Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 28 September 2022 to Question 51512 on UK Trade with EU: Telephone Services, how many phone calls were made to the Export Support Service (a) inside and (b) outside its core operating hours between 20 and 30 September 2022; how many and what proportion of those calls were (i) resolved using the knowledge bank and (ii) referred to the digital enquiry team; and how many of those calls related to trade with (A) Ukraine, (B) Russia and (C) Belarus.

Between the 20 and 30 September, 138 number of calls were received by the service during core operating hours. Of these calls, 95 users indicated they were calling about trading with Europe, and 43 users indicated they were calling about trade with Russia, Ukraine or Belarus. On the 10 October the ESS Helpline service was replaced by the facility to arrange a call back with a DIT trade specialist, leveraging the recently in-housed International Trade Advisors. This has allowed DIT to switch to an integrated model across our services. The Export Support Digital Enquiry Service, which can be accessed via gov.uk, will continue to function as we seek positively to adapt our offer.