Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the Prime Minister's Oral Statement of 25 February 2025 on Defence and Security, Official Report, columns 361-364, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of reducing Official Development Assistance funding as a proportion of Gross National Income on UK businesses.
Answered by Douglas Alexander - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Prime Minister has set out a new strategic vision for government spending on defence and security, and official development assistance.
Decisions on how the ODA budget will be used will be worked through as part of the ongoing Spending Review and resource allocation processes, based on various factors including impact assessments.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, when he plans to publish information on the remaining issues set out in paragraph 46 of the policy paper entitled The fire safety of domestic upholstered furniture, published on 22 January 2025.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is committed to upholding the highest standards of fire safety for domestic upholstered furniture and ensuring only safe products are placed on the UK market. Officials in the Department for Business and Trade have begun extensive, targeted stakeholder engagement to inform decision making on the issues outlined in the policy paper. Following this engagement process, the Government will publish an update on the remaining issues.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to her Department have been reported (a) lost and (b) stolen in each of the last three years.
Answered by Greg Hands
| 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
Lost | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Stolen | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether any refurbishments have been made to ministerial offices in her Department in each of the last two years.
Answered by Greg Hands
All facilities management services, including refurbishments, are carried out on behalf of the Department for Business and Trade, by the Government Property Agency (GPA).
The GPA have confirmed that they have not undertaken any refurbishment work to Ministers offices in Old Admiralty Building in the last two years.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many settlement payments her Department issued following claims of (a) bullying, (b) harassment and (c) discrimination in the (i) 2019-20, (ii) 2020-21, (iii) 2021-22 and (iv) 2022-23 financial years.
Answered by Greg Hands
The Department for Business and Trade issued less than 5 settlement payments following discrimination claims in the financial year 2021-22. We withhold the exact figures under Section 40(2) (Personal information) of the Data Protection Act.
No settlement payments following bullying, harassment and/or discrimination claims were issued in the other years requested.
Under the Declaration on Government Reform, we “guarantee fairness at work, take a zero tolerance approach to bullying, discrimination and harassment, and grow a culture that welcomes challenge and demands rigour in how we assess delivery for citizens.” Settlement Agreements are not used to prevent colleagues from speaking out.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether there have been any power cuts on their Department's property in each of the last three years.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
Since its inception in February 2023 under the recent machinery of government changes, the Department for Business and Trade has not experienced any power cuts affecting the properties it uses.
The Government Property Agency, who own, manage, and operate all of the property assets the Department uses, are responsible for assessing and mitigating the risk of power cuts to buildings.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what data their Department holds on the (a) number and (b) total cost of replacing (i) laptops, (ii) mobile phones, (iii) memory sticks and (iv) external hard drives that have been (A) lost and (B) stolen in the last year.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The figures for the Department for Business and Trade from 1 April 2023 to 10 November 2023 for phones and laptops are below.
Item | Number | Cost |
Phone | 68 | £ 30,285 |
Laptop | 28 | £ 30,734 |
TOTAL | 96 | £ 61,019 |
The Department has no record of lost removable devices, including memory sticks or external hard-drives.
All departmental IT is fully security encrypted.
The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the
Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries.
Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated and the
contents deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately.
and remotely locked.
There has been no data loss or compromise as a result of these losses.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will publish the (a) average amount of time it took for consignments of (i) food and (ii) agricultural products to clear customs in the latest period for which information is available and (b) Government's estimate of the average amount of time it will take for those consignments to clear customs under the Border Target Operating Model.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
This information is not held by the Department for Business and Trade.
A number of factors impact clearance times at the border. They will vary depending on the type of food or agricultural product being imported, the port of entry and the mode of transport. Under the risk-based approach to controls set out in the Border Target Operating Model many food and agricultural imports will not require checks at ports ensuring they can leave the port without delay.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what estimate she has made of the number of people eligible for the entitlements set out in the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act who will not receive those entitlements between the date the Bill received Royal Assent and the date the Act is due to be implemented.
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.
It is not possible to deliver the Neonatal Care Leave and Pay entitlement immediately after Royal Assent as delivery requires updates to HMRC IT systems and a significant amount of secondary legislation.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what progress her Department has made on the consultation on choice on units of measurement: markings and sales.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities
The Government has received over 100,000 responses to the consultation on the Choice on units of measurement: markings and sales and will publish its response in due course.