Asked by: Jonathan Davies (Labour - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what support his Department is offering to protect businesses from tariffs where it is not possible to source steel products domestically in the context of the Steel Trade Measures.
Answered by Chris McDonald - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The measure has been designed to strike a balance between securing domestic steelmaking while maintaining secure supply for downstream users.
It is designed to only cover requirements that can be met in the UK. Where not feasible for technical reasons, quotas have been designed to allow for sufficient imports to be available to downstream users.
To ease short-term impacts, we are introducing a transitional arrangement under which the new measure would not apply to goods agreed under contract before 14 March 2026 and imported between 1 July and 30 September 2026. Further details are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jonathan Davies (Labour - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he plans to introduce new consumer protections against rogue traders.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
This government is committed to protecting consumers from rogue traders. Consumer legislation already sets out standards consumers should expect when a trader supplies goods and services, as well as remedies if these rights are breached.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 further strengthens consumer law enforcement. For example, enforcers such as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can apply to the courts to impose penalties when dealing with consumer law breaches.
Furthermore, the Act allows the CMA to impose monetary penalties of up to 10% of turnover for substantive breaches of consumer law without having to go through the courts.
Asked by: Jonathan Davies (Labour - Mid Derbyshire)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what proportion of registered company directors had verified their identity on Companies House by 10 October 2025; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all directors have verified their identity by the time they file their next annual statement.
Answered by Blair McDougall - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Over 700,000 individuals have successfully completed step 1 of the IDV process, thereby creating a verified identity. From 18 November, it will be possible to link this information with specific appointments, dependant on the due date of each company’s confirmation statement.
Companies House has undertaken extensive communications to support compliance with the new requirements, including sending over 15 million emails since April 2025 to all active companies at their registered email address. Around 10 million emails have focused specifically on identity verification.
Other communications activity includes a campaign site, paid for advertising, social media and working with various partners.