Department for International Trade annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022 (HTML version)

Foreword by the Secretary of State

This report marks the end of an extraordinary year for the Department for International Trade. During the 12 months covered by this document we have made major strides towards the government’s goal of building Global Britain: a confident and outward-looking country that embraces the world and is equally focused on creating prosperity and opportunity at home.

This progress is even more impressive, given much of it took place under COVID-19’s long shadow. Despite the pandemic’s challenges, we have succeeded in deepening relationships with our international partners.

In this, our second year as an independent trading nation, we have also secured long-term growth for every part of this country by striking trade deals around the globe and winning inward investment. We have achieved all this thanks to a strategy that plays to our strengths, and that targets markets bursting with potential.

The Free Trade Agreement that we signed with Australia was our inaugural, from scratch deal since leaving the EU. It is expected to increase trade between our nations by 53%, boost the economy by £2.3 billion by 2035 and add £900 million a year to wages over the long run.

Our comprehensive agreement with New Zealand will remove trade barriers on a wide array of UK goods and is forecast to increase trade between our nations by 60% by 2035. This is also one of our greenest deals ever – liberalising tariffs on the largest list of environmental goods of any free trade agreement to date.

Over the past 12 months we have also forged new, closer trading arrangements with Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein. In addition, we have capitalised on our strengths as the world’s second largest services exporter with a ground-breaking digital economy deal with Singapore, boosting a trading relationship worth £16 billion in 2020.

Beyond our agreements, I have enjoyed meeting delegations from around the globe to talk about how we can develop our relationships. In January, we kick-started our five-star year of trade by opening negotiations with India. Our new Joint Economic and Trade Committee between the UK and Indonesia will cement our nations’ ties and we have launched free trade agreement talks with Greenland and Canada.

Clearly, the Indo-Pacific region will be the source of much global growth over the coming decades. That is why in June 2021 we began negotiations with the eleven members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership on a free trade deal. This would open access to an area populated with half a billion people and a GDP of £9 trillion in 2021.

Our relationship with the United States is another key priority for the Department. The agreement we secured to return tariff-free access to UK steel and aluminium exporters to US markets has paved the way to a strengthened relationship. We built on this work with the launch of our US/UK dialogue on the Future of Atlantic Trade. These talks have proven to be highly productive, leading to an agreement to deepen ties on science and technology and create a new era of strategic cooperation.

There has, of course, been much more work by the Department over the past 12 months to develop trading relationships and bring down market barriers. Almost every week there is another win, adding to an ever-growing list. Some may be large in scale, others small. All are significant to the people and businesses they touch.

However, the progress we make through these agreements and negotiations won’t mean anything if businesses can’t take advantage of our work. In particular, we know that businesses that export pay higher wages, create better jobs and are more productive. In November 2021, we unveiled ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’, our 12-point plan to create an export-led economy and help businesses hit £1 trillion worth of exports by the end of the decade.

We are not just encouraging our businesses to sell overseas, we also want more international firms to back the UK. Our message is clear: Britain is the best place to invest on the planet. At October’s Global Investment Summit, which DIT hosted with the Prime Minister, we secured almost £10 billion worth of pledges from international backers for green projects. These commitments, which accompany our progress at COP26 and accompany the environmental chapters in our FTAs, are clear illustrations that free, open and fair trade can be a force for good.

The Department’s response to Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine was another example of trade’s power to make a positive difference to the world. We took decisive action following the start of the conflict by banning exports of high-end luxury goods to Russia. We also denied Russia and Belarus Most Favoured Nation tariffs for hundreds of their exports, depriving them of key benefits of their World Trade Organisation membership.

Throughout this year the UK has served as a powerful advocate for free and fair trade and the rules-based system on the international stage. We have continued to call for reform at the WTO in order to make our trading system fit for the 21st century.

Thanks to the work of this Department and its ministerial team, the UK is living proof of the power of trade to improve lives, support businesses and build a better world. I am proud to lead a department that achieves so much every day for this country.

The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP
Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade

Statement by the Permanent Secretary

It is a testament to its staff that this department has achieved so many successes in the past 12 months, across the breadth of its responsibilities, despite the background of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The unique ability of this department is to help a business in any part of the United Kingdom be able to trade with customers in countries around the globe – ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ – and bring investment from around the world into every part of the UK. We have hugely strengthened our ability to deliver this by building our capacity across the UK at the Darlington Economic Campus and trade and investment hubs in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast to work with our DIT presence in over 100 countries across the globe – offering an unparalleled local to global service to our customers.

This year we forged new trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand as part of a strategy to reduce barriers to trade particularly in the fastest growing regions of the Indo-Pacific with accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and a Free Trade Agreement with India amongst others underway. We continued to break down trade barriers – to support growth, jobs and prices – benefitting large and small businesses and consumers.

A key area of focus was our new Export Strategy. Launched in November last year, the strategy brings the insight of our on-the-ground teams with what we hear from business, into a clear strategy to provide end-to-end export support to help businesses up and down the country to grow and expand. Our new Export Support Service also provides a single portal which, along with the power of UK Export Finance, ensures we have the capability to deliver an even better service to help our businesses sell to the world.

We continue to improve the service we offer to our international partners to invest in the UK with notable success. Over the past year, the Office for Investment has secured projects worth billions of pounds, directly maintaining and creating thousands of jobs. It was also integral to securing the £10 billion UK-UAE Sovereign Investment Partnership, which we signed in September 2021.

The Global Investment Summit in October, which DIT hosted with the Prime Minister, brought the world’s most prominent CEOs together to showcase what the UK has to offer and notably to explore the extent the UK can lead the green economy. We launched our Investment Atlas, a ground-breaking digital tool, which highlights the best investment opportunities around the UK along with our areas of competitive advantage.

On the global stage this Department has continued to demonstrate the importance of free, open and fair trade to the world. This approach was exemplified during the UK’s G7 presidency, when we pioneered a Trade Track, enabling ministers to develop a shared vision for the global recovery following the pandemic. At COP26 in Glasgow in November we launched the Clean Growth Programme which will help drive the investment that will build the UK’s green industrial base and scale-up green businesses.

While the start of the year covered by this document was shaped by COVID-19, the conflict in Ukraine loomed large in its latter months. The Department has shaped the unprecedented trade sanctions on Russia; provided support for the Ukraine economy including through zero tariffs and working with Ukraine and business to prepare for reconstruction while analysing this far-reaching conflict’s impact on trade flows and on supply chains.

Ultimately, DIT’s success is down to its people. We recognise that we need to continue to strive to support, attract and retain great staff members – people with the right skills, experience and capability and who truly reflect the UK in all its diversity. That is why we have launched a new five-year People Strategy, setting out a vision for developing the skills we need for the future and ensuring everyone has the chance to fulfil their potential.

It is also why we developed the ability to build career progression through the International Trade Profession. A key highlight of this year was our first cohort of trainees’ graduation from our International Development Trade Programme. This equips participants with the skills, experience and opportunities to become trade professionals.

During this year we have consolidated our London workforce in the Old Admiralty Building in the heart of Whitehall and welcomed a new ministerial team to the Department. I want to express my gratitude to John Alty, who served as interim Permanent Secretary for the first four months of the year.

Last but very far from least, I want to thank this department’s civil servants, each of whom has contributed to our shared success over the past year. Their dedication and the professionalism they show every day is an illustration of public service at its best. I feel immensely privileged to work alongside them and to lead this vibrant and dynamic department that is so important to our national success.

James Bowler CB
Permanent Secretary, Department for International Trade

Performance report

Overview

This overview section provides a summary of the Department for International Trade (DIT), its purpose and structure, and the main issues and risks relating to the achievement of our objectives.

Our vision

Our vision is to champion open and fair global trading that drives growth, creates better jobs and higher wages, and improves living standards in this country and around the world.

Our mission

Our mission is to:

• negotiate trade deals and open up markets

• give our exporters the tools, support and opportunities to succeed through global trade

• drive investment

• build a global appetite for British goods and services

• promote choice and value for UK consumers

• improve international trading standards and fight unfair trading practices

Our priority outcomes

DIT’s Outcome Delivery Plan for 2021-22 set out ambitious trade and investment objectives, focused on achieving four priority outcomes:

To deliver our priority outcomes – and reinforce the ambitions of the Declaration on Government Reform – DIT has also focused on the following four strategic enablers: (i) Workforce, skills and location; (ii) New ideas: Innovation, technology and data; (iii) Better outcomes: Delivery, evaluation and collaboration; and (iv) Sustainability.

DIT has a major role to play in bringing prosperity to every region and nation of the UK through better jobs, higher wages, improved living standards, and greater consumer choice. Free and fair trade supports high-value, higher-paying jobs. It can help curb the cost of living by lowering prices and is levelling up the regions of our country by boosting enterprise across the UK. Our overseas network in over 100 countries can also link a business in any part of the UK to customers anywhere in the world with expert and personal support.

The UK has secured trading agreements with 70 countries plus the EU, including Free Trade Agreements with Australia and New Zealand and a digital trade agreement with Singapore, and we are strengthening relationships with the world’s fastest-growing major economies, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. We have launched trade talks with India and Canada and are on track to secure accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) by the end of 2022. The Department is also seeking bold environmental chapters in our FTAs, growing the UK’s green industrial base and prioritising clean sectors in support of the government’s Net Zero strategy.

The Department has supported businesses to grow through increased exports and inward investment, opening doors to new opportunities created by new trade agreements and removing market access barriers.

Our ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ export strategy set a clear direction and will help ensure the UK’s support services for exporters succeed in a changing trading landscape. The strategy includes an ambition to ‘Race to a Trillion’ worth of exports so that the UK recovers from the pandemic and builds back better and greener. After the successful launch of the Export Strategy, we continued the design of the UK Export Support Service (ESS), creating a cohesive exports ecosystem for UK businesses. The new UK Export Academy, available across the UK, is also providing tailored assistance through digital tools and as at 31 March received over 7,000 registrations, 35% of which are from businesses that have never exported before.

Since its launch in November 2020, the Office for Investment has played a central role in supporting the most strategic investments, providing a single front door to government, resolving barriers and driving investment into all corners of the UK. In October 2021, we welcomed the world’s top investors in green innovation to the Global Investment Summit at which companies announced investments that will create over 30,000 new jobs.

The UK has also seen a number of notable investment successes over the course of the year. In September 2021, the UAE committed £10 billion via the UAE-UK Strategic Investment Partnership. This was followed in May 2022 by the UK-Qatar Strategic Investment Partnership, which will see Qatar also invest up to £10 billion over the next five years in key sectors of the UK economy.

DIT champions free trade and the rules-based international system on the national and global stage. We pioneered the first dedicated Trade Track during the UK G7 Presidency to shape a bold and global vision for economic recovery from COVID-19. In March, the Department secured a resolution to re-open tariff free access for UK steel and aluminium exporters to the US – the steel and aluminium sectors supported the jobs of around 80,000 people in 2020 across the UK. Reaching a solution on this has allowed the Department to focus on strengthening the overall UK-US trading relationship.

Finally, DIT has played an integral role in the UK’s response to Russia’s unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine. In lockstep with our allies, the UK has announced an unprecedented package of sanctions to cut off funding for Putin’s war machine and encourage Russia to cease hostilities against Ukraine and the rules-based international trading system.

A year in summary…

April 2021

• DIT consolidates its London headquarters at Old Admiralty Building (OAB) in London. The Department also establishes a major second location outside of London at the Darlington Economic Campus, as well as trade and investment offices in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast.

May 2021

• The UK agrees an Enhanced Trade Partnership with India, unlocking new opportunities for British businesses exporting to India and Indian businesses investing in the UK.

June 2021

• The Department launches negotiations with the eleven countries belonging to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – a free trade area with a joint GDP of £9 trillion in 2021.

• The Trade Remedies Authority is established – the Department’s first arm’s length body.

• The government strikes an historic deal with the United States on the Airbus-Boeing dispute, agreeing that retaliatory tariffs which affected UK exports to the US worth £550m should remain suspended.

July 2021

• The UK signs a Free Trade Agreement with Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, boosting critical sectors like digital, financial, and professional business services that support jobs across the UK.

September 2021

• Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP is appointed Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade. Penny Mordaunt MP (Minister for Trade Policy) and Mike Freer MP (Minister for Exports) also join the Department’s ministerial team alongside Lord Grimstone of Boscobel and Ranil Jayawardena MP.

October 2021

• The Department organises the UK government’s hosting of a Global Investment Summit to encourage foreign investment by showcasing the best of British innovation.

• The new Export Support Service is launched providing dedicated support to British businesses and helping more of them to export to Europe.

• DIT provides important support to the cross-government effort delivering the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 26).

• Expo 2020 Dubai gets underway following a delay due to COVID-19. The UK’s pavilion, inspired by one of Stephen Hawking’s final projects, ‘Breakthrough Message’, focuses on the theme ‘Innovating for a Shared Future’.

November 2021

• As part of the inaugural International Trade Week, DIT publishes a refreshed Export Strategy to support British businesses looking to export to the global market.

• As part of the 12-point Export Strategy, the Department launches its ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ marketing campaign, championing the UK’s priority sectors.

December 2021

• The UK signs an historic Free Trade Agreement with Australia – setting new global standards in digital and services and expected to unlock £10.4 billion of additional trade by 2035.

• An agreement in principle is reached on a ground-breaking Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore – capitalising on the UK’s strengths as the world’s second largest services exporter and leading digital hub.

January 2022

• DIT hosts the Africa Investment Conference 2022. The Conference further inspires UK investment into Africa, including in clean growth solutions, and highlighting UK expertise.

• The UK and Oman sign a Sovereign Investment Partnership (SIP), agreeing to work closer together on increasing high value investment in areas such as clean energy and technology.

• The Department launches negotiations on an ambitious Free Trade Agreement with India; part of the UK’s strategy to refocus trade on the Indo-Pacific.

February 2022

• The UK signs a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement with New Zealand, with trade expected to see a boost of almost 60% under the deal.

• The Department establishes a Ukraine response team that, together with other government departments, implements a package of sanctions following Russia’s invasion of the country.

March 2022

• The Secretary of State announces the new Maritime Capability Campaign Office, designed to turbocharge the UK’s maritime trade sector as part of a £4 billion investment in shipbuilding.

• The government announces further economic sanctions on Russia, including a ban on the export of high-end luxury goods to Russia and denying both Russia and Belarus access to the Most Favoured Nation tariff for hundreds of their exports – a key benefit of WTO membership.

• The Board of Trade publishes its fourth report setting out how the UK can deliver the trade benefits of the National Shipbuilding Strategy refresh.

• The Department launches negotiations on a new Free Trade Agreement with Canada.

Context: notable issues and risks

DIT’s 2021-22 Outcome Delivery Plan (ODP) identified several risks that cut across the Department’s portfolio. While these challenges will continue to affect delivery for the foreseeable future, our interventions have mitigated their impact. DIT’s revised governance model has allowed ongoing, cross-departmental surveillance of these risks at executive and Board level across the year. This section sets out these challenges and assesses our efforts to alleviate them.

Global economic trade and geopolitical outlook

The impact of increasing geopolitical tensions identified in the 2021-22 ODP have been felt across the reporting year, especially during its final month as the Department pivoted to address the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

COVID-19 has also continued to affect our outlook even as the situation improved over the past year. Protectionism, fragmentation in the international trading system, and domestic and international economic downturns have impacted investment and exports. Restrictions on travel have also continued to impact our ability to build relationships.

Our ability to deliver new free trade agreements and resolve market access barriers depended critically on the attitude and economic situation of our partners. In a challenging context, the Department’s trade negotiations programme made significant progress, including signing the FTAs with Australia, New Zealand and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) states.

DIT continues to support the government response to the invasion of Ukraine, including enforcing sanctions, supporting businesses and analysing the UK’s supply chains for potential disruption. As uncertainties regarding the wider impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis and other geopolitical instability represent risks that are currently hard to quantify, we initiated analysis on the potential impact on future investment flows and the challenge of managing supply chain, energy and competition pressures in the medium-term.

