Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2024 to Question 23805 on Oil: Imports, when he plans to publish the UK Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2023.
Answered by Alan Mak - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
We plan to publish this report before Parliament rises for Summer Recess.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 19719 on INEOS: Belgium, whether her Department sought assurances from Ineos on the safeguarding of the petrochemical site at Grangemouth before providing support for the Ineos Project One plant at Antwerp.
Answered by Greg Hands
UK Export Finance is the UK’s Export Credit Agency, and its role is to provide finance and insurance to support UK exports.
It has not had any involvement with the Grangemouth Petrochemical site.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 19719 on INEOS: Belgium, whether she made an assessment of the potential merits of supporting the cethelyne cracker plant at the existing Ineos site at Grangemouth.
Answered by Greg Hands
UK Export Finance is the UK’s Export Credit Agency, and its role is to provide finance and insurance to support UK exports.
It has not had any involvement with the Grangemouth Petrochemical site.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether end-use restrictions apply to controlled goods exported to Israel.
Answered by Alan Mak - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
Our export licensing system is based on a rigorous assessment of every licence application on a case-by-case basis against strict assessment criteria, the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria (the SELC), prior to the export taking place.
The SELC provide a thorough risk assessment framework for export licence applications and require us to think hard about the impact of providing equipment and its capabilities. We will not license the export of equipment where to do so would be inconsistent with the SELC, including where there is an unacceptable risk of the equipment being diverted to an undesirable end-use or end-user. These are not decisions we take lightly.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 19719 on INEOS: Belgium, whether the Ineos project will be capable of processing sustainable aviation fuel.
Answered by Greg Hands
The INEOS Olefins project is a petrochemical plant being built to produce a range of petrochemicals products rather than burnable fuels. Therefore it neither processes nor produces any form of aviation fuel.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21358 on INEOS: Belgium, if he will provide a breakdown of the €200 million of UK content by the (a) sectors and (b) nature of (i) goods and (ii) services.
Answered by Greg Hands
The largest share of the UK content goes to supporting jobs where a UK company is responsible for construction and project management of associated facilities for the INEOS Project One site, including design and engineering services. Additionally, UK content support has been provided for a company to provide equipment for furnaces, as well as for companies providing legal and procurement services from the UK.
The Department for Business and Trade are unable to provide further details about contracts already awarded for reasons of commercial sensitivity.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has held discussions with UK Export Finance on (a) the closure of the ethanol plant at Grangemouth and (b) the proposed INEOS plant in Antwerp.
Answered by Greg Hands
UK Export Finance and the Department for Business and Trade are strategically and operationally aligned, and routinely share relevant information across all business areas.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to Answer of 25 March 2024 to Question 19719 on INEOS: Belgium, how many (a) ethanol and (b) ethanol-related products will be produced at the new Ineos site in Antwerp.
Answered by Greg Hands
The INEOS Project One plant will not be producing ethanol or ethanol related products.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate UK Export Finance made of the potential value of (a) goods and (b) services from UK (i) businesses contracted directly by and (ii) supply chain businesses that will be used in INEOS Project One, Belgium as a result of the support it has committed to that project.
Answered by Greg Hands
UK Export Finance’s (UKEF’s) support for export transactions is conditional on the inclusion of UK goods and services, with a general requirement that there should be at least 20% UK content relative to the value of its support. In this instance, UKEF support has already secured over €200 million of UK content into this project.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if her Department will make an assessment of the likelihood of the presence of (a) engines and (b) engine parts produced by UAV Engines, Staffordshire, in the Hermes 450 drone used in the strikes on World Central Kitchen vehicles.
Answered by Alan Mak - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
We continue to monitor the situation in Israel and Gaza closely but are not commenting on specific licences.
All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria. The UK operates one of the most robust and transparent export control regimes in the world.
We are carefully reviewing initial findings of Israel’s investigations into the killing of World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers.
The findings of the inquiry must be published in full and followed up with a wholly independent review to ensure the utmost transparency and accountability.