Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department has taken to implement the recommendations of The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship on increasing the number of female angel investors in the UK.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The ‘Women backing Women’ campaign was launched under the auspices of the Rose Review via the Angel Investment Taskforce, led by the UK Business Angels Association.
This campaign seeks to support women to become angel investors across all four nations in the UK, and has engaged thousands of new and prospective female angel investors to help unlock new source of early-stage funding for female founders across the UK. Further measures to increase the number of women choosing to become angel investors will be taken during 2024.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to support economic growth in the South East.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Over £431m has been allocated through the Levelling Up Fund, including £20m in Portsmouth to transform the visitor economy. Nearly £7m has been allocated to Portsmouth through the Future Highstreet Fund to reshape the city centre in a way that drives growth.
The Towns Fund is investing £109m across five towns in the South East to stimulate local economies. Further investments are planned through our Levelling Up Partnerships and Long-Term Plan for Towns.
The Solent and Thames Freeports will create jobs and attract new businesses in high growth sectors and Help to Grow and Growth Hubs are available to businesses.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the (a) transparency and (b) regulation of private prosecutions following the failure of the Post Office Horizon system.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Since I announced on 10th January 2023 that the Government plans to legislate to overturn the convictions of postmasters, I have held several positive discussions with my Rt Hon Friend the Lord Chancellor. However, private prosecutions are ultimately a matter for the Ministry of Justice.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2024 to Question 7392 on Military Aid: Israel, when offensive military equipment was last provided to Israel.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
HM Government publishes data on export licensing decisions on a quarterly basis in the Official Statistics, including data on outcome, end user destination, overall value, type (e.g. military, other) and a summary of the items covered by these licences. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
The most recent publication was on 16 January 2024 and covered licensing decisions made between 1 April - 30 June 2023.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what recent assessment she has made of the (a) adequacy and (b) transparency of the arms export control regime.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
HM Government takes its export control responsibilities very seriously and we operate one of the most robust and transparent export control regimes in the world.
We rigorously assess every application on a case-by-case basis against the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria (the Criteria). The Criteria provide a thorough risk assessment framework and we will not issue an export licence to any destination where to do so would be inconsistent with the Criteria.
Export licensing is the responsibility of the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), which brings together operational and policy expertise from the Department for Business and Trade (DBT), the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and the Ministry of Defence (MoD).
We publish comprehensive Official Statistics every quarter about the decisions we make on licence applications including those issued, refused, rejected, or revoked. This covers data from every year since January 2008, and is broken down in a variety of ways, including by licence type, outcome, end user destination(s), initial processing time and control entry type. This data is available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/strategic-export-controls-licensing-data.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department plans to take to support people made redundant due to the closure of Wilkos stores in Portsmouth.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
We recognise that this must be a worrying time for Wilkos’ employees and their families.
The Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service, on behalf of the Secretary of State will make statutory redundancy and related payments to all eligible employees who have been made redundant. The Redundancy Payments Service has been working with the administrators to ensure that employee claims can be paid as soon as possible.
Further information for employees and creditors can be found at www.gov.uk/government/news/wilko-in-administration-information-for-employees-and-creditors.
DWP’s Rapid Response Service can help affected employees at both national and local level.
The National Employer and Partnership Team (NEPT) are also speaking to all employers on the national portfolio to identify possible alternative employment opportunities for the Wilko workforce.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what discussions she has had with Wilko on their announcement of bankruptcy and the potential closure of stores.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
It is not appropriate for Government to involve itself in the running of an independent business. Nor is it appropriate to be involved in the independent exercise of the administration of a business.
Officials at the Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Service have been working with the Administrators of Wilko to ensure that statutory redundancy payments can be made to the former employees as soon as possible. Retail officials have had regular engagement with the administrators, PwC, the GMB Union, as well as DWP, the Cities and Local Growth Unit and the Insolvency Service.
I remain concerned for the many employees who now face an uncertain future. We will continue to provide support to those employees directly impacted by the outcome.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has had discussions with her Indian counterpart on the prospect of India ratifying conventions (a) 87 and (b) 98 of the International Labour Organisation conventions; and whether this would be a prerequisite for any free trade agreement between the UK and India.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
While we do not comment on live negotiations, our approach to FTA negotiations is to secure provisions that ensure labour standards are not compromised in order to increase trade or investment. An FTA with India will not come at the expense of our worker protections.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department plans to take to help ensure there is adequate (a) public scrutiny and (b) accountability of (i) trade negotiations and (ii) any future trade agreement between the UK and India.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government has put in place enhanced scrutiny arrangements for free trade agreements. This included publishing our negotiating strategy, including objectives, in January 2022.
Since negotiations commenced, we have published twelve negotiation updates. In addition the Chief Negotiator has briefed the relevant select committees on a number of occasions. Once the deal is concluded it will be subject to parliamentary scrutiny under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act, prior to ratification. The Government will also commission and publish advice from the independent Trade and Agriculture Commission. Finally, any legislation needed to implement the agreement will be scrutinised and passed by Parliament in the usual ways.