The Department continues to analyse and seek to address the challenges businesses in the UK face, including the ongoing impact of COVID-19, issues at the border, inflation, the impact of the war in Ukraine and supply chain pressures. While it remains difficult to separately identify all the factors that continue to impact on UK trade, our new Export Strategy and Export Support Service have been designed to support UK businesses in helping to navigate and overcome these challenges.

DIT’s Global Trade Outlook^{[footnote 1]}, published in September 2021, set out long-term trends that may shape the global economy and international trade until 2050 to help inform policymakers and strategists and contribute to the wider debate about the future of trade. Risks around stakeholder communications and engagement for forthcoming trade deals were mitigated through expectation management and by including communications on trade deals in other communications wherever possible. Ahead of the Spending Review, we engaged with other government departments to ensure appropriate funding is available to defend any disputes that could arise in their areas.

COVID-19 domestic and international recovery

The pandemic affected DIT’s delivery model over the course of 2021-22 beyond the geopolitical impacts noted above. The Department monitored the impact of the pandemic throughout the year, ensuring our response was aligned with government and international policy developments as we emerged from the crisis. The impact of COVID-19 was mitigated by moving a substantial amount of work onto online platforms, including trade shows and FTA negotiations in some cases. Public-facing digital tools such as the Export Support Service mitigated the risks associated with loss of contact faced throughout the COVID-19 recovery.

Operating model and people capacity, capability and resilience

The Department’s 2021-22 ODP identified risks around attracting and retaining talent. Related risks around staff welfare caused by resourcing constraints, increased workload in key areas, and prolonged remote working were also noted. DIT’s ambitious negotiation programme, and the pace of those negotiations which accelerated beyond originally planned timelines, also caused pressure on our people.

We continue to develop an attractive employer brand to secure new talent and a renewed focus on DIT careers, including through the leadership of the International Trade Profession. We are also developing new talent pipelines through the Places for Growth programme, ensuring a broad range of skills in each of the Department’s locations.

Regular communications, including from senior leaders, were planned to maintain motivation, wellbeing and continue engagement levels across DIT, and ensuring that staff were clearly signposted to available well-being support.

A more detailed statement on the main issues and risks that DIT has managed through 2021-22 is set out in the Governance Statement.

DIT’s Structure

The structure of the Department is as follows:

• Trade Negotiations group: delivering an ambitious programme of free trade agreements, securing greater market access for exporters and bringing greater opportunities and supporting economic growth across the UK.

• Trading Systems group: responsible for leading on creating a fair rules-based trading environment, managing the UK’s trade disputes and remedies interests, implementing agreements, supporting businesses to access markets, supporting supply chain management and resilience and the licensing of military and dual-use exports.

• Strategy and Investment group: working across government to enhance the UK’s investment environment, attracting high-value, high-impact investment through the Office for Investment (a joint DIT and Number 10 unit), while delivering cross-government priorities through attraction and retention of internationally mobile investment. Supporting the Department’s work for national security, the Dubai World Expo and other world events, Trade Envoys and delivery of analysis and support for Ministers in setting and delivering the Department’s strategy.

• Exports and UK Trade group: supporting UK businesses to take full advantage of trade opportunities. This includes four pillars: export strategy and delivery; sector-specific support for exporters and investors; support for exporters from teams across the UK; and support to exporters in teams in around 130 locations overseas.

• Corporate functions: provision of the digital services to support trade negotiations, trading systems, exporters and investors as well as the infrastructure required for the achievement of DIT’s priority outcomes. Provision of other support services, including communications and marketing, finance, human resources, commercial, estates, security and information management. Responsibility for the GREAT campaign transferred to the Cabinet Office on 1 April 2021.

• Overseas: a network of over 1,400 staff in more than 100 countries providing expert advice in support of UK exports and investment and the implementation of free trade agreements. The network is divided into nine regions, each with an HMTC responsible for delivering a Regional Trade Plan.

• Trade Remedies Authority (an arm’s length body): established on 1 June 2021 (previously the Trade Remedies Investigations Directorate) undertaking investigations into the economic impact of unfair trade practices and making recommendations on appropriate measures.

• UK Export Finance: the UK government’s export credit agency. It exists to advance prosperity by ensuring no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance from the private sector, providing finance and insurance to help exporters win, fulfil and get paid for export contracts. UKEF is a separate ministerial government department for which the Secretary of State for International Trade is responsible, and which is strategically and operationally aligned with DIT.

Governance structure

The following represents the principal governance structures of the Department, both at Board-level (oversight) and Executive-level (management). Further information is also provided in the Governance Statement.

Board-level governance

The Departmental Board is supported by two sub-committees: the Nominations and Governance Committee; and the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee.

Executive-level governance

The Executive Committee is supported by three sub-committees: the Performance, Finance and Risk Committee; the Projects and Change Committee; and the People Committee.

Leadership structure

The following represents the leadership structure of senior officials within DIT as at 31 March 2022.

---

Permanent Secretary & Accounting Officer SCS4

The following Directors General report directly to the Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer.

• Director General Corporate Services & Chief Operating Officer SCS3

• Director General Strategy & Investment SCS3

• Director General Exports & UK Trade SCS3

Director General Corporate Services & Chief Operating Officer SCS3

The following Directors report directly to the Director General Corporate Services & Chief Operating Officer.

• Director, Human Resources & Organisational Development SCS2

• Director, Finance, Business Services & Security SCS2

• Director, Digital, Data & Technology SCS2

• Director, Project Delivery & Change SCS2

• Director, Commercial SCS2

• Director, Communications SCS2

Director General Strategy & Investment SCS3

The following Directors report directly to the Director General Strategy & Investment.

• Chief Scientific Advisor SCS2

• Director, Trade Advocacy & World Events SCS2

• Director, Investment SCS2

• Director, International Strategy & Engagement SCS2

• Director, Analysis Group & Chief Economist SCS2

• Director, Ministerial Strategy SCS2

• Chief Executive, Office for Investment SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner Africa SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner Middle East, Pakistan & Afghanistan SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner China & Hong Kong SCS2

Director General Exports & UK Trade SCS3

The following Directors report directly to the Director General Exports & UK Trade.

• Director, UK Exports SCS2

• Director, UK Nations, Agriculture, Food & Drink SCS2

• Director, Technology, Entrepreneurship & Mobility SCS2

• Director, Manufacturing, Energy & Infrastructure SCS2

• Director, English Regions SCS2

• Director, Financial, Professional & Business Services SCS2

• Director, Digital, Education, Creative & Sports SCS2

• Director, Healthcare, Life Sciences and Chemicals SCS2

• Director, UK Defence & Security Exports SCS2

---

Chief Executive UKEF SCS3

UKEF’s Chief Executive reports to the chair of the UKEF Board.

---

Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser & 2nd Permanent Secretary SCS4

The Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and 2nd Permanent Secretary reports directly to the Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer. The following Director Generals report directly to the Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser.

Director General Trading Systems SCS3

The following Directors report directly to the Director General Trading Systems.

• DIT Legal SCS2

• Director, Global Trade & Delivery SCS2

• Director, Bilateral Trade Relations SCS2

• Director, Trade Defence SCS2

• Director, Export Control SCS2

• Director, Global Supply Chains SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner South Asia SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner Latin America and the Caribbean SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner Asia Pacific SCS2

Director General Trade Negotiations SCS3

The following Directors report directly to the Director General Trade Negotiations.

• Director, Switzerland, Israel and Turkey Negotiations & Policy Coherence SCS2

• Director, Trans-Pacific Negotiations & Policy SCS2

• Director, US, Services, Investment & Digital SCS2

• Director, Goods, Regulatory Environment & Gulf Cooperation Council, SCS2

• Director, Cross-cutting,IP, Procurement and India SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner Europe SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner North America SCS2

• HM Trade Commissioner Eastern Europe & Central Asia SCS2

Performance summary

Key performance measures and statistics

The following provides a summary of key metrics and statistics that the Department uses to monitor performance. Where information does not relate to 2021-22, the latest available is provided.

Priority outcomes

	Key performance measures and statistics (2021-22 unless stated)	Link to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
Secure world-class free trade agreements and reduce market access barriers, ensuring that consumers and businesses can benefit from both.	• Value of total trade in 2021 with countries for which a trade agreement has been secured as at 31 March 2022: £808bn • Value of total trade in 2021 with countries for which a trade agreement has been secured as at 31 March 2022, as a percentage of total UK trade: 63.2% • Number of Market Access Barriers reported on the Digital Market Access Service: 800 (an increase of 9.1% or 67 barriers from 2020-21) • Number of Market Access Barriers on the Digital Market Access Service fully resolved: 146 (a decrease of 6.4% or 10 barriers from 2020-21)	8 – Decent work and economic growth 10 – Reduced inequalities
Deliver economic growth to all the nations and regions of the UK through attracting and retaining inward investment.	• Inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) Stock in 2020: £1.93tn (17.6% increase from 2019) • Number of DIT supported FDI projects: 1,174 (3.8% increase from 2020-21) • Gross Value Added (GVA) of DIT supported FDI projects: £7,034m (81.5% increase from 2020-21) • New jobs created or safeguarded from DIT supported FDI projects: 79,571 (24.4% increase from 2020-21 – see performance analysis section for regional breakdown) • Value of venture capital supported: £960m (24.2% increase from 2020-21) • Value of large capital supported: £4,683m (22.6% increase from 2020-21)	8 – Decent work and economic growth 9 – Industry, innovation and infastructure
Support UK business to take full advantage of trade opportunities, including those arising from delivering FTAs, facilitating UK exports.	• UK Exports of Goods and Services: £646.0bn (9.2% increase from 2020-21) • UK Imports of Goods and Services: £703.3bn (18.5% increase from 2020-21) • UK Exports as a % of GDP: 27.2% (0.4 percentage point decrease from 2020-21) • Outward Foreign Direct Investment (ODI) Stock in 2020: £1,661bn (0.8% increase from 2019) • UK share of exports to the world in 2020: 3.3% (0.3 percentage point decrease from 2019) • Value of Export Wins: £17.3bn (2.6% increase from 2020-21) • Value of ODI Wins: £10.6bn (192.6% increase from 2020-21) • Export client survey satisfaction rates and number of service deliveries in 2018-19: satisfaction rates range from 35% to 89%, total number of service deliveries: 57,280	8 – Decent work and economic growth
Champion the rules-based international trading system and operate the UK’s new trading system, including protecting UK businesses from unfair trade practices.	• Standard Individual Export Licences (SIELs) processed in 2021: 12,852 (4.9% increase from 2020) • Proportion of SIELs processed within 20 working days in 2021: 69% (7 percentage point increase from 2020) • Proportion of SIELs processed within 60 working days in 2021: 91% (6 percentage point increase from 2020) • Median number of days to process SIEL applications in 2021: 15 days (1 day increase from 2020)	8 – Decent work and economic growth 16 – Peace, justice and strong instiutions

For further information on the Department’s performance against its priority outcomes see relevant pages in the Performance Analysis section.

Further information about the UN Sustainable Development Goals can also be found at https://sdgs.un.org/goals.

Strategic enablers

The delivery of the Department’s priority outcomes has been supported by four ‘strategic enablers’: (i) Workforce, skills and location; (ii) New ideas: Innovation, technology and data; (iii) Better outcomes: Delivery, evaluation and collaboration; and (iv) Sustainability. The following metrics and statistics are used by the Department to monitor performance against these four enablers. The enablers also link to those UN Sustainable Development Goals indicated below.

Key performance measures and statistics (2021-22 unless stated)

Link to the UN Sustainable Development Goals

• DIT 2021 People Survey results, including overall engagement score: 67% (up 1 percentage point from 2020 survey) • Average diversity declaration rate: 70% as at 31 March 2022 (2 percentage point increase from 31 March 2021) • Diversity of workforce – see section on equality, diversity and inclusion in the performance analysis section for further details. • Number of apprenticeship starts: 76 (1.3% decrease from 2020-21) • Number of UK-based civil servants based outside of London and the South East as at 31 March 2022 (FTE): 209 (88.3% increase from 31 March 2021) • DIT 2021 People Survey results, including proportion of staff who agree or strongly agree that ‘I believe I would be supported if I try a new idea, even if it may not work’: 77% of DIT staff (up from 75% in 2020) • Proportion of FOI requests answered on time including those with permitted extensions: 66% (16 percentage point decrease from 2020-21) • Proportion of Written Parliamentary Questions answered on time: 82% (8 percentage point decrease from 2020-21) • Proportion of ministerial correspondence answered on time: 74% (6 percentage point decrease from 2020-21) • Total greenhouse gas emissions (scope 1, 2 and 3) (tCO2e): 694 (5.8% decrease from 2020-21) • Total energy usage (MWh): 2,379 (16.1% decrease from 2020-21) • Total expenditure on energy (£000): 308 (28% decrease from 2020-21) • Total waste production (tonnes): 13 (61.8% decrease from 2020-21) • Total water consumption (m3): 2,691 (44.9% decrease from 2020-21) • Total water supply costs (£000): 8 (45% decrease from 2020-21)

3 – Good heath and well-being 5 – Gender Equality 8 – Decent work and economic growth  9 – Industry, innovation and infrastructure 12 – Responsible consumption and production 13 – Climate action

For further information on the Department’s performance relating to its strategic enablers see relevant pages in the Performance Analysis section.

Trading agreements secured as at 31 March 2022

This table includes those countries the government sought continuity for under our previous EU trade agreements (the continuity negotiations programme) as well as all other trade agreements as at 31 March 2022 that were outside the scope of the programme, such as the Free Trade Agreement with Australia.

Agreement and country	Total UK trade with countries (2021, £m)
Albania	200
Andean countries (Colombia, Ecuador, Peru)	2,349
Australia	14,358
Canada	21,360
Cameroon	312
CARIFORUM trade bloc (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, Belize, Bahamas, Saint Lucia, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, The Republic of Guyana, The Republic of Suriname)	2,573
Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,Nicaragua, Panama)	1,361
Chile	1,492
Côte d’Ivoire	583
Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) trade bloc (Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles, Zimbabwe)	1,382
Egypt	3,337
Faroe Islands	881
Georgia	203
Ghana	1,007
Iceland and Norway	36,487
Israel	4,999
Japan	23,085
Jordan	653
Kenya	1,134
Kosovo	13
Lebanon	560
Liechtenstein	122
Mexico	4,154
Moldova	1,166
Morocco	2,038
New Zealand	2,512
North Macedonia	2,044
Pacific States (Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands)	285
Palestinian Authority	31
Serbia	655
Singapore	16,678
South Korea	14,649
Southern Africa Customs Union and Mozambique (SACUM) trade bloc (Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa)	13,094
Switzerland	38,425
Tunisia	497
Turkey	18,119
Ukraine	1,894
Vietnam	5,457
Subtotal for non-EU countries	240,149
European Union	568,310
Total (all counties plus the EU)	808,459

Note: ‘Secured’ refers to agreements that are in effect, or else have been signed or agreed in principle. The UK-EU figure, which forms part of the UK bilateral trade figure, includes trade with the EU27 plus Andorra, San Marino, EU overseas territories and UK crown dependencies. These statistics do not estimate the value or impact of the trade agreements themselves. The figures provide for context, the overall value of the UK’s trade with these countries i.e. the UK’s bilateral trade with partner countries covering all exports and imports of goods and services. This is the case even for agreements that cover only goods or only services.

Source: ONS: UK total trade: all countries, seasonally adjusted: October to December 2021. Please note that this publication incorporates routine data revisions each quarter. All figures are provisional and subject to revision.

Performance analysis

This section provides an analysis of DIT’s performance against each priority outcome and includes references to several performance metrics that are used to monitor performance against the full breadth of our activity. These metrics are drawn from the Department’s performance framework, which is the basis of internal performance reporting. The performance framework continues to be subject to further improvement throughout 2022-23 as part of monitoring DIT’s performance against our Outcome Delivery Plan.

