Contributions
612 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDPost Office Network Subsidy Scheme (Amendment) Order 2024That the draft order and regulations laid before the House on 11 December 2023 be approved. Relevant document: 8th Report from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee.…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI can absolutely assure the noble Baroness of that. My DBT colleague in the other place, Minister Hands, is putting a huge amount of effort into breaking down these barriers with…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI thank the noble Lord for that stat-fest. I said yesterday that the most difficult part of the pie chart is the 24% of our manufactured goods to the EU 27, but the other 70% is…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesThe reality, as we said yesterday, is that our economy is 80% services and 20% goods, but our exports are 50/50, because our goods are good. We make things that people, especially…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI thank the noble Lord. As I said yesterday, Europe remains a massive part of our trade—41% with the EU 27 and 48% with the euro 34—and that will continue to be the case. However,…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI thank my noble friend for sharing his great expertise in this area. As we discussed yesterday, Europe’s share of global trade is declining: it has halved from one-third to 16%,…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI thank the noble Lord. We have 5.5 million companies in the UK, of which 3 million are sole traders which operate underneath the VAT threshold. We have 2.5 million SMEs, of which…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI thank the noble Earl. Yes, indeed, there are many committees in Europe—it is one of the reasons we decided to come out. Where we are working most effectively is country by…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesThere is a huge amount of effort going on in the department to break down these trade barriers. We have already removed 178 trade barriers—48 of those are worth £6.5 billion…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI thank the noble Baroness. There is no question that there has been friction in our trade, especially with the EU 27. We have tariff-free trade; a lot of the friction is not of…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI thank the noble Baroness for her Question. We engage extensively with representatives of small and medium-sized enterprises and trade associations across the UK. This includes…31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-EU Trade: Small and Medium-sized EnterprisesI thank my noble friend. Seed potatoes are a specialised area so I will need to write to her on that.31 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-Canada Trade Deal: Suspension of NegotiationsI thank the noble Lord for that question. We fundamentally agree with that. We have been talking with the cheese manufacturers all the way through this. We send £200 million-worth…30 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-Canada Trade Deal: Suspension of NegotiationsWith Europe, as the noble Lord knows, when we agreed to join what was then the European Common Market, Europe accounted for one-third of global trade. We all know that, when we…30 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-Canada Trade Deal: Suspension of NegotiationsCheese is now a pawn in the game, and that has now become the focus of attention. When we were in the EU, we had 2,000 out of 14,000 tonnes of cheese allocated to us. That has now…30 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-Canada Trade Deal: Suspension of NegotiationsI fundamentally disagree that we are in chaos; quite the opposite. We are making great progress. The first thing that we did when we left the EU was do a trade deal with Europe…30 Jan 2024HANSARDUK-Canada Trade Deal: Suspension of NegotiationsI thank the noble Lord for his Question. The pause in negotiations does not impact our existing trade agreement with Canada, which underpins £26 billion- worth of trade per annum.…30 Jan 2024HANSARDPost Office LtdTo clarify, the Post Office is constitutionally set up to be arm’s-length and will remain so. We are now talking to the Secretary of State about tightening the governance of that.…30 Jan 2024HANSARDPost Office LtdI thank the noble Lord for that question. To clarify, the question was whether the Post Office brand was damaged. Many people would say that it was a toxic brand. My argument was…30 Jan 2024HANSARDMaternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024My Lords, these regulations were laid in draft before the House on 11 December 2023. They are being introduced using powers inserted into the Employment Rights Act 1996 by the…30 Jan 2024