Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many chapters of a prospective free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council have been concluded.
Answered by Greg Hands
Six rounds of negotiations have been successfully concluded as part of negotiations on a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The Department for Business and Trade regularly engages with the GCC at both Chief Negotiator and ministerial level and is making good progress on agreeing chapters including in areas such as Customs, Technical Barriers to Trade and Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The department cannot comment any further as negotiations are ongoing.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what assessment she has made of the potential implications for her policies of the Competition and Market Authority investigation into the proposed merger between Vodafone and Three Mobile.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Competition and Markets Authority is the UK’s independent competition regulator and its merger investigations are independent of Government.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to her Department's press release entitled Millions to take home more cash as new guidance on Tipping is published, published on 22 April 2024, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of delaying the implementation of the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2023 to 1 October 2024.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act will require employers to pass all tips on to workers, without deductions. The implementation date for the Act, and the accompanying statutory Code of Practice, was revised from 1st July to 1st October to ensure sufficient time for those affected by the changes to prepare.
The impacts of the new requirements were considered in the impact assessment for the Act: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3197/publications.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will take steps to increase domestic steel production to levels that would make the UK self-sufficient.
Answered by Alan Mak - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The Government recognises the importance of steelmaking in the UK. However, there are many types of steel products needed by consumers, and it is not always economically viable for any nation to be wholly self-sufficient. This means that the UK imports certain types of steel and also exports certain steel product to other countries.
We have taken action to enable a competitive landscape and level playing field, including reducing energy costs through the British Industry Supercharger, access to energy efficiency and decarbonisation funding, and remedies against unfair trading practices, while balancing the need to remain a fair and open market.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an estimate of how much oil from Russia which has been refined in India has been imported as jet fuel since February 2022.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
In line with WTO rules of origin, Russian oil which has been substantially processed (refined) in a third country is no longer considered to be of Russian origin.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps his Department is taking to tackle companies that provide misleading and fraudulent Individual Voluntary Arrangements.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Financial Conduct Authority recently took action to ban providers of debt advice from receiving payments in exchange for referring debtors to Individual Voluntary Arrangement (IVA) providers. In addition, the Insolvency Service introduced new regulatory guidance to the insolvency profession in relation to the take up of new IVAs.
The Government has announced that it will further strengthen the regulatory regime by introducing new legislation to regulate firms providing insolvency services, in addition to individual insolvency practitioners, which will include companies providing IVA solutions.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to end the use of daylight saving time.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Government has no plans to change the daylight saving arrangements. The Government believes that the current daylight saving arrangements represent the optimal use of the available daylight across the UK.
While there is the potential for some benefits from a change in the current arrangements, there is also a real risk of negative impacts. A change to permanent summertime or double summertime may also have significant impacts on certain sectors and businesses.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to ensure that legislation protecting plumbers, builders and carpenters affected by delayed payments from customers is adequate.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Government believes that clients who commission work from small firms or individual tradespeople, should pay invoices as swiftly as possible. This ensures that they have the cash flow to enable them to continue to operate. Firms and tradespeople have recourse to the Small Claims Court, in cases where clients persistently refuse to pay. On 2 October, the Government announced new measures to back small businesses and tackle late payments as part of the Prompt Payment and Cash Flow Review, including extending and improving the Reporting on Payment Practices and Performance Regulations 2017. The full review will be published shortly.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will set an implementation date prior to 2025 of the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
We are committed to introducing Neonatal Care Leave and Pay as quickly as possible. Work is ongoing across Government to deliver these new entitlements.
Delivery requires updates to HMRC IT systems and parliamentary consideration of a significant amount of secondary legislation, which will take approximately 18 months.
It is also necessary to align the ‘go live’ date with the start of a tax year. This means April 2025 is the earliest date for the introduction of Neonatal Care Leave and Pay.
Asked by: Lloyd Russell-Moyle (Labour (Co-op) - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when she plans to provide the final wording of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to Parliament.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston
Following the substantial conclusion of negotiations on Friday 31 March, the next step will be to officially sign the agreement that the Government has struck with CPTPP Parties. This will take place following the completion of the legal review process, which is now ongoing
The negotiation outcome will be set out in a Protocol of Accession. This document and the UK’s agreed market access schedules will be published at the point of signature.