Uncertainty cannot be eliminated from the data used to assess departmental performance – trade and investment data is frequently subject to revisions, and significant variations can be found between estimates by different organisations. The twin challenges of EU Exit and COVID-19 have reduced the quality of some data sources used by DIT; for example, by reducing survey response rates. To continue to maximise the accuracy of the data we use, a broad range of sources are used to inform DIT’s operations and policy. Quality issues are also routinely flagged as part of internal reporting, with verification procedures in place on the main operational metrics, to mitigate risks associated with the use of incorrect data. The figures presented here represent the most recent data that was available as at the end of June 2022.

Information provided on expenditure apportioned to each priority outcome is estimated by budget holders based on their judgement and should be considered approximate. The percentages were reviewed in February 2022 and have been applied to DIT’s outturn for 2021-22. Further information on expenditure can be found in the Financial Review section. Information on workforce apportioned to each priority outcome is based on the beginning of the 2021-22 reporting year. Further information on the average number of full-time equivalent persons employed during 2021-22 can be found in the Staff Report.

DIT commitment to publishing an Annual Trade Statement

This analysis also fulfils DIT’s commitment within the 2019 Command Paper (Processes for making free trade agreements after the United Kingdom has left the European Union) to publish an Annual Trade Report covering progress across the full programme of trade negotiations.

Priority outcome 1

DIT has made significant progress with fulfilling the government’s commitment to negotiate ambitious new free trade agreements.

In July 2021, DIT signed FTAs with the EEA (European Economic Area) EFTA (European Free Trade Association) States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway). This was followed by Australia in December 2021, New Zealand in February this year and then later that month a Digital Economy Agreement with Singapore – an innovative trade agreement covering the digitised trade in services and goods across the whole economy. The UK’s FTAs with Australia and New Zealand also pave the way for the UK to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – a free trade area consisting of eleven countries (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam), including some of the world’s fastest-growing economies.

The Department also remains focused on ensuring that the UK’s bilateral trade agreements are appropriately managed and effectively utilised once they enter into force or effect. This enables delivery against DIT’s objectives of increasing exports, gaining market access for UK business and championing free trade. Trade agreement implementation is a cross-government activity, much in the same way as negotiation.

Since 2021, DIT has engaged in dialogue with our partner countries using the mechanisms provided for by our bilateral trade agreements. Within this, the Department progresses policy objectives, engages in cooperation activity and addresses market access concerns and opportunities. This includes, for example, advancing discussions on clean growth and market access with Canada, agreeing to strengthen the bilateral investment relationship with Singapore and pressing for resolution on market access barriers for importer spirits in Cote D’Ivoire. Earlier this year, as part of the inaugural Ministerial Joint Committee of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), the UK and Japan also committed to deeper cooperation on digital trade, climate action and clean energy.

Finally, removing non-tariff market access barriers outside formal FTA negotiations is now at the heart of DIT’s offer to UK businesses. These barriers are shared with us by British firms trying to grow into new markets and recorded on our Digital Market Access Service (DMAS). To focus government’s efforts, the Department has prioritised the resolution of market access barriers based on economic benefit to the UK and where there is clear evidence intervention will open markets for business within a reasonable time period. Removing these barriers to trade will also support other important government priorities, including the Prime Minister’s green industrial revolution and levelling up.

Our approach has achieved some notable successes, including lifting the animal testing requirement for cosmetics exports to China (see p. 39), enabling export of UK lamb to the United States and the export of poultry to Japan. This success has been underpinned by deeper trade relationships with key strategic partners, spearheaded by our overseas network of HM Trade Commissioners and a range of trade dialogues including Joint Trade Reviews, Joint Economic and Trade Committees and other committees established under our concluded free trade agreements.

DIT’s achievements and progress

Key achievements and progress in 2021-22 under this priority outcome also includethe following:

• In January, the Department launched negotiations on an ambitious free trade agreement with India; part of the UK’s strategy to refocus trade on the Indo-Pacific region, home to half of the world’s population and 50% of global economic growth.^{[footnote 2]} Four rounds of negotiations have since been completed.

• In February, CPTPP members confirmed that the UK could move to the second and final phase of the accession process – a key milestone towards acceding to CPTPP and a successful demonstration to members of the partnership of the UK’s high-standards, fair trading economy.

• Having delivered calls for input on enhancing our existing FTAs with Canada and Mexico in 2021, the UK launched negotiations with Canada in March and Mexico in May. In early 2022, we also closed the call for input for the Gulf Cooperation Council and launched a call for input for Israel in preparation for negotiations later in the year.

• The Department developed a strategy to strengthen the UK-US trade relationship and established a new UK-US Trade Dialogue, with two events taking place in March and April. Following negotiations, a deal was also agreed in March to remove additional tariffs previously imposed by the United States on imports of certain steel and aluminum products (known as section 232 tariffs) that re-opens tariff free access for UK steel and aluminum exporters.

• The independent Trade & Agriculture Commission (TAC) was established to provide advice on new FTAs and relevant UK domestic statutory standards. The TAC published its first report on the UK-Australia FTA on 13 April.

• The Department continues to support robust parliamentary scrutiny of the FTA programme, including DIT Ministers and/or officials appearing before the International Trade Select Committee 17 times in 2021. DIT also established structures to regularly engage with all UK nations and Crown Dependencies on the programme of FTA implementation, where two-way flows of information help guide activity.

• The UK has delivered strategic engagements through the institutions established under our concluded trade agreements, including over 15 overarching committees and more than 25 specialised policy committees. Of the 70 countries the UK secured agreements with as at end of March 2022, 32 of these are African, Caribbean and Pacific countries where we are operating eight development focused Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA). We continue to welcome further countries joining these agreements – Samoa and Solomon Islands acceded to our UK-Pacific EPA in March 2022, and Madagascar and Comoros signed the UK-Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) countries EPA on 4 November 2021 and 11 April 2022 respectively.

• We have enhanced our bilateral trade relations with partner countries through further cooperation including agreeing a global supply chain memorandum of understanding with South Korea; a modernisation roadmap with Chile; and have agreed with Japan that 77 UK geographical indicators will undergo procedures to be protected in Japan as soon as possible. The UK has also ensured operability of agreements, for example, the UK worked with Switzerland to ensure businesses on both sides could continue to utilise their existing European supply chains.

• The UK secured Partner Dialogue status with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) – a grouping of nations that according to the World Bank have a combined GDP of $3.2 trillion.

• Under the UK-India Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP), we have launched and delivered a series of market access commitments, including securing closer cooperation on legal services and new measures making it easier for us to export medical devices. This means businesses like Redcar-based Micropore Technologies can sell their lifesaving products to India – an import market worth £2.7 billion.^{[footnote 3]}

• Not withstanding the impact of COVID-related travel restrictions, a range of Joint Economic and Trade Committees (JETCOs) with trading partners, including with Indonesia for the very first time, helped the Department to expand our trading relations with these growing markets.

Minister Jayawardena signing the FTA with the EEA EFTA States (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway)

What’s next?

Building on the agreements signed so far, the Department will over the course of next year put the UK at the centre of a network of modern deals spanning the globe. Our priorities will be to:

• Progress with negotiations to join CPTPP as well as continue negotiations on FTAs with India, the Gulf Cooperation Council, Canada and Mexico. We will also seek to launch enhanced FTAs with Israel and Switzerland and complete a review of the FTA with Turkey. Through FTAs, we will continue to promote and uphold the UK’s high environmental and labour standards, as well as the government’s clean growth and climate change objectives.

• Continue to implement the strategy to strengthen the trade relationship between the UK and the United States, including progressing the ongoing UK-US Trade Dialogues and working to negotiate state-level agreements.

• Complete pre-ratification scrutiny of the UK-New Zealand and UK-Australia FTAs, including laying reports under section 42 of the Agriculture Act 2002 on the FTAs’ impact on domestic agricultural standards, and taking the agreements through the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 (CRAG) procedure. Additionally, the Trade (Australia and New Zealand) Bill, introduced in Parliament on 11 May, will need to be passed in order to bring the UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand agreements into force.

• Continue to implement agreements and build our relationships with our FTA partners and prepare for the implementation of new FTAs, including Australia and New Zealand – ensuring that the UK’s bilateral trade agreements will be appropriately managed and effectively utilised once they enter into force.

• Continue to raise our ambition for opening new export markets for UK businesses. The Department will lead a whole of government effort to resolve the barriers blocking business from exporting to some of the world’s most valuable markets. Removing just 100 of these barriers could potentially be worth more than £20 billion to UK businesses over a five-year period. We expect 36 barriers with an estimated value of £3.7 billion to be resolved in the next 12 months.^{[footnote 4]}

Performance measures

Trade agreements

These statistics indicate progress towards securing trade agreements. The statistics estimate the value of UK trade with countries who are party to trade agreements. All trade values within this note are taken from the most recent published Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics on ONS: UK total trade: all countries, seasonally adjusted: October to December. This publication incorporates routine data revisions each quarter.

These statistics do not estimate the value or impact of the trade agreements themselves. The figures provide for context the overall value of the UK’s trade with these countries i.e., the UK’s bilateral trade with partner countries covering all exports and imports of goods and services. This is the case even for agreements that cover only goods or only services.

Case study: free trade agreements with Australia and New Zealand

The Free Trade Agreements with Australia, signed in December 2021, and with New Zealand, signed in February 2022, bring significant benefits to the UK. These agreements pave the way for the UK to join CPTPP (Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership) and are also part of a network of modern deals spanning the Americas and Indo-Pacific. These ‘from scratch’ FTAs go further than the EU who do not have trade deals with Australia or New Zealand.

The UK-Australia trade agreement eliminates tariffs on 100% of UK exports; it supports the economy of the future with the first ever dedicated innovation chapter of any trade deal in the world; and it gives UK firms guaranteed access to bid for over £10 billion worth of Australian public sector contracts. The deal provides unprecedented new opportunities for UK professionals to work within Australia, while young British citizens aged 35 and under can more easily live and work in Australia.

This deal eliminates tariffs on all UK goods, making it cheaper to sell products like Scotch whisky and cars to Australia, supporting industries that employed 3.4 million people in the UK in 2020. For our consumers, it could mean lower prices and better choice, including on iconic Australian favourites such as wine, swimwear and treats like Tim Tams. The agreement is also in-step with the government’s ambitions to grow the low-carbon economy and tackle climate change, and reaffirms both parties’ commitments to upholding all of their obligations under the Paris Agreement.

The deal will also contribute to levelling up the UK, delivering benefits for towns, cities and rural areas throughout the country. In the long run, it is expected to increase trade with Australia by 53%, boost the economy by £2.3 billion when compared to projected levels of GDP in 2035, and add £900 million to household wages when compared to 2019 levels.

The UK-New Zealand trade relationship was worth £2.3 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow by almost 60% because of this FTA, boosting the economy by £800 million when compared to projected levels of GDP in 2035, adding £200 million to household wages when compared to 2019 levels, and supporting the levelling up agenda across the entirety of the UK.

The deal breaks new ground for the UK and New Zealand in several key areas. A Consumer Protection chapter – the first of its kind in the UK’s independent trade deals – will enshrine protections for both UK and New Zealand consumers buying goods and services in each other’s markets. Consumers will also benefit directly from increased choice, better product quality and lower prices for imported goods, including Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc and kiwi fruit.

The ground-breaking environment chapter goes beyond UK and New Zealand precedent to support our climate change goals, including to end electricity generation from unabated coal, take steps to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies where they exist, and pursue an ambitious phase down of hydrofluorocarbons – all reinforcing efforts to meet Net Zero.

Finally, this agreement will protect investors and increase opportunities in both countries. The deal includes higher investment screening thresholds for UK investors in New Zealand, rising from NZ$100 million to NZ$200 million, meaning that fewer UK investments will be subject to review.^{[footnote 5]}

Secretary of State following the signing of the FTA with Australia

Market Access

The Department has enhanced its approach to market access in 2021-22. Of the 192 barriers resolved (in full or in part) a subset of 45 on their own are estimated to be worth around £4.9 billion to UK businesses over the next five years.^{[footnote 6]}

Methodology and production

The Digital Market Access Service (DMAS) is the central repository for all trade barriers reported to the UK government by businesses, either via trade officials in the UK and overseas, or directly through the ‘Report a Market Access Barrier’ service on great.gov.uk. The system enables officials to prioritise and focus resources on resolving high-value barriers that have a wider strategic impact, such as levelling up and contributing to green trade. It also allows us to track progress and ensures we can keep businesses informed of key developments. Once barriers have been added to DMAS, they are assessed and given a high-level qualitative rating. Status indicators are attributed to specific barriers and are used to provide a broad indication of the latest position, including marking it as resolved when the issue has been addressed.

Coherence and compatibility

Barriers recorded on DMAS are an effective way of understanding the range and nature of specific obstacles faced by UK firms in exporting to a particular country. However, they are not wholly representative or designed to be a comprehensive measure of all barriers that may restrict UK exports to or investment in that country. Barriers can be marked as either fully or partially resolved. The status of a barrier may change subsequently, for reasons including re-opening and system admin such as being deleted or archived.

Accuracy and definitions

Market access activity aims to reduce individual tariff and non-tariff barriers, and outward FDI restrictions, which impede the ability of all firms to trade and invest effectively. A wide range of rules, practices and processes can infringe, restrict or prohibit a firm’s ability to export to or invest in a particular country or increase the cost of doing so. Many of these ‘infringements’ do not have trade restriction or market protection as a primary purpose. Individual businesses also face specific issues when exporting or investing overseas.

Case study: cosmetic exports to China

The Chinese cosmetics market is one of the world’s fastest growing sectors, estimated to have been worth approximately £50 billion in 2021.

However, mandatory animal testing requirements for importing certain cosmetics products into China were restricting UK companies from trading. Over several years, DIT played a key role in persuading China to remove animal testing import requirements for cosmetics, through both technical regulatory engagements supported by the Prosperity Fund and ministerial engagement.

Following this success, in 2021 the UK and Chinese governments were able to agree a new certification system to enable British manufacturers and exporters to begin exporting cruelty-free products. Exports are expected to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds to businesses across the UK over the next five years.

Several leading UK cosmetics retailers, including The Body Shop, Unilever, Argentum, Boots and Lush are amongst those looking to trade, with The Body Shop already announcing that it will open physical stores. Close ties with business associations and directly with brands means a wide range of UK companies are trading with China. This market access win is also an example of trade as a force for good, promoting UK values such as ethical production and animal welfare.

Priority outcome 2

Inward investment makes a vital contribution to the UK economy, driving growth, productivity and innovation. DIT’s role is to attract, retain and grow international investment that strengthens the economy, supporting our Net Zero, levelling up and science superpower objectives. We do this through:

• Promoting the UK as an investment destination, directly showcasing the UK’s opportunities and capabilities to investors through our network of investment specialists around the world, events and digital channels.

• Providing intelligence and insight to help investors build the business case for investing in the UK versus competing jurisdictions.

• Supporting investors to set up or expand their business, including access to expert advice on sector-specific and business environment issues and assistance in engaging across government to break down investment barriers.

• Developing long-term partnerships with strategic investors and entrepreneurs.

• Influencing policy development across government to ensure international and domestic policy and legislation are conducive to maintaining the UK’s position as leading destination for investment.

In 2021-22, we have seen a global rebound in foreign investment. The UNCTAD World Investment Report 2022 indicates that global FDI flows recovered to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 reaching $1.58 trillion. DIT has capitalised on this by supporting 728 new investments with a greater economic impact compared to last year. We secured £4.683 billion in large capital investment, £960 million in venture capital investment, and £13 billion in investment projects aligned to the government’s Ten Point Plan for a green industrial revolution.

The Department has also responded to the war in Ukraine through strengthening screening processes to ensure that DIT’s investment support services are not provided to sanctioned companies or companies with associations with sanctioned individuals. We have also initiated analysis on the potential impact on future investment flows and are considering the role of investment in managing supply chain, energy and competition pressures in the medium-term.

