Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Twist Excerpts

Thursday 7th March 2024 Commons Chamber

[Kemi Badenoch]

My hon. Friend is right. I signed the enhanced trade and investment partnership in Nigeria, alongside my counterpart, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, on Tuesday 13 February this year. It was the first of its kind in terms of the UK’s trade commitments across the region. The partnership aims to remove market access barriers and promote technical co-operation in areas such as financial and professional services. The UK and Nigeria have co-created a partnership that tackles issues that businesses face, and this is the first step in a significant relationship and an already strong trading partnership worth a total of £6.7 billion in the 12 months to September.

[Liz Twist (Blaydon) (Lab)]

T9. Last week, Carl Cresswell, director of business resilience in the Department for Business and Trade, told the Select Committee that he personally thinks that we will end up spending more money on Horizon compensation overall than that £1 billion currently allocated by the Treasury, but we did not hear anything about that in yesterday’s Budget. Does the Secretary of State share that view?

[Kevin Hollinrake]

We have always been clear that the £1 billion is not a cap. Clearly, the amount of compensation that needs to be paid for redress is to get people back to where they were before the scandal took place. At the moment, we are not nearing that £1 billion, but I think that over time we will be. As I say, it is not a cap; if we need to raise the amount, we will.