Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps she is taking to increase trade between Somalia and the UK.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
My Department will introduce the UK’s Developing Countries Trading Scheme (DCTS) in early 2023, which will facilitate Somalia’s integration into global supply chains through reformed rules of origin and allow 99% of goods exported from Somalia duty-free access to UK markets.
The Department for International Trade’s Export Support Service also provides specialist overseas support to small-and-medium-sized UK businesses looking to export and grow in Africa, including Somalia.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Answer of 28 April 2022 to Question 157459 on Export Credit Guarantees: Iran, whether the £28.4 million debt owed by Iran to UK Export Finance (UKEF) has (a) been closed or (b) is still being pursued by UKEF following the settlement of the IMS dispute in March 2022.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The IMS portion of the debt has been closed and will no longer be pursued.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Answer of 28 February 2020 to Question 15096 on Export Credit Guarantees: Iran, whether the £28.4 million debt owed by Iran to UK Export Finance (UKEF) has (a) been closed or (b) is still being pursued by UKEF following the settlement of the IMS dispute in March 2022.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether she plans to (a) change staffing levels and (b) make redundancies in each of her Department’s regional teams of international trade advisers in the next 12 months.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The International Trade Adviser service is one part of the department’s export support ecosystem that up-skills businesses to take advantage of export opportunities.
The Department for International Trade (DIT) contracts with Delivery Partners to provide an International Trade Adviser service across England. International Trade Advisers are employees of Delivery Partners. Staffing levels are determined by Delivery Partners, in response to commercially agreed outcomes.
DIT provides the maximum possible support to UK business to take full advantage of trade opportunities, including those arising from delivering Free Trade Agreements, and facilitating UK exports.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps she is taking to secure a free trade agreement with Ghana.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
The United Kingdom and Ghana have finalised negotiations on a trade agreement, which will provide duty-free, quota-free access for Ghana to the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom and Ghana have issued a joint statement at: gov.uk/government/news/ghana-uk-joint-statement-ghana-uk-trade-partnership-agreement.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many and what proportion of the staff employed by her Department are apprentices.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
As of 31 March 2020, the Civil Service has achieved a total of 2.1% of its total workforce as apprentices against the legislative target for the public sector of 2.3% by March 2021.
As of 31st December 2020, there were 115 apprentices employed by the Department for International Trade (DIT) and UK Export Finance (UKEF). It equates to 3.2% of the total domestic staff employed by DIT and UKEF.
This target is a percentage of the total workforce so the percentage attained will change in line with workforce fluctuations over time, making it challenging to predict when a department will meet it. The data for 2018/19 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-apprenticeship-data-2018-to-2019. The data for 2019/20 can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-apprenticeship-data-2019-to-2020.
Departments are committed to increasing the number of apprentices across the Civil Service and continue to work towards the 2.3% target.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what steps her Department is taking to prevent the import of goods sourced from illegal deforestation in the Amazon in future trade deals.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
Britain is committed to upholding her high environmental standards, including through environmental provisions within Free Trade Agreements.
HM Government continues to raise its concerns regarding deforestation regularly with international partners, and the importance of sustainable and resilient economies, most recently at the United Kingdom-Brazil Joint Economic and Trade Committee on 11th November.
We have committed over £250m through International Climate Finance programmes aimed at tackling deforestation in Brazil – including through our Partnerships for Forests programme, which supports environmentally-friendly farming and replanting projects in the Amazon – and we are introducing new legislation that requires large British companies to make sure forest risk commodities in their supply chains are sourced legally in producer countries.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what representations her Department made to the Government of Iran following threats made in the Iranian media in the last three months against her staff; what assessment she made of the causes of those threats and the likelihood of their being acted on; and what steps she has taken to protect her staff in Tehran.
Answered by Ranil Jayawardena
On 5th September 2020, a series of baseless allegations were made against a Crown servant by the Iranian news outlet, Tasnim.
DIT and the British Embassy in Iran have publicly challenged this disinformation, issued statements clarifying the position of the Crown servant concerned and made representations to the Iranian government about factually incorrect reporting concerning the activities of the British Council.
However, it is important to be clear that no threats have been made against Crown servants in Tehran. The security of our embassy in Tehran is overseen by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, who keep the security of diplomatic missions under constant review.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many claims UK Export Finance received by region in each month since January 2020; and how much UK Export Finance paid out in claims since 1 January 2020.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Between 1 January 2020 and 30 June 2020, UK Export Finance (UKEF) received claims related to 22 deals, broken down as follows
Month | No. of claims | Region(s) |
January | 0 |
|
February | 2 | 2 related to Asia |
March | 1 | 1 related to Asia |
April | 0 |
|
May | 4 | 2 related to the Americas 1 related to Asia 1 related to Europe |
June | 15 | 1 related to Africa 7 related to the Americas 5 related to Asia 2 related to Europe |
During that period, UKEF has paid out claims totalling USD 2,759,320.27.
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many staff UK Export Finance has (a) in its compliance team and b) dedicated to work on anti-corruption due diligence.
Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
There are currently five full time equivalent (FTE) staff in UK Export Finance’s Compliance Division, alongside a further team of four FTE staff who undertake financial crime (including bribery and corruption) due diligence screening on transactions.