Topical Questions

Question

If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities. The Department for Business and Trade had a record-breaking international investment summit and published an industrial strategy Green Paper, helping to land a £500 million train-building deal with Hitachi. They are reforming business rates and launching a new fair payment code.

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What can the Government do to assist communities such as mine to ensure that we can encourage businesses to be the cornerstone and footfall drivers of our town centres? Superbowl UK recently opened in Aldershot.

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Will the Secretary of State update the House on when he expects to conclude free trade deals with the Gulf, with India and with the US? The UK has recently joined a major trading bloc.

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Will the Secretary of State urge the Prime Minister to stop obsessing about going backwards into the EU and agree that a US trade deal would be the best gift for British business? Business confidence is at an all-time low.

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Does my right hon. Friend agree that this demonstrates the power of two Labour Governments working together in partnership to deliver economic growth for the communities we represent? Wales is planning a major investment summit next year.

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Tomorrow—on Friday the 13th—the EU's general product safety regulation comes into effect. Businesses are telling me that the additional costs will mean that they can no longer sell to the EU and to Northern Ireland. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that small businesses are supported as the regulation comes into effect?

Question

I declare an interest as an officer of the all-party parliamentary group on critical minerals. Although Cornwall sits on some of the richest deposits of critical minerals in the world, including tin and lithium in my constituency of Camborne, Redruth and Hayle, there are significant geological reserves right across the United Kingdom, including in the north of England, Northern Ireland and the lands of our Celtic cousins in Wales and Scotland. Will the Minister confirm that domestic critical mineral production and processing will form a key part of the Government's industrial strategy?

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Farmers in my constituency maintain the highest animal welfare standards. They want reassurance that those will not be undercut by any future UK-US trade deal as they were by some of the deals done by the previous Government. Will the Minister assure me that the mandate and the detail of a trade deal will come to the House before the Government sign it, as many Members on the Government Front Bench agreed when they were in opposition? If not, why not?

Question

In Norwich, we have many amazing businesses such as the Norwich Glass Company, Café 193 and Great Eastern Model Railways that I visited recently. One of the challenges that they, the Norfolk chamber of commerce and the Federation of Small Businesses have raised is attracting skilled staff. Will the Secretary of State set out how the Government's skills plan will support such businesses to attract the staff they need?

Question

I am sure that the Secretary of State agrees that creating high-value jobs in science and technology is important. In local business, our local plan gives us the opportunity to build a science and technology park delivering over 5,000 high-value jobs, but we cannot proceed until the Department for Transport releases funds for local highway improvements. Will the Secretary of State press the Secretary of State for Transport to take action so that work can progress and we can deliver jobs and growth in Mid Sussex?

Question

Last week, research published by Sage showed that 84% of small businesses in the north-east plan to increase their investment in technology next year. As the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee launches its inquiry into innovation, growth and the regions, how will the Business Secretary ensure that the industrial strategy boosts adoption of technology—particularly British-developed technology—to boost growth across all our regions?

Question

Businesses in Bognor Regis and Littlehampton are at the sharp end of the Bank of England's business confidence survey. Unlike the Chancellor and the Secretary of State, they know that her Budget and the Employment Rights Bill are a recipe for higher prices, higher inflation, higher interest rates and higher unemployment. Is that the growth that the Secretary of State had in mind?

Question

I declare an interest as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on British buses. The Secretary of State will be aware of the consultation on 160 jobs at Alexander Dennis in my constituency. That shows the requirement for a clear industrial strategy. What assurances can the Minister give me, as part of implementing the industrial strategy, that the Labour Government are working to level the playing field for domestic manufacturers?

Question

My constituent Kirsty is self-employed and is looking to adopt a child, but she does not qualify for adoption leave or adoption pay and, because she is not having her child biologically, she does not qualify for maternity allowance. Would the Government support changing that, whether through the Employment Rights Bill or otherwise, so that brilliant future parents are not put off from adopting because they cannot afford it?

Question

I welcome this Government's commitment to getting more disposable income in the pockets of working people. At Christmas time a lot of people will want to buy concert tickets; what conversations is the Minister having with Cabinet colleagues on reforming the secondary ticketing market?