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Written Question
Department for International Trade: Living Wage
Wednesday 12th June 2019

Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Neston)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what proportion of organisations that hold contracts with his Department pay the National Living Wage.

Answered by George Hollingbery

Rates of pay for people working for third party contractors are determined by their respective employers and is not held centrally. All outsourced providers are required to pay as a minimum, either the National Minimum Wage or the National Living Wage.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Cleaning Services
Tuesday 29th January 2019

Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, which service providers are contracted to carry out third party cleaning contracts for his Department; if he will list all of the services delivered by third party contractors to his Department; and how many people working for those third party contractors are paid less than the Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Cleaning services in buildings managed by the Department for International Trade (55 Whitehall and 3 Whitehall Place) are provided by the Ministry of Justice under contracts they hold for facilities management. The MOJ have confirmed that all cleaning staff (from their supplier OCS) are currently paid at least the London Living Wage. Where the Department for International Trade is a tenant in buildings belonging to other Government departments, this information is not held.

A list of all services delivered by third party contractors to the Department is not held in a centralised location and the information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Since January 2011, details of central government contracts above the value of £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts published prior to 26 February 2015 can be viewed at: https://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive. Those published since 26 February 2015 can be viewed at: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.

Rates of pay for people working for third party contractors are determined by their respective employers and is not held by the Department. All outsourced providers are required to pay as a minimum, either the National Minimum Wage or the National Living Wage.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Pay
Friday 25th January 2019

Asked by: Gareth Snell (Labour (Co-op) - Stoke-on-Trent Central)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what information his Department holds on the rate of remuneration for (a) cleaners, (b) security guards and (c) catering staff in his Department in (i) Greater London and (ii) outside Greater London.

Answered by George Hollingbery

Cleaning, security guarding and catering services in buildings managed by the Department are outsourced under a facilities management contract. Specific rates of pay are a matter for each individual contractor, as the employer, but assurances are provided to ensure full compliance with the requirements of the National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage.

Where the Department for International Trade is a tenant in buildings belonging to other Government departments, this information is not held.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Migrant Workers
Friday 21st December 2018

Asked by: Caroline Lucas (Green Party - Brighton, Pavilion)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of his Department paying the £65 application fee for settled or pre-settled status for EU nationals (a) employed by and (b) working as an outsourced worker in his Department; what estimate he has made of the total cost to his Department of paying those fees; and what assessment he has made of the risks that the EU Settlement Scheme poses to the retention of EU nationals (i) employed by or (ii) working as an outsourced worker in his Department.

Answered by George Hollingbery

The UK Government currently does not plan to pay the Settled Status Fee for its non-UK EU citizen employees. The fee is set at an affordable rate (£65), less than the cost of an UK passport.

Outsourced workers are not employees of the Department of International Trade, and therefore this would be a decision for their employers.

The number of non-UK EU citizens employed across the Civil Service is not consistently collected across Government. It is therefore not possible to estimate the cost of paying the settled status fee for non-UK EU nationals employed directly by the Department.

We value the significant contribution made by non-UK national EU citizens working in this department, and across the wider Civil Service, and want these colleagues to continue to play a full role in the work of the Civil Service after the UK has left the EU. We are committed to supporting our employees who are non-UK nationals and EU citizens. The important engagement with EU national networks in this department and across the wider Civil Service will continue over the coming months.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Staff
Wednesday 14th November 2018

Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether staff (a) in positions related to his Department in overseas missions have been made redundant and (b) in his Department have been (i) offered, (ii) taken and (iii) refused reduced salaries in the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by George Hollingbery

In the past 12 months the Department for International Trade (DIT) has undertaken restructuring in overseas missions to generate efficiencies, and ensure we have the requisite capacity and capability to deliver our departmental objectives across the global network. This restructuring activity has, in some locations, included redundancies.

There are a range of circumstances where staff in DIT would be offered a reduced salary. A reduction in salary may result when staff members reduce their hours of work, accept a role at a lower grade or move from a role where London pay ranges apply to one where National pay ranges apply.


Written Question
Trade Promotion
Wednesday 14th November 2018

Asked by: Ian Murray (Labour - Edinburgh South)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what the budget was for the Government's Trade Commissioners in each of the last two years, what the actual spend was in each of those years; what the budget is for the 2018-19 financial year; and how much has been spent in the 2018-19 financial year to date.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Department delegated budgets to Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioners (HMTCs) for the first time in 2018-19. There are 9 HMTCs across 9 overseas regions. The budgets include the costs of locally engaged staff, non-pay related expenditure and devolved marketing expenditure in each of the regions. The total budget delegated at the beginning of the 2018 financial year was £59.2m and spend at the end of October 2018 was £29.8m.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Pay
Wednesday 7th November 2018

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many staff in his Department are paid less than £8.75 per hour.

Answered by George Hollingbery

The Department for International Trade does not have any UK staff paid less than £8.75 per hour.


Written Question
Department for International Trade: Pay
Wednesday 7th November 2018

Asked by: David Linden (Scottish National Party - Glasgow East)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many staff in his Department are paid less than £10.20 per hour.

Answered by George Hollingbery

The Department for International Trade does not have any UK staff paid less than £10.20 per hour.


Written Question
New Age (African Global Energy): Cameroon
Monday 5th November 2018

Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)

Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to his Department's press release entitled International visits pay off for British business, published on 8 June 2018, what estimate he has made of size of the revenue stream for the public treasury of the Government of Cameroon that is forecast to as a result of the natural gas deal between New Age (African Global Energy) Ltd and the Cameroonian Government announced in that press release.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The £1.5b investment deal concluded in June 2018 is a commercial agreement between New Age and the Government of Cameroon to develop the Etinde offshore bloc along the Atlantic coast of Cameroon. The Department for International Trade is responsible for supporting British businesses around the world and promoting trade ties with country partners. New Age is one of the companies we support in Cameroon.


Written Question
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Brexit
Tuesday 16th October 2018

Asked by: Tom Brake (Liberal Democrat - Carshalton and Wallington)

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement of 13 March 2018 on Spring Statement, HCWS540, how much of that funding he has allocated to (a) programmes, (b) administration and (c) staffing in his Department.

Answered by George Eustice

HM Treasury has allocated over £2 billion of additional funding to departments and the Devolved Administrations for EU exit preparations so far. This breaks down as:

£412 million of additional funding over the spending review period for the Department for Exiting the European Union, Department for International Trade and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at Autumn Statement 2016.

£286 million of additional funding for 17/18 (a full breakdown of which can be found in Supplementary Estimates 17/18)

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/679738/PU2137_Supplementary_estimates_web.pdf.

Over £1.5 billion of additional funding for 18/19. A full breakdown of which can be found in the Chief Secretary’s Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS540, laid on the 13th March (https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-03-13/HCWS540/)

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs was allocated £310 million for costs arising as the UK leaves the EU in the Spring Statement 2018. Of this additional funding around £160 million has been allocated to cover staff pay requirements. The final breakdown between programme and administration spend will be confirmed in the Supplementary Estimates.