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Written Question
Department for International Trade: Coronavirus
Tuesday 6th December 2022

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many employees in her Department work on matters related to covid-19.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

Following a search of our central records and engagement with teams across the Department for International Trade, there are no employees with a job title including COVID-19.

The Government published its Living with Covid plan in February 2022 to help and support citizens as we transition out of the pandemic. Additional guidance has also been published on the Department for International Trade intranet to support staff.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Civil Servants
Monday 21st November 2022

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the civil service headcount for their Department was on (a) 15 November 2022 and (b) 1 February 2020.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

a) As of 31 October 2022 (the latest payroll figure for 15 November 2022), Department for International Trade (DIT) employed 3,481 Civil Servants. 3,302 Civil Servants in the UK and 179 overseas UK based staff working on DIT objectives. In addition, UK Export Finance employed 515 staff.

b) As of 31 January 2020 (for 1 February 2020), Department for International Trade employed 2,229 Civil Servants. 2,077 Civil Servants in the UK and 152 overseas UK based staff working on DIT objectives. In addition, UK Export Finance employed 337 staff.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Public Expenditure
Friday 8th April 2022

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will detail the losses and special payments valued at under £300,000 for her departmental group as defined by section A4.10.7 in HM Treasury's Managing Public Money for (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.

Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

The losses and special payments valued at under £300,000 for the departmental group for the years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 as already held on the record of losses for the public sector organisations within the departmental group, in accordance with Managing Public Money (Annex A4.10.7), or as otherwise held for the purposes of special payment disclosures, are set out below. These disclosures are consistent with the organisations’ obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018.

The Department promotes UK exports and showcases business at international trade shows. A number of events due to take place during 2019-20 were cancelled due to COVID-19 and the Department was unable to recoup all amounts incurred towards them.

  • The total number of cases of losses in each year.

The total number of cases of losses in each year

2018 -2019

2019-2020

2020-2021

23

178

25

  • The total cost of losses in each year.

The total cost of losses in each year

2018 -2019

2019-2020

2020-2021

£466,443

£920,363

£650,195

  • The total number of special payments in each year.

The total number of special payments in each year

2018 -2019

2019-2020

2020-2021

2

None

None

  • The total value of special payments in each year.

The total value of special payments in each year

2018 -2019

2019-2020

2020-2021

£88,000

None

None


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Coronavirus
Friday 18th March 2022

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, if she will take steps to ensure that her Department and its agencies remove all internal covid-19 related policies, restrictions and mask mandates.

Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons

The Department for International Trade (DIT) continues to follow the Government’s Working Safely guidance, requiring organisations to carry out a risk assessment which includes the risk from COVID-19. DIT have retained our Personal Risk Assessment process to meet this criteria.

Following the easing of restrictions in England, guidance on social distancing and similar office measures have been removed. To note, DIT have never mandated facemasks in our office buildings.

DIT is committed to encouraging employees to return to the workplace while also supporting flexible working.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Protective Clothing
Tuesday 7th September 2021

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what her current policy is on the wearing of face coverings in her (a) Department, (b) departmental agencies and (c) related bodies during the covid-19 outbreak.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department remains aligned to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s working safely during coronavirus (COVID-19) Guidance so does not currently mandate the wearing of face coverings in any of its UK offices. Those working for the Department are expected to follow guidance on face coverings in operation in the geographical area they are working while on official business.

The Department continues to prioritise other control measures such as minimising contact, ventilation, and screens over face coverings on its UK estate. The Department works with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to agree working practices overseas in line with local guidance.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Training
Monday 28th June 2021

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps she has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in her Department.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department for International Trade (DIT) stopped mandating completion of the Cabinet Office supplied Unconscious Bias (UB) digital (e-learning) training for all staff (including UKEF) in November 2019 when they replaced it with Diversity and Inclusion (2019) training. This was later superseded in 2020 with Inclusion in the Civil Service training.

All the above digital training is/was owned and supplied by Civil Service Learning (CSL) who are an expert service function of the Cabinet Office.

The DIT internal intranet site and Learning Hub were both updated in 2019 to remove reference to the standalone UB training and replaced with the new alternate recommended training. In addition, steps were taken to ensure relevant DIT policies and processes were updated to remove and/or replace reference to the standalone UB digital training as appropriate.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: International Men's Day
Wednesday 2nd December 2020

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department took to mark International Men's Day on 19 November 2020.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Department for International Trade is committed to ensuring fairness for all - regardless of gender or background. International Men’s Day offers an opportunity to highlight how outcomes for men and boys can be improved and to talk about some of the work going on every day across Government to do this.

To mark International Men’s Day, the department undertook a range of events, including a virtual event held by the Gender network, mentoring sessions for male members of staff by the Permanent Secretary, and a conversation for men from the department hosted by the Second Permanent Secretary. The Permanent Secretary also spoke at two virtual Civil Service-wide events, including the Cross-Government Gender Network event.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Pay
Thursday 22nd October 2020

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the biggest pay rise given to someone in her Department was in (a) percentage and (b) cash terms in the last 12 months.

Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The biggest pay rise given to employees in percentage and cash terms over the last 12 months for the Department for International Trade (DIT), including UK Export Finance (UKEF), is in the table below. Figures have been rounded to the nearest £100 to protect individual’s identities.

(a) highest percentage

(b) highest cash value

DIT

21%

£15,900

UKEF

29.6%

£11,700

For DIT, the pay increase was the consequence of a SCS1 (Deputy Director) being promoted to SCS2 (Director) via fair and open competition in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles and moving to the band minima of their new grade. The Civil Service pay range for SCS2 with effect from 1 April 2020 is £93,000 - £162,500.

For UKEF, the pay increase was the result of an employee at the minimum of their existing pay band being promoted to the minimum pay of the next pay band.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Flags
Wednesday 4th March 2020

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many times the (a) Union Jack, (b) St George's flag, (c) Scottish Saltire and (d) flag of Wales has been flown from the headquarters of her Department in London in each year since 2015.

Answered by Conor Burns

Records of flag flying are held by our facilities management provider. Records prior to 2018 are not held.

The Union Jack is flown all year round unless replaced with the flag of St. George.

The flag of St. George was flown 3 times in 2018, 5 times in 2019 and has not yet been flown in 2020.

The Scottish Saltire Flag or Welsh Flag were not flown in the period for which records are held.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Flags
Wednesday 4th March 2020

Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many (a) Union Jack, (b) St George, (c) Scottish Saltire and (d) Flag of Wales flags her Department owns.

Answered by Conor Burns

The department owns 8 flags which are flown externally. These are: 4 Union Flags, 2 St George’s Flags, 1 Scottish Saltire Flag and 1 Flag of Wales. This list does not include free standing flags in Ministerial offices.