Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether her Department undertook an assessment of potential conflicts of interest before awarding Wrightbus £26 million in UK Export Finance-backed funding.
Answered by Andrew Bowie - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
UK Export Finance (UKEF) does not invest equity or provide funding into projects. The support it provides is in the form of insurance or guarantees for loans from commercial lenders.
UKEF considers all applications for support on their respective merits based on objective criteria. Any support given is provided on commercial terms, generating a return for the UK taxpayer.
UKEF applies rigorous due diligence processes before providing support for any transaction.
As is usual with such applications, there was no ministerial involvement in UKEF’s decision to support this transaction, which is driving growth and creating high-skilled green jobs in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department takes to ensure that at least one official from her Department is present during all (a) meetings and (b) phone calls relating to Government business between Ministers and third parties.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Ministers holding meetings or phone calls on government business are routinely accompanied by a private secretary or other official, in line with the expectations of paragraph 8.14 of the Ministerial Code.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what her Department’s process is for (a) recording and (b) keeping minutes of all meetings relating to Government business.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Formal, structured meetings are usually minuted. It is expected that the general guidance that departments give to their staff will help officials make judgements as to what meetings need to be minuted, noting their Civil Service Code obligation to ‘keep accurate official records.’
Specific procedures are in place for external meetings involving ministers. These are publicly available and can be found in the Guidance on the management of Private Office Papers.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how much her Department spent on (a) communications, (b) advertising and (c) marketing in (i) the UK, (ii) England, (iii) Northern Ireland, (iv) Scotland and (v) Wales in each month from August 2020 to December 2020.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The total spend on UK advertising activity through paid media channels between August 2020 and December 2020 was £19,971.47 (excl. VAT). This excludes communications and marketing activity undertaken by the Department overseas.
This media spend targets the UK business audience as a whole and the Department does not hold information separating this spend by the nations of the UK.
The Department for International Trade publishes expenditure exceeding £25,000 on all communications and marketing on a rolling monthly basis on gov.uk as part of routine government transparency arrangements.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will ensure that (a) general standards and (b) rules on geographic indicators will not be lowered in exchange for any reduction of tariffs in a UK-US mini trade deal.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Both the UK and the US have made clear their shared ambition for a comprehensive trade agreement. Getting the right deal is more important than meeting any particular deadline.
The UK’s reputation for quality, safety and performance drives demand for UK goods and is key to our long-term prosperity. In negotiations, we will uphold the UK's high environmental protection, animal welfare and food safety standards.
We will also maintain effective protection of food and drink names in a way that reflects their geographical origins, getting the balance right for consumers to ensure they are not confused or misled about the origins of goods, and have access to a competitive range of products.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many licences for the export of 12 gauge rubberised buckshot TEC Harseim ammunition to Chile have been granted in the last 12 months.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
None.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how her department defines personal meetings in the context of classifying meetings to enable decisions of whether to publish them in the Government's quarterly transparency data.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for International Trade takes issues over transparency and potential conflicts of interest incredibly seriously and so adheres to the Cabinet Office guidelines in relation to all meetings.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many licences for arms exports to Belarus her Department has approved in the last 12 months.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
There are EU sanctions against Belarus already, including an arms embargo and a ban on the export of equipment that might be used for internal repression. Britain cannot issue export licences for items prohibited by these sanctions.
More generally, information about export licences issued, granted and refused is publicly available at: gov.uk/government/collections/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether the Government plans to publish the review upon which it based its decision to resume arms exports to Saudi Arabia in July 2020.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
The review contains confidential and sensitive information so, for national security reasons, HM Government has no plans to publish it.
Asked by: Owen Thompson (Scottish National Party - Midlothian)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what plans she has to ban imports of Xinjiang cotton made using Uighur Muslim forced labour.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
HM Government have serious concerns about the human rights situation in Xinjiang, with credible reports of the use of forced labour. It has always been the case that, where we have concerns, we raise them, as we did on this issue at the UN Human Rights Council in March. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.
HM Government is committed to eliminating modern slavery. The Modern Slavery Act 2015 made Britain the first country in the world to require businesses to report on how they are tackling modern slavery, including forced labour, in their operations and supply chains. Section 54 of the Act was designed to empower consumers, investors, civil society and others to scrutinise the action that businesses are taking to identify and address modern slavery in their operations and supply chains.