The Prime Minister hosting a ‘fireside chat’ with Microsoft co-founder, Bill Gates, at the Global Investment Summit

DIT’s achievements and progress

• The Office for Investment (OfI) works to unlock significant strategic investments aligned to the government’s priorities and to make the UK the best place in the world for international investors. Working collaboratively across government, the OfI has successfully landed several projects this year, directly creating and retaining thousands of jobs and thousands more in associated supply chains. These investments contribute directly towards the government’s strategic priorities helping the UK reach its ambitious targets across Net Zero, levelling up and science superpower. The OfI was also instrumental in the signing of the £10 billion UK-UAE Sovereign Investment Partnership (SIP) in September 2021. This is the first agreement of its kind in the UK and will bring significant investment into technology, infrastructure, energy transition and life sciences.

• At COP26, DIT launched the Clean Growth Programme, through which DIT will drive investment to build the UK’s green industrial base and shape domestic policy to support the scale-up of UK green businesses. This year DIT has supported £13 billion of investment in green projects aligned to the Ten Point Plan, including offshore wind, electric vehicles and nuclear sectors, creating 8,804 new jobs.

• In October 2021, DIT hosted the Global Investment Summit (GIS), a major event showcasing the UK’s global leadership and commitment to clean growth. Attended by around 200 investors the summit explored the role of the private sector in reaching global Net Zero and achieving green growth, as well as highlighting the significant inward investment opportunities in the UK in the sustainable industries of the future. At the Summit, DIT launched the Investment Atlas,^{[footnote 7]} an online platform designed to help international investors identify and execute high priority investment opportunities in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Atlas currently highlights more than 50 strategic investment opportunities across the UK, including offshore wind substructures in Scotland and manufacturing ports in Teesside and Humber, sustainable food systems delivery in Telford and Net Zero transport in Coventry.

• Across government, DIT has supported the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in setting up the Global Britain Investment Fund (GBIF) to facilitate investment into our sectorial priorities and with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) to establish Freeports as national hubs of trade and investment across the UK. Freeports will unlock new investment opportunities, drive growth, and support trade, innovation, and commerce across the UK. The Freeports programme has transitioned from planning to delivery, with two Freeports now operational – one in Teesside and the other in Essex. Working closely with DLUHC, DIT has supported each of the English Freeports to shape and review their trade and investment strategy and will support the remaining six English Freeports to become operational over the coming months. DIT has also taken an active role in supporting other UK nations to establish Freeports, for example, helping to develop the bidding prospectus for two green Freeports in Scotland.

What’s next?

• Our vision is for DIT to be the world’s most capable and respected investment promotion agency, best placed to deliver high-value inward investment in support of driving economic growth and a green industrial revolution. The Investment Transformation Programme will deliver changes to DIT’s investment services that optimise our resources, focusing our support on high-value, high-impact investors, whilst providing proportionate, effective and efficient services to all our investors.

• DIT will continue to attract foreign investment to build the UK’s green industrial base contributing to the delivery of the government’s Ten-Point Plan for a green industrial revolution, boosting employment, increasing the UK’s potential for future exports, and building resilience to global energy supply chain issues in line with the energy security strategy. In partnership with BEIS, DIT will help to realise the Ten-Point Plan by publishing detailed sector road maps. Each road map will include a delivery plan, which sets out critical milestones and activity in transitioning the sector until 2035. The delivery plans will enable investors to see a clear pipeline of future clean growth investment opportunities and will be a critical tool in attracting the private finance needed to deliver on Net Zero.

• Building on the success of the Global Investment Summit, DIT will deliver events that showcase the UK’s climate innovation and promote investment opportunities from across the UK that support the clean growth agenda, including ‘Switch on Net Zero’ and the ‘Northern Green Expo’ later this year.

• DIT will continue to advocate for the role of targeted investment promotion in addressing regional economic inequalities and will collaborate with other government departments to align DIT’s investment activity to support levelling up. DIT will support investment across the whole of the UK through the development and promotion of High Potential Opportunities in the Investment Atlas that are strategically significant to the UK’s achievement of its investment priorities. DIT will continue to increase its presence in offices across the UK, including expanding the OfI’s presence in DIT’s trade and investment hubs in Belfast, Cardiff and Edinburgh, and in Darlington.

• The Department will continue to work closely with DLUHC on the development of Freeport policy and will play a critical role in the success of the UK Freeports programme. DIT will support English Freeports’ Trade and Investment Strategies with all relevant activities as well as exploring avenues to use DIT’s international relationships and expertise to maximise the opportunities that the Freeport programme presents.

• Through the Investment Champions programme, DIT has worked with prominent foreign investors to showcase the strengths of UK Regions. By sharing their success stories and their sector expertise, Investment Champions help promote the UK as a thriving business destination.
  DIT currently works with 35 Investment Champions based in the Northern Powerhouse and Midlands Engine and building on the success of the programme will expand its reach to include businesses from South-West England in 2022.

• Finally, DIT will play a crucial role in supporting the UK to become a science superpower and achieve research and development investment of 2.4% of GDP by 2027. DIT will prioritise investment promotion and support into the sectors that offer the most potential for innovation such as technology, advanced manufacturing, and life sciences. Through the Global Talent Network, we will identify, attract, and relocate highly skilled and experienced individuals to the UK to meet current and future demand in the most innovative science and tech sectors.

Lord Grimstone speaking at the UK’s Real Estate Investment & Infrastructure Forum in May this year.

Performance Measures

Inward Investment

English region	New jobs	English region	New jobs
North East	5,184	London	16,091
North West	5,059	South East	3,239
Yorkshire and the Humber	3,032	South West	1,755
East Midlands	4,354	Total for England	46,887
West Midlands	4,917	Multiple location projects	19,865
East of England	3,256	Total UK new jobs	72,906

Methodology and production

Data and information related to investment projects are recorded on an internal database which is accessible by teams across DIT. When revenue generating activities have begun, the record undergoes a robust verification process where an independent team reviews the information attached to each project to check for quality, accuracy and consistency of data. All projects must meet the same established standards and criteria to be classified as a success, and there must be sufficient evidence recorded showing that the investment decision has been made, the UK company is fully registered, and that the company has started activities on the UK site. DIT figures for recorded inward FDI projects include those investments which received support from DIT and/or one of its regional and local partners (involved projects), as well as projects which have landed in the UK without any involvement from DIT or partners (non-involved projects). Various external sources and FDI project and company databases have been used to identify, qualify and report eligible ‘non-involved’ FDI projects.

DIT measures capital investment by the capital or foreign equity value of the investment only. Values are recorded in pound sterling, applying the exchange rate at the time of the investment announcement if necessary. Whilst capital investment is all foreign investment, most does not meet the criteria for FDI.

Growth capital attracts strategic investment into high-value start-up, growth companies and funds from corporate, venture capital and individual investors outside the UK to accelerate their technology and expansion. This includes investment supported by DIT Venture Capital and the GREAT Investors Programme. Large capital involves overseas institutional investment into large capital projects in real estate, infrastructure and energy. See technical annex of DIT Inward Investment Results for full details.

Coherence and compatibility

FDI is defined as a cross-border investment made by a non-UK resident entity where the direct investor acquires at least 10% of the voting power or ownership. All FDI projects reported have been subject to a strict, independent verification process and have evidence to show that the investment has taken place. Job figures included in this report are estimates, made at the start of each investment project and are provided by the investor. New jobs capture total jobs likely to be created within three years from the start of the project. Safeguarded jobs include those jobs which were retained as a result of the additional/ new inward investment.

Gross Value Added (GVA) figures are estimated, developed using DIT’s analysis into the economic impact of FDI. Estimates are made by applying the sector specific multipliers detailed in DIT’s research report to either the number of new jobs generated from FDI projects, or the capital expenditure invested by the FDI projects. This is determined by whether a sector is deemed as labour intensive or capital intensive. The estimated impacts published are the minimum level of GVA expected over 3 years.

Accuracy and definitions

DIT’s definition of FDI projects covers a wide range of investment, including those projects which are not announced by companies. This and other differences in methodology and verification processes explains the difference in the FDI project numbers published by DIT and other organisations, such as the Financial Times and EY. Whereas these DIT statistics record the number of FDI projects and jobs created/safeguarded, ONS statistics are the official source for the value of inward and outward FDI stocks at the UK level. See www.ons.gov.uk for further information.

Case study: Britishvolt

In January this year it was announced that Britishvolt, a UK battery company, received an ‘in principle’ offer of government funding through the Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) for its planned gigafactory in Blyth, Northumberland.

The ATF is a Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) fund that delivers grant funding to develop innovative and competitive electric vehicle supply chains across the UK.

Once complete, Britishvolt’s factory in Bylth will produce enough batteries for over 300,000 electric vehicles each year, significantly supporting the UK automotive industry’s transition to a zero emissions future and increased production of electric vehicles. The government’s support for the gigafactory will also help unlock a significant amount of further support from private investors and create 3,000 direct highly-skilled jobs and another 5,000 indirect jobs in the wider supply chain.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel, then Minister for Investment at BEIS and DIT, said ‘Our support for Britishvolt’s gigafactory is not only set to bring new jobs to the people of Northumberland, but by unlocking huge amounts of additional investment, we are helping to turbocharge the local economy. All of which will not only transform Blyth, but also help us build the batteries that will power our electric vehicles for a cleaner, greener future.’

The Office for Investment’s support to BEIS in securing the deal was one of a series of notable investment successes that built on the momentum of the Global Investment Summit (see next case study example).

Case study: Global Investment Summit

In October 2021, DIT hosted the inaugural Global Investment Summit (GIS). The event brought together senior ministers, investment experts and around 200 investors to showcase the UK’s global leadership and innovation on clean growth and its commitment to Net Zero. Hosted at the iconic Science Museum in London, the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for International Trade, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, called on the private sector to join the UK in leading the world into a new green industrial revolution. Delegates were able to view the museum’s award-winning collection in between a schedule of panels, showcases, fireside chats, ministerial meetings, and networking, with the day culminating in a royal reception at Windsor Castle hosted by Her Majesty the Queen.

The event included several significant announcements. The Prime Minster announced almost £10 billion of new foreign investment that will drive growth in vital sectors such as wind and hydrogen energy, sustainable homes and carbon capture and storage, creating more than 30,000 new jobs. This announcement was in addition to almost £6 billion of foreign investment secured into green projects since the launch of the government’s Ten Point Plan.

Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, launched the government’s Net Zero Strategy setting out the roadmap to the UK achieving its Net Zero target by 2050. Bill Gates also joined the Prime Minister for a fireside chat to discuss the next generation of innovative energy breakthroughs, announcing a new £400 million partnership between Breakthrough Energy Catalyst and the UK government to catalyse investment into the next generation of ground-breaking clean energy technologies.

GIS was a platform to highlight the UK’s strengths as an investment destination, to build relationships and stimulate conversations with some of the world’s most influential international investors. In March this year, following the Summit, the Prime Minister and our Secretary of State hosted the UK-Australia Investment Roundtable at Downing Street. Senior executives from seven leading Australian businesses attended, including four of the delegates from the Summit – Macquarie Group, IFM Investors, Lendlease and AustralianSuper. Following the Roundtable, the investors announced major new investments totalling £28.5 billion in projects across the UK including in priority green sectors such as offshore wind, hydrogen hubs and energy transition. These strategic investments will create thousands of jobs, supporting the government’s agenda to level up across the UK, improve the quality of our infrastructure and housing and drive a green industrial revolution.

The Summit was the largest event of its kind that the UK has ever hosted. Drawing on the expertise of the whole department, DIT successfully coordinated a high-profile international event with VIP attendees at a time when Covid restrictions were still in place around the world. Working across government, DIT delivered a programme that demonstrated the best of British innovation, cemented the UK’s place as a global leader in clean growth and energised the private sector to look to the UK as the investment destination of choice.

Secretary of State speaking at the Global Investment Summit.

Priority outcome 3

DIT is responsible for ensuring our independent trade policy supports exports, jobs and growth in all of the regions and nations of the UK. We are inspiring and supporting exporters, both new and established, to take advantage of new opportunities as we break down market access barriers, secure new Free Trade Agreements and open global markets.

Trade is critical to delivering jobs and growth. According to estimates published by the OECD, 6.8 million UK workers were supported by exports in 2018, representing 20.9% of UK employment and up from 6.3 million in 2016. And trade does not just create jobs, it creates better paid jobs. Research carried out by the University of Strathclyde estimated that UK median wages in jobs supported by exports were on average 7% higher than the national median wage in 2016. Trade also contributes to more successful businesses – according to ONS research goods exporting businesses are 21% more productive on average than those who do not export.

Global trade has faced unique challenges in 2021-22 with the impacts of the pandemic, supply chain disruption and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Despite these challenges, businesses in the UK are adapting to trading with the EU under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement and seeking new opportunities in fast growing markets around the world. DIT is reshaping our exports support to help UK companies navigate this new trading context and grow their business internationally.

In October 2021, we launched the Export Support Service, our end-to-end service to support businesses exporting to Europe. This new service brought together a dedicated helpline and enquiry service, advice and expertise from across government, and market access expertise embedded in our embassies across Europe to provide a one stop shop for UK businesses adapting to the new requirements to trade with the EU. The Export Support Service has since been expanded to support companies doing business in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus, helping businesses understand the increasingly complex trading environment and the impact of sanctions.

To inspire and motivate the next generation of UK exporters we have launched a high impact exports promotion campaign, ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’, using real life SME exporting successes to highlight the global demand for high quality British products and services. We are delivering market focused campaigns to help UK businesses understand the benefits of trading in new markets and ensure they have the knowledge to capitalise on new and enhanced FTAs. In parallel, the GREAT campaign continues to promote the UK around the world and grow global demand for quality UK goods and services. The great.gov.uk site provides a window into the UK for global businesses – connecting international buyers with UK suppliers.

We have concluded the roll out of the International Markets teams as part of the Export Support Service. Dedicated teams are now in place in all nine HMTC regions and areworking with existing DIT teams and international partners to help high potential SMEs to internationalise and grow in new markets. The UK Tradeshow Programme (UKTP) has also been launched to support UK businesses learn about the benefits of participating at priority international tradeshows overseas.

Our sector focused teams have been delivering innovative programmes to drive exports in priority sectors including the UK Pandemic Solutions Export Offer, NHS Export Collaborative, Maritime Capability Campaign Office, and the Clean Green Initiative, which commits £3 billion in climate financing over five years to support clean infrastructure projects in developing countries. A new Government Partnerships Unit has also been set up to ensure that UK companies can access relevant opportunities in critical markets around the world.

DIT is improving its engagement with businesses across all nations of the UK through its UK-wide export programmes, sector activity, and international support network. This is ensuring businesses in every part of the UK have access to DIT support and the economic and prosperity gains of increasing exports. Our teams also work in partnership with UK Export Finance to ensure no viable UK export fails for lack of finance – offering competitive financing terms for overseas buyers of UK goods and services; support to fulfil contracts including loans for working capital and capital expenditure; and export insurance to help UK businesses to export to higher risk markets with confidence.

Finally, we have begun a large-scale transformation project to bring all our exports programmes into a single, end-to-end journey for UK exporters. This includes in-housing the International Trade Advisors based across England to embed their expertise in our operations and streamlining the exporter’s transition from local support to national programmes to international markets.

DIT’s achievements and progress

This year has seen significant progress in the evolution of our end-to-end export support offer for UK businesses and significant achievements in supporting UK companies to succeed internationally through our existing services. Progress toward our new export support offer includes:

• Publication of the refreshed Export Strategy – the Export Strategy brings together in one comprehensive package: the local company knowledge of our on the ground teams in the UK nations and English regions; the simplified customer journey of the Export Support Service; the financing power of UK Export Finance; the reach of our national and international marketing campaigns; and the global knowledge and networks of our international markets teams and trade teams in embassies around the world.

• Launch of the Export Support Service, our first ever end-to-end service to support businesses exporting to Europe. Since its launch in October 2021, the service has received over 10,000 enquiries.

