Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Vaughan and Justin Madders

Thursday 13th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Tony Vaughan (Folkestone and Hythe) (Lab)]

7. What steps his Department is taking to help microbusinesses comply with the general product safety regulations.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade (Justin Madders)]

The Government are committed to supporting microbusinesses to comply with the general product safety regulation. For Northern Ireland, we have published additional guidance for businesses, and we will publish an update in the coming weeks, in the light of feedback we have received. We will continue to engage with businesses to ensure that they can trade freely across the UK. Businesses targeting the EU market may use the Government’s export support service. Since October 2024, the Department’s export academy has delivered eight free online GPSR training sessions to almost 5,000 attendees.

[Tony Vaughan]

I thank the Minister for his answer. My constituent George Stevens runs a microbusiness in Lydd making handcrafted stringed instruments; it has been running for over 30 years and he has many EU customers. He is deeply worried about Brexit-related red tape, which is holding back his EU exports. Can the Minister give him an assurance that, as a result of the proposed measures, he will now find it easier to trade with the EU?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Tony Vaughan and Justin Madders

Thursday 31st October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Justin Madders]

I find it incredible that the Opposition quote French-style labour laws, because when they introduced the minimum services legislation, they always held up France as the example of where that works already. I wish they would make their minds up. The implication behind the question about trade union funding says rather more about their attitude to how legislation is made in this country than ours. We do things because we believe in them. If he looks carefully at what the OBR is saying, £1,400 into people’s pockets as a result of the national living wage increase is a fantastic achievement that we should all be proud of.

[Tony Vaughan (Folkestone and Hythe) (Lab)]

7. What steps he is taking to help support small businesses to scale up.