Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many staff in his Department were working in the goods and tariffs team in February 2025.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Department for Business and Trade operates a flexible resourcing model to maximise efficiency across goods and tariffs policy between the Trade Policy, Implementation and Negotiations (TPIN) Group and the Economic Security and Trade Relations (ESTR) Group. In July 2024 the combined headcount across the two groups was 1, 191 and in January 2025 it was 1, 305.
The department is unable to provide an accurate headcount figure for February 2025 until that month’s payroll run is completed, therefore January’s end month figures have been provided.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many staff in his Department were working in the goods and tariffs team in July 2024.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Department for Business and Trade operates a flexible resourcing model to maximise efficiency across goods and tariffs policy between the Trade Policy, Implementation and Negotiations (TPIN) Group and the Economic Security and Trade Relations (ESTR) Group. In July 2024 the combined headcount across the two groups was 1, 191 and in January 2025 it was 1, 305.
The department is unable to provide an accurate headcount figure for February 2025 until that month’s payroll run is completed, therefore January’s end month figures have been provided.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when he plans to respond to Question 25193 tabled by the hon. Member for West Worcestershire on 21 January 2025.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
A response to Question 25193 is being prepared and will be provided as soon as possible. I apologise for the delay in responding to the hon. Member.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Help to Grow Programme; and if he will publish the outcome for business growth broken down by the gender of business owners.
Answered by Gareth Thomas - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Longer term impacts on productivity can take 3-7 years to be measurable, however early findings show promising impacts. Over 90% of participants are satisfied with the programme and within 6 months of completion, most participants surveyed reported enhanced firm resilience, sales and cost savings. Early impact analysis on productivity is underway and future reports will address variations in productivity impacts by gender, should these arise.
Evaluation findings on the early impacts of Help to Grow: Management are available on GOV.UK and the next release will be later this year.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the new lower employers' National Insurance threshold applies to retained fire crews.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
To repair the public finances and help raise the revenue required to increase funding for public services, the government has taken the difficult decision to increase employer National Insurance.
The rate of employer NICs will increase from 13.8% to 15% and the per-employee threshold at which employers start to pay National Insurance (the Secondary Threshold) will be reduced to £5,000.
At the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, the government announced an additional £515 million of support for local government to manage the impact of changes to employer NICs announced at the Autumn Budget.
Fire and rescue authorities will receive a share of the overall funding provided to local government.
Payments will be unringfenced to allow funding to be used across direct, commissioned, and externally provided local services.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he has made an assessment of the potential impact of additional trade barriers between the United States of America and Mexico on the UK economy.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
On 4 February, President Trump agreed to hold off imposing all tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days, following calls with Prime Minister Trudeau and President Sheinbaum. We will continue to monitor any further developments, including through discussions with counterparts, and we will always do what is in the national interest for our economy, businesses and the British people.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
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 additional trade barriers between the United States and Canada on the UK economy.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
On 4 February, President Trump agreed to hold off imposing all tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days, following calls with Prime Minister Trudeau and President Sheinbaum. We will continue to monitor any further developments, including through discussions with counterparts, and we will always do what is in the national interest for our economy, businesses and the British people.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether their Department offers its staff shared parental leave from their first working day.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
To qualify for shared parental leave, an employee must have been in continuous employment with the Civil Service for 26 weeks up to and including the fifteenth week before the week in which their baby is due to be born.
As with any changes to employment legislation, internal policies and processes will be updated as appropriate in preparation for when the Employment Rights Bill 2024 comes into effect.
The Civil Service management code states that, departments and agencies may only grant shared parental leave in accordance with the statutory requirements governing eligibility for this category of leave. However, some staff could qualify for statutory shared parental leave on their first day of service with a department because they already have qualifying service with another department.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions (a) he, (b) Ministers and (c) officials in his Department have had with the Canadian Government on a potential UK-Canada trade deal.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Secretary of State met with his Canadian counterpart Trade Minister Mary Ng at the G7 in July last year; they discussed the paused bilateral FTA and agreed that senior officials should begin discussions to see what it might take to resume negotiations.
I have met with Minister Ng twice since then, including in Vancouver last November where we agreed that senior officials should continue these discussions, which are ongoing. Meanwhile, the UK-Canada Trade Continuity Agreement remains in force, underpinning approximately £27 billion in bilateral trade.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions (a) he, (b) ministers in his Department and (c) officials in his Department have had with counterparts in Mexico regarding on the potential impact of additional US-Mexico trade barriers on UK trade.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
On 4 February, President Trump agreed to hold off imposing all tariffs on Canada and Mexico for 30 days, following calls with Prime Minister Trudeau and President Sheinbaum. We will continue to monitor any further developments, including through discussions with counterparts, and we will always do what is in the national interest for our economy, businesses and the British people.