• The Export Academy moved beyond the successful pilot phase and in November last year was rolled out to be available to businesses from all parts of the UK. Utilising events ranging from online webinars to face-to-face courses, the Academy is helping businesses to understand the benefits and challenges of trading internationally and as at 31 March had received over 7,000 registrations, 56% of which from businesses stating that they had not previously received support from DIT. The Department has also established a growing network of over 400 Export Champions – successful business leaders keen to share their experience and advice with a new generation of exporters.

• DIT and the Ministry of Defence developed a Defence Exports and Capability Collaboration Strategy, which will improve coordination and delivery of government support to defence exports and equipment relationships with international partners. We have also launched the Maritime Capability Campaign Office responsible for maximising UK maritime exports under the auspices of the National Shipbuilding Strategy.

• Some of our other key achievements in support of UK exporters include:

• We supported over £2 billion of defence and security exports including the first export order for Babcock’s Type 31 frigate to Indonesia, agreed at the Defence and Security Equipment International 2021, the largest defence and security exhibition in the UK.

• In the health and life sciences sector, DIT supported billions of pounds worth of exports, including a £200 million deal for Cambridge-based CMR Surgical to supply surgical robots in India, and King’s College Hospital’s announcement of a new hospital in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

• In creative industries, UK design, animation and experience companies won new business in the Middle East region, including pavilions at Expo 2020 Dubai and a Winter Wonderland in Saudi Arabia.

• Our Future Mobility team supported the creation of two UK Gigafactories which will play a critical role in UK exports and the global electrification of the sector – 80% of UK automotive manufacturing is exported internationally.

• DIT supported exports from the UK’s education sector in 85 countries, including in the growing technical and vocational training sectors. We also supported exports through digital channels under the Digital Exporting Programme.

• Our infrastructure team and Innovate UK worked together to develop an internationally focused competition aimed at UK SMEs in the rail sector, looking to collaborate with overseas partners in Australia, Canada and India, to address innovation challenges.

• UK Export Finance and DIT’s global trade teams have supported local businesses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, such as Environmental Street Furniture and Kiverco, to export to new markets. We launched nation specific Made in the UK, Sold to the World export campaigns, championing successful local businesses such as Northern Ireland’s Axial3D, AAC Clyde Space in Scotland and AMPLYFI in Wales.

What’s next

Next year will see the full implementation of the Export Strategy and the roll out of the consolidated export support ecosystem. Future areas of focus include:

• Transformation of the export support ecosystem including in-housing our International Markets teams and our International Trade Advisors in the English Regions, creating a simplified end-to-end customer journey for exporters.

• Expansion of the Export Support Service, initially to cover all of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region and subsequently to cover all of our overseas regions.

• Further expansion of our teams in our trade and investment hubs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to improve our impact in the nations. Contributing to strengthening the union and levelling up by continuing to ensure equivalent access to DIT services for businesses across the nations and enhance local business knowledge of our FTA programme and trade policy.

• The UK Tradeshow Programme will look to attract more businesses from outside the traditional exporting regions of the UK to learn how international tradeshows can be a key part of their export journey.

• The UK Export Academy will further develop course content to include specialised training events and support for specific industry sectors and market opportunities. Partnering with selected private sector experts and trade bodies, the Export Academy will harness valuable insights and support key areas for international business growth. By working with larger companies, SMEs can potentially fast track their development by providing practical advice and workable solutions. Current partnerships include eBay, Amazon and GS1 UK.

• Sector specific ambitions include the establishment of the Capability Campaign Offices, beginning with maritime where we will refocus our resources and expertise and rapidly build on our existing £600 million of identifiable export opportunities in the maritime sector.

Performance Measures

Exports and outward investment

The total number of ODI Wins in 2021-22 was similar to the previous year. The large increase in the value of ODI Wins in 2021-22 can be attributed to three Wins that exceeded £1 billion and several others with a value of hundreds of millions.

Methodology and production

An Export Win or ODI Win record is created using a digital framework which registers information entered by a lead officer from the DIT network. Lead officers are responsible for the quality and accuracy of the data they enter. Once the Win has been entered, the UK customer which received support in exporting is required to confirm the Win through a separate online form. A Win counts once it has been confirmed by the customer and this must be done within 12 months of the company winning the deal.

Coherence and compatibility

DIT records export deals, contracts, sales or agreements where there has been support provided by our export promotion operations as an Export Win or an ODI Win. Moreover, the metric only captures customers DIT has assisted who have realised a deal, not those DIT has worked with but have not reached a deal. The metric is a departmental performance measure and does not capture exporting or investment activity on the same basis as measured in official statistics. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and HM Revenue & Customs both publish exporting data at the UK level. For more information, visit www.ons.gov.uk and www.uktradeinfo.com. The sources for exporting data at a UK level used in this Annual Report are from ONS UK Balance of Payments (January to March 2022) and UK GDP quarterly national accounts (January to March 2022).

Accuracy and definitions

An Export Win or ODI Win is a deal, contract, sale, or other specific type of agreement for an eligible UK company which has resulted from support provided by the DIT network. The Win is self-reported by the UK company and captures the expected value of the Win up to a five-year period.

The Win metric contains some inherent characteristics that will always present challenges in assuring value and data accuracy. The metric relies heavily on the relationships DIT staff have with customers, and the information customers are prepared to share. Values of Wins include specific expectations and forecast values up to a five-year period, these are subjective. Some deals are very complex, involving global supply chains and in-market requirements for local supply / presence and the ask of customers to separate UK export value from others is a distinction that is artificial for them. The information captured, therefore, represents a snapshot at a certain point in time based upon what the customer is willing or able to provide.

Export client survey

The export client survey interviews approximately 5,500 businesses who have accessed DIT’s export promotion services each year. The survey aims to: track client perceptions of quality of support and advice provided by DIT; provide a measure of reported impact on businesses of DIT’s services; and understand what drives performance and how services can be improved over time.

A service delivery is a record of a DIT service delivered to a UK registered company. Examples of service deliveries include recorded instances of significant assistance provided to businesses, events attended by businesses that DIT officials have organised, funded or helped to organise, and uptake of DIT’s digital export promotion services. The Export Client Survey uses these records to identify businesses eligible to be interviewed.

The satisfaction rates referred to above refer to questions in the survey that ask businesses how satisfied they were with their overall experience of the DIT export promotion service they accessed. Businesses are asked to provide a score from zero to ten, with ten being the most positive response. Scores of seven to ten are banded into ‘satisfied’, scores of four to six are banded into ‘neutral’ and scores of zero to three are banded into ‘dissatisfied’.

The most recent data published by the Department refers to the survey of businesses supported between April 2018 and March 2019 and is available on gov.uk. More recent data is expected to be published shortly.

Mike Freer speaking at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Case studies:

Clean energy

According to the World Bank, Azerbaijan has a technical offshore wind resource of around 157 gigawatts – over 20 times the country’s current installed energy capacity – and wind potential equivalent to that of the North Sea.

When a tender for an offshore wind economic roadmap was published by the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the DIT team in Baku saw a strategic opportunity to support both the development of a future offshore wind export market and wider climate change and energy security objectives.

Using their local knowledge and expertise of the Azerbaijani market, DIT staff based in the country provided a package of support to UK firms wanting to tailor their bids, including intelligence on local politics and wider geopolitical influences, information on the relevant leasing and permitting issues and advice on public-private partnerships in the energy market. DIT also promoted the expertise of UK firms in strategic consulting, specifically in the offshore wind industry, to the senior offshore wind specialist of the World Bank Group’s energy sector management assistance programme.

As a result, UK firm BVG Associates won the project and will work with the government of Azerbaijan and the World Bank’s IFC to develop a roadmap for offshore wind in Azerbaijan. This will contribute to the country’s clean energy transition, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and increase the share of renewables in Azerbaijan’s total energy mix.

UK Defence & Security Export Faculty

The UK Defence & Security Export (DSE) Faculty was successfully launched as part of International Trade Week in November 2021. Intended to enhance the sectoral offering of the wider DIT Export Academy, the Faculty provides a hub for Defence & Security SMEs looking to grow internationally. Signing up to the UK DSE Faculty allows SMEs to access a programme of tailored learning and development via live webinars (and access to the back catalogue), physical events and workshops.

Since its launch, the Faculty has seen rapid growth in SME registrations, and has become a valuable business matching tool, allowing DIT to strategically focus export opportunities to the most relevant SMEs. A comprehensive, curriculum-led series of events is also planned for 2022-23.

Diurnal

Diurnal are a Wales-based SME who specialise in rare disease pharmaceutical assets. They first engaged DIT China in 2019, participating in market access webinars and subsequently joined the DIT China pharmaceuticals team’s hallmark trade event in 2020, China Bio.

China’s regulator has fast-track procedures for innovative medicines and drugs that prevent or treat rare diseases, however, they often have a low return on investment and the UK’s world-leading biotech SMEs require careful partnering with reliable Chinese buyers.

As well as offering market access and business culture advice, DIT arranged for business matchmaking on behalf of the company. Diurnal were introduced to Chinese company Citrine with whom they have now struck two deals, including a Greater China (Mainland plus Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) licensing agreement for Efmody® worth £24 million.

Priority outcome 4

DIT has delivered strong progress in 2021-22 against our enduring goals of: championing free and fair trade; working collaboratively with partners to strengthen and modernise the rules-based international system; opening markets and establishing fair market competition; and ensuring our global tariff regime reflects UK economic priorities.

As an independent trading nation, we continue to protect UK industry against unfair trading practice, and to uphold and reform international dispute settlement structures. We aim to achieve this through thought leadership and engagement with the WTO dispute settlement body and members, and through the use of trade remedies, delivering value for money via disputes investment.

Other key pieces of work under this priority outcome have included the processing of export licences where the Department is striving to meet our published targets whilst ensuring the UK does not contribute to harmful proliferation of military or dual use technology, as well as developing government’s understanding and assurance of the UK’s critical supply chains at a national and international level.

Finally, the Department has also provided full support to the cross-government response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The invasion has dominated multilateral objectives where we have sought to isolate Russia within the WTO and via the G7 and G20 and, in line with international partners, we have introduced a 35-percentage point additional tariff over and above the existing Most Favoured Nation tariff on certain Russian and Belarussian goods – and will continue to target other goods from these nations on a rolling basis as part of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s wider trade sanctions package. We are also supporting the government’s efforts to identify and mitigate acute disruptions to domestic supply chain resilience, and have ramped up operations to review, suspend or revoke export licences for the Russian Federation.

DIT achievements and progress

Other key achievements in 2021-22 have included:

• Successfully concluding our first offensive dispute as an independent trading nation, protecting the UK’s legally guaranteed access to the United States’ procurement market for medical, dental and veterinary equipment and supplies.

• Negotiated an interim solution to the long running dispute with the United States over large civil aircraft, resulting in the removal of additional tariffs of 25% on around £550 million of annual United States imports from the UK.

• DIT joined 12 high-profile disputes as a third party to support the arguments of like-minded partners, shape the development of WTO jurisprudence, including a favourable outcome in a Turkey-EU steel safeguard case at panel stage, and advanced UK strategic trade interests and positions.

• Successfully negotiating the lifting of Section 232 tariffs against UK steel and aluminium exports to the United States which has created real export opportunities for these UK industries.

• Ensured the UK was an active participant of a landmark WTO agreement on domestic services regulation – the first agreement in this area in 24 years.

• Successfully revised the UK strategic export licensing criteria and revised our military end-use controls – ensuring our exports licences remain in line with government priorities and legal requirements. – Strengthened our ability to identify critical supply chains, including establishing our supply chain intelligence pilot – a first for the UK government – that will combine government and commercial data to map critical supply chains and enable more thorough analysis and identification of potential vulnerabilities.

What’s next?

As an independent trading nation we will continue to champion free and fair trade and work with our partners to strengthen and modernise the rules based international system, providing thought leadership wherever there is opportunity. As we build back better from the global pandemic, we will continue our work to open markets and establish fair competition, including ensuring the UK’s Global Tariff reflects our economic and geopolitical priorities. Other priorities in the coming year will include:

• Continuing to seek reform of the WTO and leverage our position and build our voice as an independent trading nation within the G7 and G20, and through the WTO’s Ministerial Conference within a new global context.

• Building on our successful presidency of the G7 including working with the current German presidency in their delivery of a second dedicated trade track. In the multi-lateral space, we aim to make further progress on complex trade challenges such as market distorting practices, and trade and the environment.

• Delivery of primary legislation to ensure the UK has the most up to date statutory tools to protect UK trade interests where a trade partner has not met their FTA obligations. Secondary legislation will also be needed to reform our trade remedies framework, ensuring it remains up-to-date, champions WTO rules and defends UK industries and consumers from unfair competition and unforeseen surges in imports.

• Continuing to work across government to strengthen critical supply chains and improve the UK’s security and economic resilience through international trade. We will work to embed supply chain resilience into key areas of government policy and further collaborate with international partners on key supply chains, including critical minerals, semiconductors and the theme of climate change.

• Continuing to support responsible trade through the UK’s export licensing system, ensuring that goods exported from the UK do not contribute to the harmful proliferation of weapons of mass destruction or conventional weapons and are used for internal repression or to commit violations of international humanitarian law. The Department will also continue with its transformation of the Export Control Joint Unit, including the replacement of a legacy IT system used for the processing of export licences.

Performance measures

Standard Individual Export Licences

The UK’s export licensing system aims to support responsible trade. A standard individual export licence (SIEL), issued by the Department’s Export Control Joint Unit, permits the export of certain strategic controlled items. A SIEL is specific to an exporter and allows shipments of a stated quantity of specified items to a named consignee or end-user. The Department maintains a consolidated list of strategic military and dual-use items that require export authorisation from the UK.

Methodology and production

The Export Control Joint Unit sets out the government’s commitments to exporters in a Service and Performance Code. The performance targets are to decide on 70% of applications for SIELs within 20 working days, and 99% within 60 working days. The targets apply as soon as the applicant has supplied the full documentation necessary to support their application.

Coherence and compatibility

The methodology for reporting processing rates has remained consistent since 2015.

Accuracy and definitions

SIELs allow shipments of specified items to a specified consignee up to a quantity specified in the licence. If the export will be permanent, SIELs are generally valid for two years or until the quantity specified has been exported, whichever occurs first. If an export is temporary, for example for the purposes of demonstration, trial or evaluation, a SIEL is generally valid for one year only and the items must be returned to the UK before the licence expires.

Minister Mordaunt with Commander of the Reservists, Mel Robinson CBE, and staff from the Department marking Reserves Day on 22 June.

Case study: trade and economic sanctions

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February this year, DIT has pivoted to support the cross-government response through the development and delivery of trade and economic measures. These measures were designed to encourage Russia to cease hostilities against Ukraine and against the rules-based international trading system, whilst minimising impact to UK prosperity and UK businesses.

On 15 March 2022, DIT announced additional duties of 35 percentage points on imports of Russian and Belarusian products where we determined we could take immediate action (such as vodka, fertilisers and silver), denying both nations key benefits of WTO membership whilst also restricting Russian exports to the UK. In 2021, UK imports of these products were worth around £900 million from Russia and £40 million from Belarus.

The UK announced further trade sanctions measures on 6 April 2022, including an import ban on key iron and steel products and export bans on luxury goods, oil refining goods and technologies, including advanced technologies such as quantum technology and artificial intelligence. In 2021, the total value of UK goods exports to Russia under the commodity codes covered by these measures was £775.5 million (27.9% of all UK goods exports to Russia in in 2021). Some further measures announced before 31 March 2022 have yet to be implemented.

DIT continues to assess the impact of Russia’s invasion on the supply of essential goods to the UK. We have developed, at pace, a supply chain risk assessment framework for critical goods and are supporting other government departments to mitigate areas of concern or identify as necessary any alternate sources of supply.

Case study: UK G7 Trade Track

As part of the UK’s G7 presidency, DIT pioneered a dedicated G7 Trade Track to advance trade cooperation among advanced democracies.

