses with outstanding covid-19 loans.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This information is not held centrally by the Department for Business and Trade.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much funding her Department and its predecessor Department allocated to the (a) Turkish-British Chamber of Commerce, (b) British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce, (c) British Chamber of Commerce in Brazil, (d) UK-India Business Council, (e) Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce and (f) British Chamber of Business in Southern Africa in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The Department for Business and Trade and the former Department for International Trade have not provided any funding to the Chambers of Commerce requested except for the UK-India Business Council. The funding provided to it is as follows:
Year | Spend |
2013 (October-March inclusive) | £441,344.54 |
2014 | £3,428,243.20 |
2015 | £2,269,682.03 |
2016 | £1,955,098.94 |
2017 | £1,499,191.33 |
2018 | £1,311,455.20 |
2019 | £1,059,669.00 |
2020 | £828,695.00 |
2021 | £1,115,025.00 |
2022 | £270,835.00 |
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she will make an assessment of the potential impact of tariffs on battery electric truck tractors on net zero targets.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The UK's trade policy is intended to support the achievement of government objectives and is kept under review. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles works across government to support the transition to zero emission vehicles. Zero Emission vehicles will help the UK decarbonise and Government remains committed to the Net Zero 2050 target.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to Appendix 1, Section B, Subsection 1, A, 2 of the Annex Modifications to Annex 1 to the UK-Andean Trade Agreement, signed in Quito on 15 May 2019, CP 122, what the (a) timing and (b) process is of the examination of the improvement of tariff liberalisation of goods included in staging category BA; against what criteria she plans to assess the potential impact of that improvement; what plans she has to consult countries potentially affected; and whether she plans to publish an impact assessment.
Answered by Greg Hands
The examination of goods included in Appendix 1, Section B, Subsection 1, A, 2 of the Annex Modifications to Annex 1 to the UK-Andean Trade Agreement must take place within two years of entry into force of the UK-Andean Countries Trade Agreement. The agreement entered into force for all parties in June 2022.
In the review, the UK will consider the interests of businesses and consumers alongside our development objectives. The Government will engage stakeholders and meet our existing commitments for consultation in the UK-Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement.
There are no plans to publish an impact assessment.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department had discussions with the Royal Mail on the Printed Postage Impressions system prior to 2013.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake
Operational matters, which include those relating to the Printed Postage Impressions service, are the direct responsibility of Royal Mail. The Government is not involved in the day- to-day operations of the company and does not play a role in handling or resolving issues in relation to postage fraud.
Royal Mail has a well-established process in place to deal with suspected postage fraud. This is handled by the Royal Mail Revenue Protection team, who would be best placed to answer any queries in relation to this issue.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate she has made of the number of prosecutions involving potential Printed Postage Impressions fraud in the last 15 years; and what estimate she has made of the number of cases alleging wrongful prosecutions in relation to those cases in the last 15 years.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake
Operational matters, which include those relating to the Printed Postage Impressions service, are the direct responsibility of Royal Mail. The Government is not involved in the day- to-day operations of the company and does not play a role in handling or resolving issues in relation to postage fraud.
Royal Mail has a well-established process in place to deal with suspected postage fraud. This is handled by the Royal Mail Revenue Protection team, who would be best placed to answer any queries in relation to this issue.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answers of 14 and 18 December 2023 to Questions 6067, 6068 and 6383 and the Answer of 10 January 2024 to Question 7471 on Tractors: Batteries, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact on the UK's transition to electric vehicles of tariffs on battery electric truck tractors from the EU in each year to 2030.
Answered by Greg Hands
The rules which apply to battery electric truck tractors to facilitate tariff free trade have been in force since 1 January 2021 and were not due to change in 2024. The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles (OZEV) works across government to support the transition to zero emission vehicles. Zero emission vehicles will help the UK decarbonise and Government remains committed to the Net Zero 2050 target.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the oral contribution of the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade during the debate on UK Export Performance of 18 September 2023, Official Report, column 1200, how many people work in the dedicated free trade agreement utilisation team as of 17 January 2024; and how many people he plans to work in that team on average over the next two financial years.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Free Trade Agreement Utilisation team has around 20 full time employees who work closely with business-facing teams across the Nations and regions of the UK, teams based overseas, and across all of our Department’s export support ecosystem to raise awareness of our new FTAs and ensure business can seize the opportunities in those fast growing markets.
Future years' resourcing will be decided as part of business planning for each financial year.