Gregory Campbell

The Government recognises the invaluable contribution of emergency service workers to the people of the United Kingdom, and that the nature of that role means those workers will often find themselves in situations that may present a danger to their personal safety.

The Elizabeth Emblem is awarded to the next-of-kin of public servants who have died as a result of their public service. Full details on how to apply for this award, and detailed eligibility criteria, are available on GOV.UK.

While there are no current plans to review the criteria for the Emblem along the lines suggested, the Government is happy to consider the case for any new medal or award, subject to comprehensive assessment across relevant departments.

None planned, as there is no DBT policy in relation to Govt contracts which differentiates treatment of UK residents who are entitled to a UK passport following the passing of the British Nationality Act 2024 from other UK residents.

The UK acceded to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on 15 December 2024.

This comprehensive agreement will support businesses by making it easier for them to trade with CPTPP, and all nations of the UK are expected to benefit.

It will reduce tariffs on some of Northern Ireland’s most-exported products to CPTPP countries, with tariffs of up to 30% eliminated on UK exports of machinery to Malaysia within five years.

Government analysis estimates that the UK’s accession could boost Northern Ireland’s economy by around £70 million annually when compared to 2019 levels, in the long run.

The Government offers free guidance, tools and training to help businesses improve their cyber resilience. This includes a new Cyber Governance Code of Practice to help boards and directors manage digital risks, and the Cyber Essentials scheme which helps in protecting businesses against cyber-attacks.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is working in close coordination with law enforcement, the Department for Business and Trade and other relevant government departments to support each of the affected retailers. This includes providing technical expertise and strategic guidance which assist with incident response and recovery. The NCSC is maintaining active engagement with the wider retail sector to share threat information and offer mitigative guidance aimed at reducing the risk from further incidents.

The Investment Fund for Northern Ireland aims to tackle an identified funding gap by increasing the supply and diversity of early-stage finance for smaller businesses in Northern Ireland. The criteria for success includes number of investments, overall deployment of capital, amount of private sector capital leveraged, geographical spread of investments, ensuring distribution across the whole of Northern Ireland, and providing funds to firms that might not otherwise receive investment.

In addition, an interim evaluation of the fund will be commissioned during the first five years of the Fund’s operation, and we expect it to assess the gross value added, turnover growth rates, and finance additionality.

Promoting investment into Northern Ireland is a key priority for investment staff across the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Office for Investment, including the dedicated team of 10 based in Belfast (DBT NI). At present no dedicated member of staff is working specifically on The Open Golf Championship at Royal Portrush in July 2025, but staff are working on wider promotion of investment into Northern Ireland on an ongoing basis that seeks to take advantage of the focus that events like The Open can provide. DBT NI continues to work collaboratively with Invest Northern Ireland on a range of events and initiatives throughout the year.

My officials have been engaging regularly with businesses from across the UK on the updated General Product Safety Regulation in Northern Ireland. Since the guidance for businesses was published, officials have hosted numerous drop-in sessions for businesses, both before and after the Regulation took effect in Northern Ireland. The Department for Business and Trade will be publishing updates to the guidance to provide additional clarity to businesses, reflecting the queries and feedback we have received.

At end February 2025 DBT had 76 FTE from across the organisation based in our Belfast Hub. There are 10 people working in the trade and investment team, who all work collaboratively with Invest Northern Ireland on a range of events and initiatives throughout the year.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) has a dedicated Export Finance Manager (EFM) based in, and visiting businesses all around, Northern Ireland since 2012, along with Regional Heads who oversee the work of clusters of EFMs.

UKEF does not provide information about individual officials who are not senior civil servants.

The British Business Bank periodically publishes updated milestone figures on the Nations and Regions Investment Funds. Updated figures for the Investment Fund for Northern Ireland will be published by the end of Q2, which will include private sector investment.

The £10 million already deployed is solely from the fund, private sector investment is in addition to that. The fund expects to deploy the £70m over 5 years, until November 2028.

The Investment Fund for Northern Ireland was launched in November 2023 with the aim to deliver a £70 million commitment to smaller businesses in Northern Ireland, alongside investment from the private sector. Since its launch, the fund has deployed almost £10 million in debt funding and equity investment to local businesses at differing stages of their growth journey.

UK Export Finance (UKEF) produces audited details of businesses supported each financial year as part of its transparency protocols.

Details of all UKEF support for businesses for 2023/24 and previous years can be found online at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/uk-export-finance-business-supported

The corresponding return of all businesses supported during financial year 2024/25 will be published in the summer.

UKEF does not publish a breakdown by UK nations and regions.

UKEF offers its full range of products and services to exporters across the UK, including Northern Ireland. Full details of the UKEF’s product and support offering can be found online at: www.ukexportfinance.gov.uk/products-and-services/.

UKEF also has a network of Export Finance Managers across the UK who are valuable points of contact for local businesses and can provide information on the range of support available. Contact details for the EFMs can be found at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/find-an-export-finance-manager.

The UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is expected to support jobs and create opportunities for business growth in every part of the UK. An impact assessment was published regarding the UK's accession to CPTPP and the potential long-run economic impact of the agreement. The analysis detailed the prospective impacts on all the UK’s regions and nations and demonstrated that UK GDP could increase by £2.0 billion every year in the long run.

The Department for Business and Trade works closely with businesses in a range of sectors, including manufacturing, construction, aerospace, and automotive sectors, and will continue to.

Each Government department engages with relevant sectors where appropriate.

The department will publish a comprehensive impact assessment on the impacts of the 2025 National Minimum Wage uprating in line with the requirements of the Better Regulation Framework shortly. However, this will not provide an estimate of the number of National Living Wage earners who will become income taxpayers from April 2025.

The Department produces National Minimum Wage Impact Assessments in line with the requirements of the Better Regulation Framework. Previous Impact Assessments are available via Legislation.gov.uk.

The Impact Assessment that will be published alongside the legislation for the 2025 rates will not provide an estimate of the number of National Living Wage earners who will become income tax payers from April 2025.

We continue to support businesses in ensuring a smooth flow of goods between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK, including through regular engagement with online suppliers and platforms.

DBT regularly talks to online suppliers and platforms, and works with the NI Department for the Economy to support people in Northern Ireland.

The Government publishes an Impact Assessment each year alongside the legislation that implements the increases to the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates. The legislation for the 2025 rates is expected to be laid in Parliament early in the new year, with debates in both Houses expected in February or March, subject to Parliamentary timetable.

Guidance for businesses on the new General Product Safety Regulation was published last week on 3rd December and has been shared with the business community in Great Britain and Northern Ireland through existing channels. My officials will keep the guidance under review to ensure we are supporting businesses to trade freely across the UK.

This will be included in the Impact Assessment that we plan to publish alongside the legislation that implements the increase to the National Living Wage in 2025.

The Low Pay Commission (LPC) estimate that 2.9% of full-time employee jobs and 12.0% of part-time employee jobs were covered by the relevant National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rate in 2023. The LPC will publish updated analysis in early 2025.

The current National Living Wage (NLW) is set at £11.44 per hour. This means for a full-time worker on the NLW working 35 hours each week, their gross annual earnings are £20,821. This will increase to £22,222 after the new NLW rate of £12.21 is applied from 1st April 2025.

Each worker's take home salary will vary as this will depend on a range of factors, including total hours worked, taxes and other lawful deductions, and additional benefits.

(a) The number of active employees attached to the Trade and Investment Hub in Northern Ireland during the previous 12 months is shown on Table 1. This is representative of active employees who are based in Norther Ireland and work for the Trade and Investment Hub, Northern Ireland. There are also employees in other teams and locations that indirectly support Trade and Investment in Northern Ireland.

DBT defines “staff employed” as Civil Servants on payroll with an active payroll assignment.

(b) All active employee records attached to the Trade and Investment Hub in Northern Ireland recorded the same job type, International Trade. This was not amended throughout the reporting period 1^st December 2023 – 1^st November 2024.

Table 1

No decisions to close any or all of the remaining Directly Managed Branches have been taken.

The Post Office will continue to deliver on the 11,500 minimum branch requirement set by Government. Longer term, Government has set out our plan to publish a Green Paper to consult with the public on the long-term future of the Post Office. This Green Paper will help inform what customers, communities and postmasters would like to see from a modern Post Office network.

We estimate that over 3 million workers will receive a pay rise due to the increase in the National Living Wage in April 2025. The number of workers paid at the National Living Wage in April 2025 is expected to be lower as some of these workers will receive a further indirect pay rise as employers decide to pay above the minimum.

We will publish an Impact Assessment alongside the legislation that implements the increase to the National Living Wage.

At the International Investment Summit we announced a total of £63 billion of investment with nearly 38,000 jobs to be created across the UK. DBT is committed to building on the success of the summit and continuing to attract and retain investment across the whole of the UK. We also announced we will be expanding the Office for Investment to become the UK's investment promotion function. The Office for Investment will work across government and UK nations and regions to drive inward investment and deliver on our collective mission to drive growth across the UK.

The United Kingdom as a whole will accede to the CPTPP, and every nation and region of the UK is expected to benefit from the agreement, which is expected to increase GDP by £2 billion a year in the long run as published in the Department’s Impact Assessment (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cptpp-impact-assessment). Northern Ireland’s gross value added (GVA) is estimated to increase by around £70 million from UK accession to the CPTPP (relative to 2019 values).

The Department has started hosting a series of events leading up to entry into force to ensure businesses are aware of, and know how to take advantage of, the opportunities CPTPP will present. This activity is spread across the UK, including events across the Nations and Regions of the UK, and will increase in the run-up to and beyond entry into force of CPTPP.