Conversations between trade ministers demonstrated our ambition to work together to address the most pressing trade issues of the 21st Century. Strengthened G7 unity on these challenges has been valuable, and the significance of our achievement is demonstrated by the fact that Germany’s 2022 presidency includes a second dedicated trade track. During the UK’s presidency, DIT delivered three meetings of G7 Trade Ministers, negotiated a Chair’s statement, two communiqués and a unique set of Digital Principles; all enhancing G7 cooperation and ambition in tackling market distorting practices, in supporting free and fair trade, and in the modernisation of trade rules.

Our ground-breaking G7 Digital Trade principles committed the G7 to open digital markets, data free flow with trust, safeguards for workers, consumers, and business, digital trading systems and fair and inclusive global governance. To support the delivery of our objectives, senior officials and ministers also undertook over 200 instances of bilateral and stakeholder engagement. The final meeting of G7 Trade Ministers under the UK’s presidency was held at Mansion House in London, where the UK also hosted a Women in Trade business reception attended by G7 Trade Ministers. The G7 Leaders’ Summit (Carbis Bay) in June also reaffirmed our commitment to multilateralism, free and fair trade, reforming the WTO and achieving substantive outcomes at the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC12).

Strategic Enablers

The delivery of the Department’s priority outcomes in our ODP has been supported by the following four ‘strategic enablers’. At the start of the year, the Department identified several objectives and actions against each enabler that sought to facilitate successful delivery of our ODP as well as DIT’s contribution to delivering the Declaration on Government Reform – the government’s commitment to delivering better public services for all citizens.

Workforce, skills and location

The delivery of DIT’s agenda is dependent on us attracting and retaining great people with the right skills, experience and capability. It also remains important that DIT reflects the country we serve through a diverse workforce that draws on talent across the UK and globally. Some examples of achievements in 2021-22 under this enabler are as follows:

• Contributing to the government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda by expanding the Department’s presence outside of London. At at 31 March, the Department had recruited staff into 77 roles, including six Senior Civil Service roles, based at either our second UK headquarters at the Darlington Economic Campus or at one of our newly established trade and investment hubs across the UK (Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast).

• At the start of the year, the Department launched a new five-year People Strategy. This set out a vision for how we will develop the skills we need; how we can make sure the right support is in place; and how we will have an inclusive culture in which everyone can fulfil their potential. The Strategy has been further supported by a separate inclusion framework that sets out plans for achieving a future vision on equality, diversity and inclusion across the Department.

• DIT continues to support the apprenticeship agenda to develop its workforce and in 2021-22 exceeded its target of 68 new apprenticeship starts. The Department also continues to develop its trade capability through the International Trade Profession. Launched in May 2018, the profession has built a network spanning several government departments and is committed to growing trade expertise in the UK and overseas. This year the Department saw the successful conclusion of the first cohort of eleven trainees from the International Development Trade Programme aimed at equipping those new to international trade with the skills, experience and opportunities to go on and become trade professionals.

New ideas: Innovation, technology and data

A crucial part of the delivery of effective and efficient services are digital solutions that work for users. DIT promotes the use of digital, data and technology and facilitates this through a culture of innovation and experimentation. Some examples of achievements in 2021-22 under this enabler are as follows:

• The Department has continued to invest in the digital infrastructure of its export and investment services. During the year, DIT launched its new Investment Atlas – an online tool designed to allow prospective investors to navigate the UK’s investment environment across our sectors, nations and regions. In October 2021, the Export Support Service was also launched, including a digital enquiry service for British businesses exporting to Europe.

• Throughout the year, DIT’s Data Science Innovation Lab as well as data scientists in the DDaT function and Analysis Group have been building the Department’s data science capabilities in order to meet user needs and increase productivity via the use of automation and machine learning. Outputs have included: automated checking of the UK Tariff to ensure accuracy in our published data; more user response testing to improve engagement with great.gov.uk and gov.uk; natural language processing to automate content generation from and to analyse FTA texts; and using artificial intelligence to triage queries and better understand user needs.

• A further focus of this year has been the implementation of the Department’s cyber security strategy and strengthening DIT’s cyber capability, with progress being noted through the Department’s most recent Departmental Security Health Check.

Better outcomes: Delivery, evaluation and collaboration

The Department aims to consistently deliver high quality corporate services that enables DIT to deliver effectively on its agenda and offers value for money for the taxpayer. Our corporate functions are also aligned with agreed cross-functional standards and drive a culture of compliance with legislative demands and the general good practice expected of an effective government department. Some examples of achievements in 2021-22 under this enabler are as follows:

• At the start of the year, the Department revised its operating model around the delivery of the four priority outcomes in our ODP. A new governance model was also established for the monitoring and reporting of progress against our ODP. These changes have driven stronger strategic oversight of delivery and improved the management of our overseas operations.

• DIT has been steadily building its capability on monitoring and evaluation with a greater focus on this across different policy areas. This has included preparing a framework for monitoring and evaluating the implementation and impact of FTAs – an important part of ensuring benefits are maximised, and that the new trade opportunities FTAs create are fully realised.

• The Department continually assesses its functional support services against agreed cross-government standards. A recent focus has been on building our change management capability in line with standards set by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority – the government’s centre of expertise for infrastructure and major projects. This has been particularly centred on the preparing of business cases and implementation plans to support the significant amount of organisational change underway within DIT.

Sustainability

DIT is committed to sustainable development and aims to promote and drive the green trade agenda through targeted export and investment support and our trade policy work. Within the Department, we work in partnership with the GPA to deliver a sustainable estate for our people to work in. Further information is provided in the Sustainability Report. Some additional examples of achievements in 2021-22 under this enabler are as follows:

• In April 2021, the Department completed the rationalisation of its London estate with the establishment of a new UK headquarters at Old Admiralty Building. This refurbished building has helped the Department promote smarter and more collaborative working between UK-based teams as well as with the implementation of effective hybrid working arrangements. DIT’s achievements were recognised by us winning ‘Best of Collaboration’ and a ‘Best in Class’ at the National Smarter Working Awards in November 2021.

• DIT updated its sustainable procurement policy following the launch of the Government’s Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener in October 2021. This has strengthened alignment with the broader sustainability agenda, including on modern slavery, social value and SME policy requirements.

• The Department has also ensured that its activities at the Expo in Dubai have had the lowest environmental impact as possible. All our associated procurements for the Expo embedded sustainability questions within tenders and were evaluated to ensure they would deliver against sustainability requirements. The UK pavilion energy consumption was 20% below industry standard and used 25% less water than Dubai’s recommended guidelines. On decommissioning of the UK pavilion, the project will also have met the Expo’s 85% recycling/re-use targets.

Case study: tackling the risks of modern slavery

The government is committed to ending modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking worldwide by 2030, as unanimously adopted in the UN Global Goals for Sustainable Development. DIT contributes to this agenda through multilateral fora and is committed to furthering the government’s objectives and eradicating modern slavery across its supply chains.

DIT actively embraces the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and has implemented processes to ensure we are adhering to the policies set out in the government’s modern slavery statement. For example, all commercial staff responsible for procurement undertake a modern slavery risk assessment for all appropriate contracts in line with our policy. Where the risk is assessed as medium or high, suppliers must then complete the government’s approved Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT) for any contracts and put in place an appropriate action plan based on the results.

Increasing the skills and capability of contract managers is also fundamental to our ability to reduce the risk of modern slavery across our supply chains. Contractual obligations relating to mitigation of modern slavery risks are managed by our contract managers with support from the commercial team. Common themes and lessons learned are reported through senior level assurance channels. DIT’s Commercial Director also acts as our Anti-Slavery Advocate, responsible for developing and promoting policies and programmes to address modern slavery in commercial activity, alongside wider engagement across the Department.

Each year the Department voluntarily publishes its own modern slavery statement describing the steps that DIT has taken to tackle modern slavery risks in its supply chains. Our first statement was published in November 2021 and set out two principal objectives and seven Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that have driven progress in 2021-22. DIT will publish details of how these KPIs were met and establish new KPIs for 2022-23 in its second modern slavery statement, due to be published in September.

Case study: equality, diversity & inclusion

DIT is determined that all its staff should be free to fulfil their potential regardless of their sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race or disability, location or socio-economic background. With a workforce that has the confidence and freedom to be themselves we will continue to live up to our DIT core values: trusting our Experts, allowing for Enterprising approaches to our work that ensure everyone feels Engaged and Included.

This work is driven by an inclusion framework that we established at the start of the year alongside our People Strategy and sets out plans for achieving a future vision on equality, diversity and inclusion across the Department. Progress with our diversity and inclusion agenda was recognised when DIT was nominated as a ‘Diversity Champion’ finalist at the LinkedIn Talent Awards in October 2021.

The Department has also continued to focus this year on reducing its Gender Pay Gap (GPG) whilst creating the right working environment and culture for gender equality. As at 31 March 2021, women made up 46.7% of staff within DIT that were eligible for inclusion in statutory GPG calculations. DIT’s mean GPG (the difference between men’s higher average hourly pay compared to women’s average hourly pay) fell to 5.8% in March 2021 from 6.5% the year before and the median from 15.9% to 10.8%. The Department remains committed to further reducing DIT’s GPG in future years.

In all our efforts on diversity and inclusion, data and employee self-reporting continue to be important. The diversity declaration rates for UK-based DIT staff, as at 31 March 2022, is as follows (equivalent percentages at 31 March 2021 are given in brackets):

• Average diversity declaration rate: 70% (2 percentage point increase from31 March 2021)

• Ethnicity: White 52% (50%); All other ethnic groups combined 19% (18%);Prefer not to say 2% (3%); Not reported 27% (29%)

• Sexual orientation: LGB+* 7% (7%); Heterosexual 60% (57%); Prefer not to say 5% (5%); Not reported 27% (35%)

• Religion or belief: No religion or belief 26% (14%); Religion or belief reported 41% (50%); Prefer not to say 5% (5%); Not reported 29% (31%)

• Disability: Yes 8% (8%); No 53% (53%); Prefer not to say 2% (3%); Not reported 36% (37%)

*Staff are also asked to report their gender identity, although these results are not included in the above due to the low response rate.

The Department is subject to the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) that requires DIT to consider the needs of people with ‘protected characteristics’ in their work. PSED aims to stop unlawful (direct or indirect) discrimination, harassment and victimisation and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act; and promote equality of opportunity for and good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not share it.

DIT must provide evidence showing it has given ‘due regard’ to the impact on groups with protected characteristics when implementing policy. An example of this was the equality analysis undertaken prior to the publication of the Department’s refreshed Export Strategy.

Performance measures

Transparency and information management

The Department has not managed to respond to all Freedom of Information (FOI) requests within statutory guidelines. COVID-19 and other unexpected events have led to resourcing constraints that restricted our ability to respond to FOIs in a timely way. DIT is committed to addressing our performance on FOIs and we continue to seek ways to streamline our processes to ensure statutory targets are consistently being met.

Sustainability report

Introduction

Our sustainable development aims are linked to the following three categories:

Category	Description
Economic	We aim to achieve high and sustainable levels of employment to support economic growth.
Social	We aim to recognise the needs of everyone and support those with complex barriers to turn their lives around for the better.
Environmental	We aim to make prudent use of natural resources to help protect the environment

DIT remains committed to sustainable development and has strengthened its operational capability to address climate change. This report sets out the sustainability performance of parts of the Government Property Agency’s estate that are occupied by DIT, covering key performance data on estate-based activities such as electricity, gas and water use.

Data quality and scope

The Government Property Agency (GPA) was responsible for managing the Department’s property portfolio in 2021-22; however, overall responsibility for sustainability remains with DIT. The GPA uses Avieco to carry out validation checks of its data. To report the greenhouse gas emissions associated with activities, ‘activity’ data such as distance travelled, litres of fuel used, or tonnes of waste disposed has been converted into carbon emissions. The Greenhouse gas conversion factors used in this report can be found in the government’s environmental impact reporting requirements for business.

The data in this report shows the Department’s present position for the 2021-22 financial year against a 2017-18 baseline (unless otherwise stated). Environmental data is for a 12-month reporting period from January to December. In accordance with annual reporting conventions across other UK government departments, non-financial indicators are compiled using data from the final quarter of the previous reporting year, plus the first three quarters of the current reporting year. The non-financial indicators for 2020-21 have therefore been restated from last year’s report to include actual environmental performance for the whole of 2020-21. In addition, data for 2018-19 and 2019-20 has also been restated to account for newly sourced data for a building the Department previously occupied that was excluded from previous reporting.

Under the Greening Government Commitments (GGCs), DIT reports on its share of the GPA’s Whitehall complex. All data included here is therefore for the UK only. Information on our overseas estate is included in the Annual Report and Accounts for the FCDO. Further information on the progress DIT and other government departments are making towards the GGCs will be included as part of the Greening Government Commitments Annual Report, published by DEFRA. The re-stating of information as described above accounts for discrepancies between information published in this document and equivalent information published previously by DEFRA.

Sustainability activity and performance

COVID-19

There has continued to be some variation in usage of buildings as the Department adapted to changing government guidance in response to COVID-19; however, occupancy levels have steadily increased since the Government lifted its ‘Plan B’ restrictions at the end of January. This variation in building use means that comparisons of performance data with previous years is less applicable. The buildings used by the Department are now operating to near full capacity. We are also working with the GPA to re-align space requirements in order to remove wastage and reduce energy consumption.

Old Admiralty Building

In April 2021, the Department established Old Admiralty Building as its new London headquarters. This move completed the rationalisation of our London estate from the use of four separate buildings to a single headquarters, thereby reducing our London footprint by approximately 25%. Prior to DIT taking up occupancy, Old Admiralty Building was subject to extensive refurbishment that has improved its environmental performance. The GPA has since invested in heating system upgrades that will improve the efficiency of heating and cooling systems and are assessing the feasibility of a smart meter roll out to further our understanding of the building’s environmental credentials.

The Department’s move to Old Admiralty Building coincided with a decision to implement a full hybrid working model where staff spend a proportion of their time working remotely in addition to attending Old Admiralty Building or another of our office locations. This adoption of smarter and more flexible ways of working has reduced the need for staff to travel and the Department’s overall environmental footprint. We are also working with the GPA and internally to improve processes that support lean consumption (e.g. less printing) and challenge suppliers where products and services could be improved and consumption reduced.

Other initiatives in 2021-22 relating to our estate and services include:

Initiative	Activity
Greening Government Commitments (GGCs)  (Economic, Social, Environmental)	DIT subscribes to several targets including the mandatory GGCs for reducing energy, water, paper, reducing travel emissions and managing waste. These targets were updated during the year with a new target period to 2025. The greenhouse gas emissions target for DIT is a reduction of 48% in overall emissions and 20% reduction in direct emissions compared to a 2017-18 baseline. In 2021-22, DIT saw a decrease in gas, electricity and water use compared to the previous year. The Department also met the GGC targets for direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, waste to landfill and overall waste generated. The Department is yet to meet the target for overall greenhouse (GHG) emissions and waste recycling rates.
Sustainable Procurement (Economic, Environmental)	The majority of DIT’s procurement is for services, which by their nature, have very short supply chains with limited sustainability impacts. Those sectors where there is a potential for significant impact, such as information technology, catering and other facilities, are procured on our behalf by BEIS and the GPA. DIT has however refreshed its sustainable procurement policy this year and further promoted sustainable procurement through a Sustainability Champion who acts as a point of contact for the Department. The Sustainability Champion also participates in the Cabinet Office’s Green Network.
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) (Economic, Social, Environmental)	DIT’s main information communications technology (ICT) provision is managed through a master services agreement with BEIS. DIT’s commercial function provides oversight of this agreement to ensure BEIS follow all government procurement policies including, but not limited to, the delivery of Social Value and GGCs. DIT also specifies that for all hardware procurements, suppliers meet the EU Green Public Procurement Criteria, ISO 14000 environmental standards criteria and obligations under the government’s ‘Greening government: ICT and digital services strategy 2020 to 2025’. The vast majority of DIT’s cloud (hosted) spend is via Amazon Web Services, who include within their sustainability report for 2022 plans for reaching 100% renewable energy in their data centres by 2025. The remainder of our cloud spend is via the Google cloud platform, which is 100% renewable, and Microsoft Azure, who have committed to being 100% renewable by 2025.
Biodiversity (Social, Environmental)	The Department’s estate comprises mainly of buildings with little outside space and limited opportunity to enhance the natural environment.
Rural Proofing (Economic, Social)	Rural proofing assesses the impacts of policy in rural areas to ensure fair outcomes for rural communities. DIT consider social, environmental and economic impacts before policies are implemented and works with DEFRA to understand the impact of trade policies on the environment and rural areas.
Climate Change Adaptation (Economic, Social, Environmental)	During 2021-22, the GPA has undertaken a series of cross functional discussions on climate change adaptation and will be undertaking further assessments to refine any detailed action plans needed. Findings will be shared with DIT as the work progresses to inform any departmental climate change adaptation work.
Sustainable Construction (Economic, Environmental)	The Department’s new headquarters at Old Admiralty Building benefits from energy efficient lighting and sensors in key areas. The GPA has also undertaken a project to improve lagging around the district heating system, improving insulation and in turn reducing energy losses. Further work to upgrade the heat exchangers within the district heating system will allow a lowering of system temperatures and result in a further carbon saving. Further studies are being undertaken to assess how the district heating can achieve additional lowering of carbon emissions, potentially through the use of renewable energy sources.

