Asked by: Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many international investment agreements to which the UK is a signatory include protections against expropriations without compensation.
Answered by Greg Hands
The UK is a signatory to over 90 bilateral investment treaties (BITs). The UK is also a party to the plurilateral Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), which has 53 other parties including the EU. The ECT and all of the UK’s BITs currently in force include protections against expropriation without compensation.
Asked by: Robert Courts (Conservative - Witney)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of the level of interest among small and medium-sized enterprises in the Great.gov.uk digital platform.
Answered by Greg Hands
Great.gov.uk is designed to engage as many businesses as possible, especially small and medium-sized enterprises and to date we have had a highly positive response to our digital services with over 5000 business registered for accounts, including 1500 registrations for our “Find a Buyer” Service and over 360,000 visits to the site.