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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment the Government has made of whether the TTIP trade deal will make the UK more vulnerable to lawsuits; if the Government will insist that TTIP does not contain provisions which would allow similar lawsuits to be brought in the UK; and if the Government will reconsider its support for TTIP in response to that lawsuit.

Anna Soubry

The Government does not comment on cases in which it has no involvement. Under UK laws a foreign investor can already sue the Government over allegedly unfair or unlawful treatment. UK domestic courts and our legal system will continue to be the main route for resolving the vast majority of disputes between foreign investors and the Government regardless of any investment protection provisions included in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). This is because our domestic courts typically offer a quicker and cheaper method of resolving disputes.

The European Commission has published its proposal for investment protections in TTIP. This includes various possible measures to ensure these provisions are fair and transparent, including prohibiting claims from being pursued simultaneously under investor-state dispute settlement provisions and in domestic courts.

The UK will continue to work with the Commission on the details of these latest proposals. We need investment protections that ensure UK investors are treated fairly overseas by foreign governments. But the UK will make sure that governments can continue to regulate lawfully in the public interest.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-11.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 6 January 2016 to Question 21408, when the Government plans to reach a decision on funding for the National Illegal Money Lending Team.

Harriett Baldwin

The Government is continuing to explore options to ensure that the England and Wales Illegal Money Lending Teams have the funding they need to ensure that consumers continue to be protected from illegal loan sharks as a matter of urgency.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Written Answer of 7 January 2016 to Question 20867, what the response was of the government of Saudi Arabia to concerns raised by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State and the UK Ambassador on the recent mass executions.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

The Saudi Arabian Government is well aware of the UK’s opposition to the death penalty in all circumstances and in any country.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, for what reason the UK no longer has a strategy on opposing the death penalty; and whether the Government plans to publish a new strategy.

Mr David Lidington

This Government is continuing its work to oppose the death penalty as part of its broader efforts to promote human rights. Our commitment to the Rules Based International Order underpins this work, including through bilateral and multilateral support to global efforts to abolish the death penalty. We do not intend to publish a new strategy specific to the death penalty; but we will be publishing a strategy for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)’s Human Rights and Democracy Programme Fund shortly, which will show how work to abolish the death penalty is important under all three of the strategy’s new themes. The FCO’s death penalty-related work will also be covered in future instalments of the FCO’s Annual Human Rights Report.