Greenhouse gases and financial costs

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions		2017-18 Re-stated	2018-19 Re-stated	2019-20 Re-stated	2020-21 Re-stated	2021-22
Non-financial indicators (tCO2e)	Total Gross Scope 1 (Direct) GHG emissions	89	145	198	173	54
	Total Gross Scope 2 (Energy indirect) emissions	621	713	671	445	488
	Total Gross Scope 3 (Domestic official business travel) emissions	324	312	292	119	152
	Total emissions – Scope 1, 2 & 3	1,034	1,170	1,161	737	694
Non-financial indicators (MWh)	Electricity: non-renewable	0	0	0	0	844
	Electricity: renewable	1,766	2,307	2,457	1,796	380
	Gas	483	788	1,074	940	297
	Other energy sources	144	227	162	98	858
	Total energy	2,393	3,322	3,693	2,834	2,379
Financial indicators (£000)	Expenditure on energy	793	892	918	428	308
	Expenditure on official business travel excluding domestic air travel	9,214	8,383	8,313	718	3,583
	Expenditure on domestic air travel	197	181	186	8	71
	Expenditure on international air travel	n/a	n/a	2,640	140	1,439

The Department has continued to decrease its total in-scope gross greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions since the 2017-18 baseline year. The reductions in 2020-21 and 2021-22 are due to the reduced use of buildings resulting from COVID-19 restrictions and the consolidation of our London estate at Old Admiralty Building since April 2021. The data does not include energy consumption and emissions from staff working from home or other remote locations outside DIT offices. The increase in usage of other energy sources in 2021-22 is a result of the Whitehall District Heating System used to heat Old Admiralty Building. In buildings where it has not been possible to confirm the source of electricity it has been assumed that this is from non-renewable sources. This assumption has been applied to the data in 2021-22 and accounts for the increase.

Expenditure on domestic air travel has been re-stated due to calculation errors in previous years. Expenditure decreased in 2020-21 and 2021-22 due to travel restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19. Reliable data on expenditure for international flights is not available prior to 2019-20.

Travel: flights

	2017-18 Re-stated	2018-19 Re-stated	2019-20 Re-stated	2020-21 Re-stated	2021-22
Total number of domestic flights (where both departure and arrival were in the UK)	1,167	1,014	920	8	393
Scope 3 emissions for domestic flights (tCO2e)	n/a	n/a	n/a	0.35	26.81
Total number of international flights	n/a	n/a	2,469	101	1,027
Scope 3 emissions for international flights (tCO2e)	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	579.25

The above information relates to air travel booked from within the UK. It does not include flights arranged by local offices overseas. Reliable data on international flights prior to 2019-20 is not available. Data on emissions for domestic flights prior to 2020-21 and for international flights prior to 2021-22 is also not available. The total number of flights taken in the last two years will have reduced due to travel restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19.

Waste production

Waste			2017-18 Re-stated	2018-19 Re-stated	2019-20 Re-stated	2020-21 Re-stated	2021-22
Non-financial indicators (tonnes)	Hazardous waste		0	0	0	0	0
	Non-hazardous waste	Landfill	1	1	5	1	0
		Reused/recycled	65	71	207	27	8
		Composted	6	4	2	3	1
	Incinerated with energy from waste		27	34	13	3	4
	Incinerated without energy recovery		0	0	0	0	0
	Total waste		99	110	227	34	13

The above represents the extent of information that the Government Property Agency is able to provide to the Department on waste and waste disposal. No information on the costs of waste disposal is available.

No waste is currently sent to landfill. An increase in waste consumption in 2019-20 was a result of confidential waste volumes being included in standard waste reporting, which increased reused/recycled volumes. The volume of waste fell back in 2020-21 and in 2021-22 due to the reduced use of buildings as a result of COVID-19 restrictions during those years and the consolidation of our London estate at Old Admiralty Building in April 2021.

Under a shared service agreement, redundant ICT equipment is disposed of by BEIS. In 2021-22, theDepartment also used 2,063 reams of paper that represents a 48% reduction from the 2017-18baseline, and the GPA reported no use of consumer single use plastics within buildings occupiedby DIT.

Water consumption and financial costs

Water		2017-18 Re-stated	2018-19 Re-stated	2019-20 Re-stated	2020-21 Re-stated	2021-22
Non-financial indicators	Total consumption (m3)	14,158	17,200	17,610	4,882	2,691
Financial indicators	Total supply costs (£000)	37	53	53	15	8

It is assumed that the large reduction in water consumption in 2020-21 and 2021-22 is likely due to reduced use of buildings due to COVID-19 restrictions and the consolidation of our London estate at Old Admiralty Building in April 2021.

COP26 and Expo 2020 Dubai

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) the Department showcased over 40 innovative green companies and more than 70 organisations in total in the UK Presidency pavilion, setting out examples of UK capabilities delivering mitigation, adaptation and resilience around the world. DIT also delivered £44 million in corporate contributions to the summit from our sponsorship team.

The Department will deliver several high-profile clean growth events in the remainder of the UK’s COP26 Presidency year, including the Clean Green Initiative Summit in the summer and the Northern Green Expo in the autumn. We will also host an event through the WTO’s Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) to raise awareness of the Forests, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) roadmap agreed at COP26.

The UK was the lead partner nation at the Expo in Dubai, alongside the United Arab Emirates, to promote dialogue between all participants regarding climate change. The UK’s commitment to this subject was reflected in the events and discussions that took place at the UK pavilion. Our activities were also in step with the Expo sustainability targets that were set across the site to ensure the lowest environmental impact possible. The pavilion was built primarily from cross-laminated timber sourced from sustainably managed European forests in Austria and Italy.

Case study: DIT’s strategy on ‘green trade’

International trade has a vital role to play in accelerating the global green transition. Trade increases efficiencies and reduces costs, increases competition to accelerate innovation, boosts economic growth, and increases exports to spread green technology around the world. Trade can also be used to spur collective action on environmental issues with our international partners, demonstrating both the UK’s climate leadership and global commitment to free and fair trade.

Moreover, ‘green trade’ – the cross-border flow of environmentally beneficial goods and services – can be a major commercial opportunity for the UK. According to analysis undertaken for the Committee on Climate Change, the UK’s low carbon economy could grow by 11% between 2015 and 2030 – four times faster than the rest of the economy – and could deliver up to £170 billion of export sales of goods and services by 2030. (UK Government’s Clean Growth Strategy, 2018).

The UK’s COP26 and G7 Presidencies provided an opportunity to raise the profile of green trade internationally. The Department has worked with international partners to push for environmental and trade agendas to be brought closer together in multinational forums, including at the WTO. The UK Board of Trade also published a report on Green Trade in July 2021, which set out the economic benefits of green trade for the UK.

Other key areas of progress in 2021-22 include:

• As part of our efforts supporting the building of a green industrial base and developing the UK’s domestic green capabilities, DIT has been collaborating with the Office for Investment and BEIS to publish a series of roadmaps setting out plans to leverage private investment that will help grow those priority sectors identified in the Prime Minister’s 10 Point Plan for a green industrial revolution. In October 2021, the Global Investment Summit also brought together investors and business executives to drive private capital into those sectors, resulting in investors pledging almost £10 billion of green investments.

• The Department has also been working with UK Export Finance to facilitate the UK’s domestic strengths and export capability in green sectors. UK Export Finance was the world’s top export credit agency (ECA) for sustainable financing in 2021, with over £3.6 billion awarded to clean energy, healthcare and critical infrastructure projects. UKEF moved up from second place in the global rankings of ECA deals last year and has now provided over £7 billion to sustainable projects since 2019. DIT is also publishing a series of capability guides to demonstrate our green export capabilities with guides published on international transport, clean energy, and greener buildings during the year.

• Through international engagement, the UK is helping to advance progress towards green trade liberalisation. Reducing barriers to trade in green goods and services lowers costs, improves access and spreads green technology around the world to support climate mitigation, adaptation, and biodiversity aims. In February, DIT concluded negotiations on the New Zealand FTA, which prioritised the liberalisation of 293 environmentally beneficial products – the largest such list agreed in any regional trade agreement to date. This sets a precedent for future economic partnerships and shows UK leadership in shaping a more sustainable global economy.

• The Department is continuing to improve the coherence of trade and environment policies. This work is focused on tackling market distortions and failures that incentivise the over-consumption of environmentally harmful goods and services. Following the government’s decision to end international support for the fossil fuel sector overseas last year, the UK has since secured signatures from nearly 40 other countries and institutions at COP26 to follow suit by the end of 2022.

• DIT also recognises that our green trade ambitions should be inclusive to support outcomes for developing countries. This includes supporting adaption to climate change and building resilience to future climate shocks. In October 2021 and March 2022, DIT hosted two Business of Resilience conferences, showcasing how the UK’s services sector can use insurance and finance solutions to improve global resilience to climate change.

What’s next?

DIT and UK Export Finance will continue to bolster their support for green exports this year to champion clean, sustainable and resilient growth. This will include scaling up ongoing work to promote the UK’s climate resilience solutions to overseas exports markets and driving forward the Department’s Clean Growth Programme. The Department will also continue to use our independent trade policy to reduce barriers to trade in environmental goods and services, as well as maintaining our focus on progressing multilateral negotiations at the WTO and seeking out opportunities to boost green trade through future bilateral engagement around market access and future FTAs.

Secretary of State and New Zealand’s Minister for Trade and Export Growth, Damien O’Connor, signing the FTA with New Zealand.

Financial review

Introduction

This Financial Review records information on the use of resources voted by Parliament to DIT via the Supply Estimate process. Prior year comparatives are provided in brackets.

The information below refers to the Departmental Group. This comprises the Core Department (the Department for International Trade) and the Trade Remedies Authority, which was established on 1 June 2021. The Departmental Group’s financial statements for the year to 31 March 2022 are detailed from in the Financial Report, and the Statement of Parliamentary Supply with associated schedules in the Parliamentary Accountability and Audit Report.

Budgeting system

As with other ministerial government departments, operations are almost entirely funded by an Exchequer grant, voted by Parliament by means of the Departmental Group’s submission of expenditure ‘Estimates’ which have been agreed by HM Treasury.

The Departmental Group’s budget is separated into:

• Resource Departmental Expenditure Limit (Resource DEL) for current expenditure such as staff pay, purchases of goods and services and depreciation. This budget is split between the programme budget which captures expenditure on front line services and the administration budget to cover all other expenditure.

• Capital Departmental Expenditure Limit (Capital DEL) for new investment in assets including digital assets;

• Resource Annually Managed Expenditure (Resource AME) for costs that may be unpredictable such as provisions

• Capital Annually Managed Expenditure (Capital AME) for unpredictable costs which also give rise to an asset in the Departmental Group’s financial statements.

Budget and outturn for 2021-22

The budget for the Department agreed at the 2021-22 Supplementary Estimate was £578.6 million consisting of £543.7 million Resource DEL, £22.9 million Capital DEL, £9.5 million Resource AME and £2.5 million Capital AME.

Total DEL and AME (resource and capital) actual outturns against budget are set out below:

Budget	Budget £000	Actual £000	Variance £000
Administration	190,164	165,343	24,821
Programme	353,552	367,044	(13,492)
Total Resource DEL	543,716	532,387	11,329
Total Capital DEL	22,926	18,167	4,759
Total DEL (voted)	566,642	550,554	16,088
Resource AME	9,500	1,471	8,029
Capital AME	2,500	–	2,500
Total AME	12,000	1,471	10,529
TOTAL MANAGED BUDGET	578,642	552,025	26,617

All four main categories of spend were within the control totals – Resource DEL by £11.3 million, Capital DEL by £4.8 million, Resource AME by £8 million and Capital AME by £2.5 million. This is also confirmed in the tables of the Statement of Parliamentary Supply and associated notes in the Parliamentary Accountability and Audit Report. The following sections provide further analysis for each budget category.

Resource DEL expenditure

The Departmental Group’s Resource DEL expenditure was £532.4 million (2020-21: £501.4 million) against a budget of £543.7 million resulting in an overall underspend of £11.3 million. This is due to a combination of factors, including the unanticipated impact of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on planned activity, and slower than expected recruitment into vacant roles. The table below shows the Departmental Group’s Resource DEL actual expenditure against budget for the year by business group. The business groups below are explained in the Overview section of the Performance Report.

Business Group	Budget £000	Actual £000	Variance £000
Strategy and Investment	97,353	96,376	977
Overseas	85,911	85,813	98
Exports and UK Trade	87,925	83,872	4,053
Platform Charge	61,349	61,989	(640)
Trading Systems	50,417	48,385	2,032
Trade Negotiations	31,506	30,453	1,053
Trade Remedies Authority	10,752	10,150	602
Digital, Data and Technology	44,462	42,555	1,907
Estates	15,370	13,866	1,504
Communication and Marketing	24,891	23,705	1,186
Other corporate services	36,532	33,942	2,590
Centrally Managed Resources	(2,752)	1,281	(4,034)
Total RDEL Expenditure	543,716	532,387	11,329

The above includes the OneHMG platform charge, relating to the business support services provided to DIT’s overseas network by the FCDO. DIT is recharged by the FCDO for its share of use. Aside from staff costs, DIT’s contribution to this overseas platform is the single largest component of Resource DEL expenditure. The charge for 2021-22 was £62 million – a 12% increase from the prior year, including the impact of increased headcount overseas and therefore increased demand for support services.

The relaxation of COVID-19 restrictions through the financial year allowed DIT to resume participation in international trade events. The delayed Expo 2020 Dubai took place between October 2021 and March 2022 and was a significant driver of Resource DEL expenditure during the financial year. A depreciation charge of £23.3 million has been recognised against the bespoke Pavilion that was constructed on site to showcase UK business. The Pavilion was required to be decommissioned following the Expo and so it was necessary to fully depreciate it during the year. A further £8.9 million was incurred on events, staff costs and promotion activity associated with the event. These costs were partially offset by revenue of £4.2 million which DIT generated through the sale of sponsorship rights. All Expo 2020 Dubai expenditure is recognised within the Strategy and Investment group in the table above.

In December 2021, the Department launched a new Internationalisation Fund which provides grants to eligible businesses in England. This scheme is funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds overseen by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The Department is reimbursed by DLUHC for the cost of eligible grants paid, which is recognised as income for the Department. By 31 March 2022, the Department had paid £4.7 million under the scheme. An equal amount is recorded within revenue, which reflects amounts due for reimbursement from DLUHC. These costs and revenue are included within the Exports and UK Trade group in the table above.

