Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2026 to Question 18049, on Government Departments: Greater Manchester, what the average percentage attendance rate of assigned Insolvency Service staff was at 3 Piccadilly Place in Manchester in the most recent working week for which figures are available, expressed as a percentage of assigned staff attending the workplace and in absolute terms.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade) (Jointly with the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
For the period of Oct 5th 2026 – Oct 9th 2026, the average attendance for the 388 workers with Manchester assigned as their home office was 27%. This does not include allowances for working offsite, part time working and agreed leave. The Insolvency Service’s Manchester office has 146 desks, across the week the office was 71% full.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the answer of 13 July 2026, to Question 18049, on Government Departments: Greater Manchester, what the average percentage attendance rate of assigned DBT (BIST) staff was at Piccadilly Gate in Manchester in the most recent working week for which figures are available, expressed as a percentage of assigned staff attending the workplace and in absolute terms.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The department does not collect data in a way that enables us to determine the percentage of assigned staff attending Piccadilly Gate, Manchester. The office attendance expectation is that employees attend a departmental office, or undertake qualifying off-site work, for 60% of their working time (Senior Civil Servants) and 40% (delegated grades), subject to any agreed workplace adjustments or flexible working arrangements.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2026 to Question 18049, on Government Departments: Greater Manchester what the average percentage attendance rate of assigned (a) DSIT and (b) DBT staff was at Trinity Bridge House in Salford in the most recent working week for which figures are available, expressed as a percentage of assigned staff attending the workplace and in absolute terms.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The department does not collect data in a way that enables us to determine the percentage of assigned staff attending Trinity Bridge House, Salford. The office attendance expectation is that employees attend a departmental office, or undertake qualifying off-site work, for 60% of their working time (Senior Civil Servants) and 40% (delegated grades), subject to any agreed workplace adjustments or flexible working arrangements.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 17 July 2026, to Question 16029 on Darlington Economic Campus: Remote Working, how many of his Department's staff are assigned to Feethams House, Darlington; how many CMA staff are assigned to work in Darlington; and what is the expectation of the percentage rate of office attendance for staff at each of those offices.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
As of September 2026, there are 238 former Department for Business and Trade staff based at Feethams House, Darlington. The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade does not currently have confirmation of the number of former Department for Science, Innovation and Technology staff who are based in Darlington and have joined the newly formed department.
The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) has 21 staff assigned to work at the Darlington Economic Campus.
Expected office attendance for staff based in both offices varies by grade, ranging between 40-60%.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the Answers of 13 July 2026 to Question 18049 on Government Departments: Greater Manchester, and 14 July 2026 to Question 14979 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Darlington, what was the average percentage attendance rate of assigned EITA staff at 3 Piccadilly Place 3 Piccadilly, Manchester M1 3BN in the most recent working week for which figures are available, expressed as a percentage of assigned staff attending the workplace and in absolute terms.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The department does not collect data in a way that enables us to determine the percentage of assigned staff attending Piccadilly Place, Manchester. The office attendance expectation is that employees attend a departmental office, or undertake qualifying off-site work, for 60% of their working time (Senior Civil Servants) and 40% (delegated grades), subject to any agreed workplace adjustments or flexible working arrangements.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 13 July 2026 to Question 18049, on Government Departments: Greater Manchester, what the average percentage attendance rate of assigned Competition and Markets Authority staff was at 1 New Bailey St in Salford in the most recent working week for which figures are available, expressed as a percentage of assigned staff attending the workplace and in absolute terms.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The Competition and Markets Authority (“CMA”) produces office attendance figures monthly rather than by individual working week. For the most recent month for which figures are available, August 2026, office attendance for CMA staff assigned to 1 New Bailey Street, Salford, was 41%, based on total office days attended as a proportion of total available working days.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the answer of 14 July 2026, to Question HL1905, on Department for Business and Trade: Buildings, and further to the Cabinet Office data, Monthly Average HQ Building Occupancy, what is the occupancy rate of the Old Admiralty Building expressed as a proportion of the assigned workforce attending the office rather than the proportion of desks occupied.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The occupancy rate of the Old Admiralty Building based on the proportion of the assigned workforce attending the building is 21.6% (April 2026 – July 2026).
Working days at other non-home locations including other government offices, visiting businesses and attending meetings are not included. In July, 67% of Department for Business and Trade staff worked at least 40% of their time from an office or other work-related location.
Note that staff assigned to the Old Admiralty Building have the option of working from Caxton House, London. Accurate daily usage figures for Caxton House are not available and are excluded.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, pursuant to the answer of 13 July 2026, to Question 18049, on Government Departments: Greater Manchester, and to the answer of 14 July 2026, to Question 14979, on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Darlington, what was the average percentage attendance rate of assigned ACAS staff at 3 Piccadilly Place 3 Piccadilly, Manchester M1 3BN in the most recent working week for which figures are available, expressed as a percentage of assigned staff attending the workplace and in absolute terms.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
Acas do not collect data in a way that enables us to determine the average percentage attendance rate for our estate. 162 staff are assigned to the Manchester office at 3 Piccadilly Place. During the period 7 to 11 September 2026 Acas recorded 96 attendance instances, but we cannot verify how many individuals that equates to. The current Acas office attendance expectation is that employees attend an Acas office, or undertake qualifying off-site work e.g. delivering off site training, for an average of 20% of their working time, subject to any agreed workplace adjustments or flexible working arrangements.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that compliance requirements relating to sanctions, export controls and anti-money-laundering rules do not have a disproportionate effect on defence SMEs.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
DBT operates a clear, proportionate, and robust system of export controls and sanctions, promoting both UK prosperity and national and global security. DBT supports all exporters with their compliance obligations through a suite of regularly updated guidance, coupled with stakeholder outreach. This is intended to make our regulations less costly and easier to implement.
Access to finance can be a significant issue for defence firms, particularly SMEs. HMG is actively engaging with banks to ensure they understand the importance of the defence sector. Through the Defence Finance and Investment Strategy, MOD is exploring how it can improve the investability of the sector, including by considering the role of the MOD relative to compliance checks carried out by the investor community.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Policy paper entitled Amplify: The Local Media Action Plan of 17 March 2026, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of a 14-day cooling-off period on the effectiveness of local and regional news publishers in adopting a digital-first and sustainable future.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
The government is committed to ensuring a healthy and plural local media for the benefit of communities and citizens across the UK. We have launched a Local Media Action Plan to help local newsrooms across the country innovate and adapt their business models for the online world, while incentivising and encouraging the production of high quality, trustworthy news.
We have consulted on how the subscriptions regime will be implemented and Ministers and officials have engaged with representatives from the news media sector. We are working closely with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to reflect on the issues raised and a Government Response will be published in due course.
The impact assessment for the subscriptions chapter in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumer Act can be found here: Subscription traps: annex 2 impact assessment. Together, the subscription measures are anticipated to provide £400m of consumer benefits per year and the estimated net direct cost to businesses is £171m per year.
Sector-specific analysis has not been conducted.