Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how much their department spent on X and xAI since July 2024.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Paid advertising on X was suspended in April 2023 following a SAFE Framework assessment. X is currently used only for organic (non-paid) content to communicate policies and public services.
The Department for Business and Trade has spent £84.00 with X since July 2024 on X Premium, the platform’s premium subscription service.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his Department's consultation entitled Make Work Pay: Right of Trade Unions to Access Workplaces, published on 23 October 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposals on the administrative workload of SMEs.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government will introduce the new trade union right of access in a regulated and responsible manner, ensuring it is workable for employers who receive requests for access. Our published impact assessment titled "Strengthening workers’ rights to trade union access, recognition and representation" provides a further assessment of why these reforms will not disproportionately affect micro or small businesses. In the consultation document, Make Work Pay: Right of Trade Unions to Access Workplaces, the government sought views on exempting employers with fewer than 21 employees. This would mean that micro-businesses and most small employers would not be within scope of the policy. We are carefully reviewing all responses to the consultation and will publish a formal response in due course.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the consultation on rights of trade unions to access workplaces, how many responses did the consultation receive, and what percentage of those responses were from a) SMEs, b) other sized businesses, c) trade unions, and d) any other organisations.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government is carefully reviewing responses to the consultation and will publish its formal response in due course. This will include a breakdown of respondents.
Asked by: Jack Rankin (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to his Department's consultation entitled Make Work Pay: Right of Trade Unions to Access Workplaces, published on 23 October 2025, what discussions he has had with business organisations about the raising of the threshold to exempt SMEs with a headcount less than 250 employees.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As part of the consultation process, we engaged with business organisations and unions on proposals put forward in the public consultation, including the proposed exemption from statutory access provisions for employers of a certain size. We are carefully reviewing all responses to this consultation and will publish a formal response in due course.