Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what his planned timetable is for bringing forward secondary legislation under the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill once enacted.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Bill will give us the powers we need to make necessary changes to the product regulation framework. Secondary legislation is subject to the Bill receiving Royal Assent and subsequent parliamentary time in passing any secondary legislation. It is too early to commit to a detailed timetable for secondary legislation, but we will continue to work with stakeholders as this develops.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to ensure that the Office for Product Safety and Standards is adequately resourced to enforce the provisions of the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Capacity already exists to enforce the provisions proposed in the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill in both the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) and in local authorities. Government will consider any changes to resourcing requirements for OPSS within the Spending Review and departmental business planning processes. Local authority budgets are set by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and allocated by local authorities according to their priorities.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will (a) list the product regulations that will be reviewed under the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill and (b) make an assessment of the effectiveness of current legislation in protecting consumers from the sale of dangerous toys sold on online marketplaces.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will provide Government with enabling powers to update regulations. The main regulations are listed in the recently published Government response to the Product Safety Review.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards runs a national programme to reduce the risk of non-compliant products sold online. Through monitoring and evaluating marketplaces, including purchasing and testing products, we assess the prevalence of unsafe toys and take appropriate enforcement action.
While UK regulations are clear that toys must be safe, the Bill will enable regulations to be updated to better reflect modern supply chains, including online marketplaces.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if his Department will take steps to prevent third-party sellers from selling dangerous goods to consumers.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
UK product safety law is clear: all products must be safe. Third-party sellers have clear obligations under legislation where they are either producers or distributors.
The Office for Product Safety and Standards carries out a range of regulatory actions to reduce the risk of unsafe products being sold online by third-party sellers. This includes test purchasing, taking enforcement action, providing guidance to sellers, and working with Local Authority Trading Standards and Border Force to undertake co-ordinated interventions.
In addition, the Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will provide powers to update the responsibilities of online supply chain actors, including third-party sellers.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to ensure that market surveillance authorities are adequately resourced to manage new requirements for online marketplaces.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will provide Government with enabling powers to introduce new requirements on online marketplaces. The Office for Product Safety and Standards and local authorities already carry out a range of regulatory actions to reduce the risk of unsafe products being sold online.
Government will consider any changes to resourcing requirements for OPSS within the Spending Review and departmental business planning processes. Local authority budgets are set by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and allocated by local authorities according to their priorities.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether Simon Blagden's status as a Conservative Party donor was taken into account as part of the appointment process for his roles at (a) Building Digital UK, (b) UK Health Security Agency and (c) the Trade Advisory Group for telecoms and technology.
Answered by Greg Hands
For all appointments, a declaration of interests is recorded and due diligence conducted on appointees. These appointments will have been decided on the individual’s experience against the essential criteria for the role.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether Simon Blagden's role at Fujitsu UK was taken in account as part of the appointment process for his roles at (a) Building Digital UK, (b) UK Health Security Agency and (c) the Trade Advisory Group on telecoms and technology.
Answered by Greg Hands
For all appointments, a declaration of interests is recorded and due diligence conducted on appointees. These appointments will have been decided on the individual’s experience against the essential criteria for the role.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she plans to take with Cabinet colleagues to facilitate parliamentary scrutiny of trade deals with the US; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
In June the Prime Minister and the President of the United States announced the Atlantic Declaration and accompanying Action Plan to cover the full spectrum of our economic, technological, commercial and trade relations, and to explore further ways to expand our bilateral trade.
Negotiations remain at an early stage and it is not clear what form agreement will take but we remain committed to effective and proportionate scrutiny of our trade negotiations and will ensure Parliament has the information it needs to scrutinise outcomes.
We will continue to update Parliament as our work on US trade develops.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's publication entitled UK-Canada Free Trade Agreement: The UK’s Strategic Approach, published 24 March 2022, for what reason does the UK's strategic approach (a) include an ambition to ensure the agreement does not contain an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism and (b) not commit to disapply such a mechanism with Canada as part of the UK’s accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
The UK will not be seeking to negotiate an investor state dispute mechanism (ISDS) in the UK-Canada FTA and will instead seek to consider alternative options for investment dispute resolution that are best suited to the bilateral relationship between the UK and Canada.
In seeking accession to CPTPP, the UK committed to the agreement’s existing standards, including its provisions on investor protections backed by a modern and transparent ISDS mechanism. These features balance the need to protect UK investors accessing and operating in CPTPP markets and ensure that the Government can regulate in the public interest.
Asked by: John McDonnell (Independent - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department sought a side letter similar to those agreed with the Governments of Australia and New Zealand to disapply investor–state dispute settlement provisions under the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership during accession negotiations.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
In seeking accession to CPTPP, the UK committed to the existing standards of this agreement, including its provisions on investor protections backed by a modern and transparent investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) mechanism. These features balance the need to protect UK investors accessing and operating in CPTPP markets and to ensure that the Government can regulate in the public interest. In light of our investment relationship with Australia and New Zealand, we agreed side letters confirming that it was not necessary to have ISDS provisions between our countries in CPTPP.