Asked by: Simon Lightwood (Labour (Co-op) - Wakefield)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 18 April 2024 to Question 21868 on Buses: Carbon Emissions, how many and what proportion of the buses allocated funding under the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas scheme 1 (a) are on the road in each local transport authority and (b) (i) have been and (ii) will be manufactured in the UK.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
This Government has invested £410m into the Zero Emission Bus programmes since 2020, which has funded over 2,200 buses across England.
The Zero Emission Bus Regional Area (ZEBRA) 1 programme was launched in 2021 and awarded £270m funding to 16 local transport authorities (LTAs) in England (outside of London).
ZEBs produced and sold in the UK are supported by a global supply chain; the below table outlines bus manufacturer’s location. The numbers in this table are not official statistics: they are based on the latest information available and are therefore indicative and subject to change.
ZEBRA 1 | ||
Local Transport Authority | Number of buses on the road | Bus manufacturer & Location |
Blackpool Council | 0 | Bus manufacturer subject to outcome of procurement process by local transport authority or bus operator. |
Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority | 30 | Volvo (Sweden) |
City of York Council | 53 | Wrightbus (UK) |
Greater Manchester Combined Authority | 0 | Volvo (Sweden) |
Hertfordshire County Council | 0 | Bus manufacturer subject to outcome of procurement process by local transport authority or bus operator. |
Kent County Council | 0 | Volvo (Sweden) |
Leicester City Council | 116 | 110 – Wrightbus (UK) |
Norfolk County Council | 68 | Wrightbus (UK) |
North Yorkshire County Council | 0 | EvoBus/Mercedes (Germany) Alexander Dennis Ltd (UK) |
Nottingham City Council | 24 | Pelican/Yutong (UK/China) |
Oxfordshire County Council | 56 | Wrightbus (UK) |
Portsmouth City Council & Hampshire County Council | 62 | Wrightbus (UK) |
South Yorkshire Combined Authority | 27 | 4 – Alexander Dennis Ltd (UK) |
Warrington Borough Council | 105 | Volvo (Sweden) |
West Midlands Combined Authority | 124 | Bus manufacturer subject to outcome of procurement process by local transport authority or bus operator. |
West Yorkshire Combined Authority | 146 | 131 – Wrightbus (UK) |
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2024 to Question 24720 on Fertilisers: Russia, from which countries have imports of fertiliser increased since March 2022.
Answered by Alan Mak - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade) (jointly with the Cabinet Office)
As per the answer of 13 May 2024, UK imports of fertiliser originating from Russia fell 80% in 2023, compared to 2022 import values.
Across a similar period, from March 2022 to February 2023, the value of direct fertiliser imports grew most significantly from the following 10 countries: Egypt, Netherlands, Spain, Germany, USA, Poland, Trinidad and Tobago, France, Lithuania, and Israel. These countries accounted for around 82% of the total increase.
More recent data shows that the largest increases, between March 2023 and February 2024, were from: Egypt, Israel, Morocco, USA, Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, China, Canada, Greece, and Nigeria. These countries accounted for around 93% of the total increase for this period.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the decision by the US to impose a 50% tariff on Chinese-made solar cells.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has noted the new tariffs on a series of Chinese goods being imported into the US. The UK does not routinely comment on trade measures taken between other countries.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Melton)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a 50% tariff on Chinese-made solar cells in the context of US tariff policy.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The UK has noted the new tariffs on a series of Chinese goods being imported into the US. The UK does not routinely comment on trade measures taken between other countries.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Japan-UK Reciprocal Access Agreement, signed on 11 January 2023, whether he plans to deploy armed forces to the South China Sea in proximity to Taiwan.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK-Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement enables UK and Japanese military personnel to operate and exercise together in each other’s countries. There are no plans to utilise the RAA in the South China Sea.
Asked by: Fabian Hamilton (Labour - Leeds North East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the ruling by the Appeal Court in Hong Kong on the banning of the song entitled Glory to Hong Kong.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are concerned about the erosion of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong, including freedom of speech, which is guaranteed under the Sino-British Joint Declaration. As the then Foreign Secretary said in the foreword to the January - July 2023 Six-monthly Report, "the Hong Kong authorities have extended the application of the National Security Law beyond genuine national security concerns…to use legal routes to supress the song 'Glory to Hong Kong'". I raised the deterioration of rights and freedoms in Hong Kong with Christopher Hui, Hong Kong Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury on 24 April during my visit to China.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what estimate he has made of the number of journalists detained in China; and what steps he is taking to support media freedom in that country.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
There are severe restrictions on media freedom in China, and the situation for journalists is deteriorating. The Government notes Reporters Without Borders' credible estimate that 109 journalists and media workers are currently detained by China.
The Government supports media freedom and the right of journalists to do their job. We consistently raise our concerns bilaterally and multilaterally. For example, at China's Universal Periodic Review in January we called on China to cease restrictions on civil society and independent media, and raised the cases of Sophia Huang Xueqin and Zhang Zhan, among others. I raised human rights concerns with my counterparts during my visit to China in April, and the Foreign Secretary did so when he met China's Foreign Minister in February. British diplomats have also attempted to attend trials of civilian journalists and rights activists in China to demonstrate support.
Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of the visit by the Minister for the Indo-Pacific to Hong Kong on relations with China.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
In line with the Government's "protect, align, and engage" approach to China, as set out in the Integrated Review Refresh, the I raised a number of issues important to the UK national interest with Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui during my visit to Hong Kong in April. This included the prosecution of British national Jimmy Lai, the enactment of further national security legislation (Article 23), and concerns over transnational repression against BN(O)s in the UK. Issues of mutual and global interest were also discussed, alongside areas of disagreement or concern.
Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, pursuant to the Answer of 8 May 2024 to Question 24277 on South China Sea: Shipping, how much funding has been provided to maritime training programmes in Southeast Asia in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Prior to November 2022, the FCDO's approach to maritime security in Southeast Asia focussed on diplomatic engagement including legal dialogues. In November 2022, the FCDO launched the Southeast Asia Maritime Security programme funded by the Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) and spent in total £0.17 million in financial year (FY) 2022-23. In FY 2023-24, the programme invested £0.8 million on capacity and capability building projects with regional partners to strengthen their capacity on maritime law and security. In FY 2024-25, the programme has been allocated up to £3.5 million to continue delivering similar projects through the new Integrated Security Fund (ISF).
Asked by: Lord Mann (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether criminals in China are setting up companies by fraudulently registering addresses in the UK through Companies House in order to bypass Chinese restrictions on cryptocurrency trading.
Answered by Lord Johnson of Lainston - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Companies House is working increasingly closely with law enforcement to understand filing patterns. While I cannot comment on the detail of that, I am confident it will, over time, significantly improve the ability to identify and combat attempts systematically to abuse the company register.
Where Chinese nationals, or others, have registered companies using addresses which they have no authority to use, the Registrar has a suite of powers - recently strengthened by the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 - which allow the misappropriated address to be replaced with a default address. Where companies persistently fail to provide an appropriate address, the Registrar has the power to strike them off the register altogether.