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 51515 on UK Trade with EU: Telephone Services and with reference to the Answer of 18 November 2021 to Question 74918, when the number of full-time agents employed by the Export Support Services Contact Centre reduced from 24; and what the average agent utilisation rate was (a) before and (b) after this change.

The utilisation performance for the service has been provided to the Rt. Hon Member for Islington South and Finsbury in answers to Question 151022 and Question 51515. A decision was taken in June 2022 to not extend the Export Support Service Helpline, so the contract expired effective from the 07 October 2022. For the duration of the contract, active steps were taken to manage utilisation.