Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with representatives of the UK steel industry on the implications of the outcome of the EU referendum for that industry; and what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies on support for the steel industry of the outcome of the EU referendum.
Answered by Nick Hurd
We are committed to working closely with the UK steel sector through the Steel Council, which is co-chaired by my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and the Chair of UK Steel, to maximize all opportunities to improve the sector’s competitiveness. This is also the forum for the Government and the Steel sector to work together to assess the implications of the outcome of the EU referendum. On 28 June, Ministers from the former Department of Business, Innovation and Skills held a special round table of business leaders, including the Chair of the Steel Council, to start to explore post-referendum issues.
On 20 July, my Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and I visited Port Talbot when we met with local Tata Steel management, employees and trade unions.
The Government’s top priority for steel has not changed in the light of the EU referendum. The process for selling Tata Steel’s remaining UK assets remains ongoing and we continue to work closely with Tata and potential bidders to seek to secure a sustainable future for UK steel production.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, on what dates the Steel Council or its sub-working groups have met in the last month.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Steel Council met on the 8th June to consider initial recommendations from the Council’s four working groups. The industry chaired working groups cover trade, energy, procurement, and future capability and capacity. The secretariat for the Steel Council, comprising of Gareth Stace from UK Steel and senior representatives from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, meet on a regular basis to drive this work forward. In the last month, the procurement working group has met twice on the 9th and 24th June, the trade working group met on the 22nd June, and the future capability and capacity working group met on the 7th July.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether officials from the Welsh Government have been identified to take part in the establishment of expanded trade negotiation functions in his Department as a result of the outcome of the EU referendum.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Cabinet Office has established a new unit to deliver the outcome of the referendum, exploring options for our future relationship with Europe.
As my Rt hon Friend the Prime Minister has said, it will be important to ensure that the interests of all parts of the United Kingdom are protected and advanced in our negotiations.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether (a) he and (b) ministers of his Department have met with the new Welsh Government to discuss the steel crisis.
Answered by Anna Soubry
My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills spoke with the First Minister about the steel crisis following his re-appointment on 18 May. He also wrote to the new Minister for Economy and Infrastructure on 23 May congratulating him on his appointment and extending a joint request from both myself and the Secretary of State for an early discussion on the situation in the South Wales steel industry.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will suspend the sale of arms to countries of the Saudi Arabian-led military coalition following the coalition's alleged use of cluster munitions in the Yemen conflict.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The UK Government takes its export control responsibilities very seriously. All export licence applications are carefully assessed on a case by case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria. A licence will not be issued if to do so would be inconsistent with any provision of the Criteria.
The suspension of licences will be considered by my Rt hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in circumstances where in the light of new evidence and information it would be considered that a proper risk assessment against the Consolidated Criteria would be difficult. At this time he considers that he does have sufficient information from a range of sources for a proper risk assessment to be made against the Criteria.
The UK ratified the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 4 May 2010 and does not licence the export of these weapons.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department has produced an implementation plan for the Sustainable Development Goals.
Answered by Anna Soubry
The Government intends to produce a report in due course that will set out how the UK is contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, whether her Department has produced an implementation plan for the Sustainable Development Goals.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government intends to produce a report in due course that will set out how the UK is contributing to the Sustainable Development Goals.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the value was of Official Development Assistance spent by his Department in each of the last six years; and what proportion of that assistance was subject to the International Development Act 2002.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Marylebone
Details on 2015 calendar year Official Development Assistance (ODA) spend will be published in the National Statistics publication ‘Provisional UK ODA as a proportion of Gross National Income 2015’ on 1 April 2016, at department level. I am therefore providing values for the 6 year period 2009-2014.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is building science and innovation partnerships between the UK and emerging economies through the Newton Fund, which began in 2014. The Newton Fund is subject to the International Development Act 2002, whilst all other BIS ODA spend is not. However, all of the Department’s ODA spending is in line with the aims of the International Development Act.
The Government is also introducing a new Global Challenges Research Fund of £1.5 billion over the next five years to ensure the UK’s world-leading research takes a leading role in addressing the problems faced by developing countries. This will mean that BIS’s ODA spend will increase over the current Spending Review period.
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Table 1. The value of Official Development Assistance (ODA) spent by the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, 2009-2014 | ||||||||
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| 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | |
total ODA | 37.3 | 47.9 | 40.0 | 48.0 | 48.5 | 79.0 | ||
o/w ODA subject to IDA1 | - | - | - | - | - | 4.6 | ||
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1 International Development Act 2002 | source: DfID, Medical Research Council | |||||||
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether his Department endorses the provisions outlined in the Charter for Sustainable British Steel, published on 16 January 2015.
Answered by Anna Soubry
We are supporting the sourcing of sustainable steel in our procurement guidance, which have been issued to all UK Government Departments.
We were the first EU Member State to take advantage of new flexibilities which allow wider considerations, such as social impacts, job impacts and staff safety in procurement decisions, to be taken into account. This allows the true competitive value of UK steel to be recognised.
No-one should be in any doubt that – across all of Government’s major procurements – we are working hard to make sure that wherever possible, British steel makers have the best chance of competing for, and winning, contracts.
Asked by: Stephen Doughty (Labour (Co-op) - Cardiff South and Penarth)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much and what proportion of her Department's overseas development assistance budget her Department spent was subject to the International Development Act 2002 in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) has spent the following amounts of Official Development Assistance (ODA) over the past three years
Year | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 |
Total ODA | £408.4m | £192.4m | £336m |
Amount under the International Development Act 2002 | £402.8m | £187.7m | £328.2m |
% under the International Development Act 2002 | 98.6% | 97.5% | 97.6% |
The spend that is under the International Development Act 2002 comes from the UK’s International Climate Fund (ICF) and the ODA-eligible proportion of the annual subscription to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The remaining DECC ODA spend is the ODA-eligible proportion of the annual subscriptions relating to the International Atomic Energy Agency. This spend is governed by the Supply and Appropriation Act; we seek to ensure this expenditure is consistent with the aims of the International Development Act.