Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 17 November 2017 to Question 111497, how many (a) seconded and (b) external staff have been hired by his Department to work as part of the trade remedies investigating authority in the last twelve months.

During the last twelve months, the Department for International Trade has hired 19 new staff and seconded one member of staff on loan from another Government department, to work on establishing a trade remedies framework which includes the Trade Remedies Authority. Seven of those were hired from outside the Civil Service. None have been seconded from outside the Civil Service.