Harriett Baldwin

Of the 32 Trade Envoys appointed, three are still in post from the previous administration. Many of the previous government’s Trade Envoys are no longer parliamentarians.

There are no current plans to appoint any additional Trade Envoys beyond the 32 that were recently appointed.

This is a voluntary and unpaid role, and no remuneration is paid to the Trade Envoy. Each role is tailored according to the requirements of the respective market/s and will align with the Departmental priorities identified for those markets.

The Department will be allocating appropriate funding in the new financial year to meet the costs of travel and subsistence for the newly appointed Trade Envoys when they travel overseas and in the UK, as well as any other incidental costs to fulfil their role. All costs incurred are subject to Departmental guidelines which apply to the programme’s use of public funds.

Trade Envoys enhance the value of HMG export and investment services already provided in a market. The following criteria are used to establish whether a market offers opportunities for a Trade Envoy to be effective; High growth and emerging market which attracts fewer ministerial visits; significant opportunities for commercial exploitation; where Government to Government relationships can open doors for UK businesses and whether there is appropriate DBT resource to support the Trade Envoy in market.

Markets where there are no Trade Envoys such as the United States, Europe and India already receive regular high level ministerial visits plus have networks in place that maintain our relationship.

Data on Start Up Loans will be publicly available on the British Business Bank website by the end of Q1 2025.

The Government will publish the Small Business Strategy later this year and will provide further updates in the coming weeks. We will ensure the publication timing aligns with the Spending Review process and the Government’s wider plans on delivering our Growth Mission, including the launch of a new Industrial Strategy and Trade Strategy.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade has met the Chancellor's Head of Business Engagement in the course of his ministerial role. The Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury work closely together on delivering this Government's Growth agenda.

Details of the meetings held by Ministers of the Department for Business and Trade are available on transparency pages of gov.uk and are released as part of the Government’s transparency agenda.

However, I have attended events such as AtkinsRealis and Screwfix Live and also met with multiple Trade Associations and companies across the sector through my role as Co-Chair of the Construction Leadership Council, including Build UK, The Civil Engineering Contractors Association, The Builders Merchants Federation and Mace.

Final 2024-25 budgets for the Department and its arm’s length bodies will be confirmed through the Supplementary Estimate process.

The Department has requested budgets at Supplementary Estimate that minimise underspends whilst enabling it to manage risks and the inherent volatility in its Annually Managed Expenditure and Financial Transactions budgets.

Any underspends this financial year will be confirmed once the 2024-25 Annual Report and Accounts are finalised and published.

The Secretary of State for Business and Trade met the Vice Minister of Commerce in the margins of the G20 trade summit in Brazil to discuss the UK-China trade relationship.

The Minister for Employment Rights, Competition and Markets met the Vice Minister of the State Administration for Market Regulation in the UK to discuss competition issues.

Since 5 July 2024, the Secretary of State for Business and Trade has held meetings with Commissioner Dombrovskis on three occasions: an introductory call on 10 July 2024; a meeting at the G7 Trade Ministerial in Italy; and a meeting at the G20 in Brazil. On each of these occasions the Secretary of State underlined the Government’s commitment to reset our relationship with the EU.

On 18 December 2024, a business delegation of 13 Indian companies met with the UK's Prime Minister and senior Cabinet Ministers in a curated visit to enhance the UK-India partnership.

The delegation provided perspectives on opportunities for investment and economic growth between the UK and India and discussed opportunities under a UK-India trade deal. The timing of the meeting was agreed in the second half of 2024 and there is no intention to publish minutes of the meeting.

On 18 December 2024, a business delegation of 13 Indian companies met with the UK's Prime Minister and senior Cabinet Ministers in a curated visit to enhance the UK-India partnership.

The delegation provided perspectives on opportunities for investment and economic growth between the UK and India and discussed opportunities under a UK-India trade deal. The timing of the meeting was agreed in the second half of 2024 and there is no intention to publish minutes of the meeting.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) operates a fully in year reward system for delegated grades and, like in other departments, has a non-consolidated performance budget that is derived from a percentage of the pay bill. In DBT, this is 1.3% and may be spent on cash or vouchers (up to a maximum of £2,500 per employee in any financial year).

Between 5th July 2024 and 19th December 2024, DBT made 3,468 cash in-year awards (with a total value of £1,551,060) and 2,466 non-cash awards (with a total value of £190,648).

The Prime Minister is committed to delivering growth and opportunities throughout the UK, which a trade deal with India will support.

Negotiating a deal with India will align with the UK's Modern Industrial Strategy, enabling our world-leading sectors to adapt and grow, as well as seizing opportunities to lead in new sectors.

The incoming US administration is still in the process of appointing senior staff.

The Prime Minister had a warm introductory call with President-Elect Trump on 6 November. During this call, the Prime Minister offered his congratulations and said he looked forward to working closely with President-elect Trump across all areas of the special relationship. The Prime Minister spoke to the President-elect again on 18 December. Neither the Secretary of State, Ministers, nor officials in the Department have had meetings with President-Elect Trump's transition team.

The Trade Envoy programme will continue and the House will of course be notified of any appointments in due course.

Since 5^th July 2024, Ministers within the Department for Business and Trade have undertaken 22 international trips.

The government will publish its Small Business Strategy in 2025 after the Phase 2 Spending Review. This will set out the government’s vision for supporting small businesses, from boosting scale-ups to growing the co-operative economy and across key policy areas.

DBT Secretary of State regularly meets businesses including those in the automotive sector. These meetings are recorded in publicly available transparency data on the .GOV web site under ‘DBT: Ministerial gifts, hospitality, overseas travel and meetings’ which is being updated to include meetings since July.

DBT Secretary of State regularly meets businesses including those in the automotive sector. These meetings are recorded in publicly available transparency data on the .GOV web site under ‘DBT: Ministerial gifts, hospitality, overseas travel and meetings’ which is being updated to include meetings since July.

DBT Secretary of State regularly meets businesses including those in the automotive sector. These meetings are recorded in publicly available transparency data on the .GOV web site under ‘DBT: Ministerial gifts, hospitality, overseas travel and meetings’ which is being updated to include meetings since July.

Ministers meet regularly with business organisations and trade associations. Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations and individuals are published quarterly on GOV.UK. The most recent return was published on 28 November and the next one will be published by the Spring.

DBT verifies headcount monthly through commissioning each business area to review employee records, check leaver processing and performs quality assurance to reconcile any data issues.

DBT ensures accuracy of payroll data from our shared service provider (UKSBS) through monthly reviews and control account reconciliations. DBT also:

• monitors UKSBS’s performance against KPIs monthly and has representation on governance boards.
• ensures segregation of duties and approval/authorisation controls where we have administrative responsibility.
• undertakes comparative analytics and queries movements outside our understanding of operations.
• Submits Annual Report & Accounts to NAO, who sample-test payroll data and report any errors.

To date I have not met with business representatives to discuss the subsidy control regime, however my department would welcome the views of business representatives in response to the current public consultation on refinements to the UK’s subsidy control regime. The consultation closes on 21 January 2025.

Across Government, Ministers and officials meet with a range of high street experts. I have recently met with the Hospitality Sector Council and Retail Sector Council and visited Gateshead and Consett town centres.

To mark Small Business Saturday, the Secretary of State visited Walthamstow High Street and Sunflour Café in Islington, meeting with the businesses which that make our town centres successful. We continue to engage with those involved in the delivery of the High Streets Task Force, which has now concluded, to learn the lessons from the programme.

On Monday 21 October, the Government published 24 Impact Assessments representing a comprehensive package of analysis on the impact of the Employment Rights Bill. These Impact Assessments are available at the following link: http://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments. As per our Better Regulation requirements, each Impact Assessment includes a small, medium and micro business assessment, which discuss the potential impacts of the Employment Rights Bill.

In November, the Department published research that it commissioned from the researcher provider, PUBLIC. This project was subject to robust procurement and contract oversight processes to ensure that it is was conducted according to appropriate methodologies. The report compiles the views of interviewed businesses and does not necessarily reflect the views of UK government.

The government is currently consulting on whether a UK Green Taxonomy would be complementary to existing sustainable finance policies. Alongside the research, this consultation will inform an assessment of the value of implementing a UK Taxonomy, and how it could be designed as effectively as possible.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Business and Trade were joined by officials, special advisers, and representatives from the following companies:

Burberry, BT Group, Co-op, DHL Supply Chain, Haleon, John Lewis, Mace Group, Mars Wrigley UK, McDonalds, Octopus Energy, Sainsbury's, Whitbread.

The Department for Business and Trade releases data on Ministerial gifts, hospitality, travel and meetings on the transparency pages of gov.uk. The next release, for the period July to September 2024, will be released on a date to be determined by the Cabinet Office.

Following a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi on 18 November, the Prime Minister announced that UK-India trade talks will relaunch in the new year.

Minutes of these ministerial meetings cannot be released for reasons of commercial sensitivity. The Secretary of State gave a detailed account of his engagement with Stellantis during his oral ministerial statement on 27 November.

The Department received a total of 20 eligible complaints through its official complaints team between July 2023 and July 2024 and a further 11 eligible complaints between July 2024 and November 2024.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and Greater Manchester Combined Authority have developed an enhanced local partnership to target local and national support to identified high export growth potential businesses in the GM region. This was launched on 21st November and we expect to understand initial impacts on export growth after 12 months.

The Government has no plans to nationalise British Steel. We're working across government in partnership with trade unions and businesses to secure a green steel transition that's right for British Steel's workforce, represents a good investment for taxpayers and safeguards the future of the steel industry in Britain.

I have met with British Steel's shareholder on 4 occasions since July. The most recent meeting was on 29 October.

The Government has no plans to nationalise British Steel. We're working across government in partnership with trade unions and businesses to secure a green steel transition that's right for British Steel's workforce, represents a good investment for taxpayers and safeguards the future of the steel industry in Britain.

I have met with British Steel's shareholder on 4 occasions since July. The most recent meeting was on 29 October.

The Government has no plans to nationalise British Steel. We're working across government in partnership with trade unions and businesses to secure a green steel transition that's right for British Steel's workforce, represents a good investment for taxpayers and safeguards the future of the steel industry in Britain.

I have met with British Steel's shareholder on 4 occasions since July. The most recent meeting was on 29 October.

We inherited a situation which has seen years of entrenched under-investment. That will take time to turn around, but we are determined to do so. We are working at pace to deliver a Steel Strategy that will set out a long-term vision for a bright and sustainable steel sector in the UK, with good highly paid jobs.

The Strategy will be supported by up to £2.5bn funding that will be available through the National Wealth Fund and other routes.

Ministers have met with General Secretaries of many trade unions representing millions of British workers, including Unite the Union, many times since the 4th of July. This is part of this government’s regular engagement with union leaders to support our growth mission, including on multiple industrial issues neglected by the previous government

On Monday 21 October, the Government published a comprehensive package of analysis on the impact of the Employment Rights Bill [http://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments].

The majority of employees will benefit from new protections in the Bill, however, our assessment finds that workers in the low-paying sectors including social care, hospitality, retail, and some manufacturing sectors such as the manufacture of food-items will benefit the most from the Bill.

The Bill will also deliver wider benefits for the business environment by improving wellbeing, incentivising higher productivity, and creating a more level playing field for good employers. This could have a positive knock-on impact on productivity and growth.