Capital DEL expenditure

The Departmental Group’s Capital DEL expenditure was £18.2 million (2020-21: £34.3 million) against a budget of £22.9 million resulting in an overall underspend of £4.8 million. The underspend is attributable to slower than expected recruitment into technology roles which constrained capital software development activity. The following table shows Capital DEL expenditure against budget for year by business group:

Business Group	Budget £000	Actual £000	Variance £000
Strategy and Investment	6,619	3,524	3,095
Trading Systems	1,079	846	233
Digital, Data and Technology	13,104	12,999	105
Other business groups	2,124	798	1,326
Total CDEL Expenditure	22,926	18,167	4,759

The reduction of capital expenditure against the previous financial year is attributable to the construction of the Pavilion for Expo 2020 Dubai. Although the Pavilion became operational in October 2021, the majority of construction work was undertaken and paid for in the prior year. These costs were capitalised when incurred and brought forward as an Asset under Construction within the Statement of Financial Position. The remaining capital expenditure is driven by the creation of intangible assets which are developed internally by the Digital, Data and Technology directorate.

Resource AME expenditure

The Departmental Group’s Resource AME expenditure was £1.5 million (2020-21: £1.8 million) against a budget of £9.5 million resulting in an underspend of £8 million.

The budget of £9.5 million provided at the Supplementary Estimate was primarily intended to cover the value of any final, outstanding payments due on the construction and deconstruction of the Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, and the value of dilapidations liabilities arising from the lease of the Department’s new headquarters at the Old Admiralty Building. There was a large degree of uncertainty over the value of both liabilities when budgets were agreed with HM Treasury, and both turned out to be significantly lower than the range of costs originally estimated.

Capital AME expenditure

The Departmental Group’s Capital AME expenditure was nil (2020-21: nil) against a budget of £2.5 million resulting in an underspend of £2.5 million.

Capital AME budget was received to cover the possibility that provisions recognised in respect of Expo 2020 Dubai would need to be capitalised as part of the cost of the Pavilion asset. However, this was not required and all provisions recognised have been allocated to Resource AME.

Spending on priority outcomes

As described in the Overview section, DIT’s Outcome Delivery Plan for 2021-22 focused on achieving four priority outcomes, supported by four strategic enablers. The following table provides information about the Department’s actual expenditure against budget for each of its priority outcomes and the strategic enablers. Note that the figures below exclude non-cash expenditure such as depreciation and amortisation and so differ from the Departmental Resource totals reported above.

The percentage of spend and estimated FTEs used elsewhere in this report that are apportioned to each priority outcome are estimated by budget holders based on their judgement and should be considered approximate. These percentages were reviewed in February 2022 and have been applied to DIT’s outturn for 2021-22.

Priority outcome	Budget £000	Actual £000	Variance £000
Priority outcome 1 (including DIT’s work on negotiating FTAs and market access)	124,931	120,906	4,024
Priority outcome 2 (including DIT’s work on attracting and retaining inward investment)	85,657	80,548	5,109
Priority outcome 3 (including DIT’s work on supporting UK business and facilitating UK exports)	142,753	137,036	5,717
Priority outcome 4 (including DIT’s work championing the rules-based international trading system)	65,745	63,691	2,054
Strategic enablers (including the corporate support services required for the delivery of DIT’s priority outcomes)	117,412	113,073	4,340
Total Expenditure	536,498	515,254	21,244

Budget reconciliation to the financial statements

The Estimates and Statement of Parliamentary Supply, from which the outturn figures are derived, are compiled against the budgeting framework. This is similar to but different from the International Financial Reporting Standards under which the financial statements are prepared. The following diagram shows how expenditure and capital additions reported in the financial statements translate to budget outturn.

The Department has reported Net Operating Expenditure of £537.9 million within its Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure (SoCNE) in the financial statements. This expenditure is reflected within the Resource DEL outturn with some exceptions:

• Under the budgeting framework, movements in provisions are reflected within the Department’s Resource AME outturn. £1.1 million of provision movements are therefore recorded against Resource AME.

• £0.4 million of asset disposal charges and depreciation are also recorded within Resource AME.

• Research and development expenditure which is not capitalisable under IFRS, but which meets certain criteria under the European System of Accounts 10 (ESA10) framework, is reflected within Capital DEL. This represents £4.0 million of expenditure currently recorded in the SoCNE.

Net expenditure trend analysis

The graph below shows the Resource DEL net expenditure for the Departmental Group over the last five years. Future years are based on the Department’s most recent Spending Review settlement.

Trend analysis – Resource DEL net expenditure (£m)

The Department was formed in July 2016 and brought together the former non-ministerial department, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), which had joint reporting links to the former Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the former Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The chart above shows how the Department’s Resource DEL spending and budgets increased year on year between 2016-17 and 2022-23 to deliver the Government’s ambitious trade agenda.

The below graph shows the Capital DEL net expenditure for the Departmental Group over the last five years. Future years are based on the Department’s most recent Spending Review settlement.

Trend analysis – Capital DEL net expenditure (£m)

The Department develops bespoke software platforms in-house to facilitate the delivery of our objectives. The outturn for 2020-21 is an outlier attributable to construction costs incurred on the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, and 2021-22 outturn fell below expectations as development work was constrained by resourcing difficulties. This has delayed the delivery of some internally developed software platforms into 2022-23. Over the Spending Review period, capital expenditure is expected to fall as focus shifts to maintenance and enhancement of existing systems as opposed to the creation of new ones.

The below graph shows the AME net expenditure for the Departmental Group over the last five years.

Trend analysis – Resource AME net ependiture (£’000)

The Department’s Resource AME expenditure is low relative to DEL spending. Higher outturn in 2020-21 and 2021-22 is attributable to retention provisions held on the construction of the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.

Departmental Group’s COVID-19 expenditure

All government departments are required to provide commentary on expenditure incurred in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the financial year, the Departmental Group redeployed staff from working on departmental priority objectives to COVID-19 related roles. The costs of staff that were deployed was approximately £500,000.

EU Exit expenditure

All government departments are required to provide an analysis of EU Exit related expenditure and to summarise the impact of EU Exit on departmental goals, strategic objectives and priority outcomes. The Department was created specifically in response to EU Exit and as such all expenditure and priority outcomes are directly related to EU Exit.

Statement of Financial Position

The Departmental Group had a net liability position of £52.6 million at 31 March 2022 which is an increase of £17.2 million from the £35.4 million net liability position at 31 March 2021. The main changes in the Department’s Statement of Financial Position were:

• £20.6 million reduction in the value of Property, Plant and Equipment due to the depreciation of the Pavilion constructed at Expo 2020 Dubai.

• £12.7 million increase in Trade and Other Receivables, driven by amounts owed to DIT by DLUHC in respect of the Internationalisation Fund and by Cabinet Office in respect of the GREAT machinery of government change.

• £2.5 million increase in accruals, which forms part of the Trade and other Payables note, the most significant of which was in relation to rental and facilities management charges owed to the Government Property Agency in respect of Old Admiralty Building.

Going concern

In common with other government departments, the financing of the Departmental Group’s future service provision and liabilities is to be met by future grants of supply and the application of future income approved annually by Parliament. Approval for amounts required for 2022-23 was given by Parliament on 12 May 2022 and there is no reason to believe that future approvals will not be made. It has accordingly been considered appropriate to adopt the going concern basis for the preparation of these financial statements.

James Bowler
Accounting Officer
13 July 2022

Accountability report

Corporate Governance Report

The Accountability Report sets out how the Department meets the key accountability requirements to Parliament. It is broken down into three areas:

• this Corporate Governance Report disclosing information about members of the Departmental Board, the Statement of Accounting Officer’s Responsibilities and the Governance Statement, which explains about the Department’s governance structures and reviews our risk management and system of internal controls;

• the Remuneration and Staff Report providing information on staff numbers and costs, and the remuneration of members of the Departmental Board; and

• the Parliamentary Accountability and Audit Report that presents the Department’s expenditure against the budgets set by Parliament and the audit opinion on the financial statements prepared by the National Audit Office.

Report from the Interim Lead Non-Executive Board Member and Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee

Dominic Johnson CBE

This year has seen the Department for International Trade continue to take control of the UK’s independent trade policy, against the challenging backdrop of COVID-19 and the crisis in Ukraine. I would like to acknowledge the swift pivot this department has made to respond to the situation in Ukraine and note the Departmental Board’s thanks to our teams for the work being delivered. The whole organisation, led by the Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP, remain committed to the Department’s objectives. This has helped to drive forward the UK’s important trade agenda, establish free trade agreements with partners across the globe, support businesses to export, and promote inward investment and the rules-based international trading system.

I would like to thank Dr Dambisa Moyo, Douglas Carswell, Sir Stephen O’Brien and Noël Harwerth for their support over the past year. Along with my fellow Board members and committee members on the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) we are responsible for supporting the Secretary of State and to ensure the Department can deliver on her ambitions. The whole team bring a variety of expertise to the table, and I am grateful to them all for their support in delivering the Department’s priorities.

Over the past year the Board has considered the breadth of the Department’s business, including delivery and performance against the Outcome Delivery Plan, the Free Trade Agreement programme, the Export Strategy and key events such as the Global Investment Summit and COP26. In addition, the Board continues to review the strategic risk register and also refreshed the Department’s risk appetite statement.

The ARAC is supported by Sir Stephen O’Brien and a strong team of independent members: Hanif Barma who served throughout the year, and Robert Milburn and Jim Watson who joined in September 2021 and April 2022 respectively. I would like to thank Chris Jenkins and Jos Creese whose respective tenures on ARAC ended in October 2021 and January 2022. Our work has included reviewing the Department’s cyber security standards, HR processes and policies relating to joiners, movers and leavers, mandatory training and the comprehensiveness of assurances provided to the Permanent Secretary. I am pleased with the progress made across HR processes and policies and the committee will continue to review these in the year ahead.

The non-executives meet regularly as a group and engage frequently with senior members of the executive through informal briefings, discussions and formal meetings through the year. I am keen that non-executives continue to maintain a central role in supporting the Department with championing exports, attracting inward investment and accelerating the benefits of free trade. In this task we are supported by a team of hardworking officials who ensure the various boards function smoothly.

I would also like to thank both Permanent Secretaries with whom we have worked over the past year. Both John Alty and James Bowler have been keen to ensure the involvement of the non-executives. I am also especially grateful to the Secretary of State and her impressive team of ministers whose ambitions we are here to help deliver.

Departmental Board: ministers

The following ministers were members of the Departmental Board on 31 March 2022.

The Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP

Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade

Anne-Marie Trevelyan was appointed Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade on 15 September 2021. The Secretary of State’s principal responsibility is delivering the Department’s priority outcomes, as set out in DIT’s Outcome Delivery Plan.

The Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP

Minister of State for Trade Policy

Penny Mordaunt was appointed Minister for Trade Policy on 16 September 2021. Her principal responsibilities include trade remedies and trade disputes, WTO engagement and reform, and trade for development. She also supports the Secretary of State with live free trade agreement negotiations, defending against market-distorting practice, trade elements of national security policy, UK Global Tariff policy, CPTPP, climate change and COP26, state-level US engagement, Ministerial Forum for Trade engagement and departmental legislative activity. She is also the Department’s ministerial disability champion.

Lord Grimstone of Boscobel

Minister of State for Investment

Lord Gerry Grimstone was appointed on 18 March 2020 as a Minister of State jointly at DIT and BEIS. His responsibilities in DIT included investment promotion across all sectors, Office for Investment, delivering the Global Investment Summit and departmental business in the House of Lords. He also supported the Secretary of State with delivering an investment strategy to improve the UK investment environment, global marketing to attract investment across all sectors, business investor relations and National Contact Point for OECD multilateral guidelines on investment. Lord Grimstone resigned on 7 July 2022.

Ranil Jayawardena MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State,Minister for International Trade

Ranil Jayawardena was appointed Minister for International Trade on 5 May 2020. His responsibilities include trade negotiations with India, the GCC, Mexico, Canada, Israel, Switzerland and Singapore, implementing agreed trade deals, tackling market access barriers and securing global supply chains. He also supports the Secretary of State with the Export Control Joint Unit, Joint Economic and Trade Committees, trade dialogues and external engagement.

Mike Freer MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for Exports

Mike Freer was appointed Minister for Exports and Minister for Equalities in September 2021. His responsibilities included export promotion across all sectors, UKEF, the Trade Envoy programme and world events. He also supported the Secretary of State with delivering an Export Strategy to boost exports across the UK, supporting SMEs to export, trade missions and trade shows, DIT’s contribution to the GREAT campaign and investment policy in the House of Commons. Mike Freer resigned on 6 July 2022 and was replaced by Andrew Griffith MP on 8 July.

The Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP also chaired the Departmental Board as Secretary of State for International Trade until 15 September 2021. The Rt Hon Greg Hands MP served on the Departmental Board as Minister of State for Trade Policy until 16 September 2021. Graham Stuart MP served on the Departmental Board as Minister for Exports until 16 September 2021.

Departmental Board: executives

The following officials were the executive members of the Departmental Board as at 31 March 2022.

James Bowler CB

Permanent Secretary

The Permanent Secretary is responsible for leading the Department and is the Secretary of State’s principal policy adviser. James Bowler was appointed on 16 August 2021 following the retirement of John Alty who served as DIT’s interim Permanent Secretary.

Crawford Falconer

Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent Secretary

The Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent Secretary oversees the trade policy and negotiation agenda for the Department. He supports the Permanent Secretary in running the Department and also heads the trade negotiation profession within the Civil Service.

Amanda Brooks CBE

Director General, Trade Negotiations

The Director General of Trade Negotiations is responsible for leading the Department’s work to secure world class Free Trade Agreements for the UK. Amanda Brooks was appointed on 1 June 2021. Chris Barton served as interim Director General for Trade Negotiations prior to Amanda’s appointment.

Ceri Smith

Director General, Strategy and Investment

The Director General of Strategy and Investment is responsible for delivering the Investment Transformation Programme for DIT and providing oversight of the investment services function, including the Office for Investment. The role also leads DIT’s strategy, analysis, world events and advocacy teams, and oversees the work of the Chief Scientific Advisor. Ceri Smith was appointed on 19 April 2021.

Andrew Mitchell CMG

Director General, Exports and UK Trade

The Director General of Exports and UK Trade is responsible for the Department’s work on exports, sectors, and work in the UK nations and English regions.

Joanna Crellin CMG

Director General, Trading Systems

The Director General of Trading Systems is responsible for bilateral trade relations, global trade and delivery, the Department’s Export Control Joint Unit, global supply chains and trade defence.

Catherine Vaughan

Director General, Corporate Services and Chief Operating Officer

The Director General of Corporate Services and the Department’s Chief Operating Officer is responsible for DIT’s Change and Project Delivery; Finance; Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT); Human Resources; Commercial; and Communications and Marketing functions.

Louis Taylor

Chief Executive, UK Export Finance

The Chief Executive of UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK’s export credit agency, is the principal Accounting Officer for UKEF. The Chief Executive is also a Director General in DIT, and a member of the Executive Committee and Departmental Board.

Departmental Board: non-executives

The following non-executives were members of the Departmental Board as at 31 March 2022.

Dominic Johnson CBE

Dominic Johnson was appointed as Non-Executive Board Member of DIT in November 2020 for a tenure of three years to November 2023. Dominic is Chair of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. He was also appointed Interim Lead Non-Executive Board Member on 15 March 2021. Dominic maintains a focus on the work of the Exports and UK Trade group and is also theNon-Executive Board member with responsibility for the union.

The Rt Hon Sir Stephen O’Brien KBE

Stephen O’Brien was appointed as Non-Executive Board Member of DIT in June 2019 for a tenure of three years to June 2022. His tenure has since been extended for a further three years to June 2025. He also sits on the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee. Stephen maintains a focus on the work of the Trading Systems group.

Dr Dambisa Moyo

Dr Dambisa Moyo was appointed as Non-Executive Board Member of DIT in November 2020 for a tenure of three years to November 2023. Dambisa maintains a focus on the work of the Strategy and Investment group.

Douglas Carswell

Douglas Carswell was appointed as Non-Executive Board Member of DIT in November 2020 for a tenure of three years to November 2023. Douglas maintains a focus on the work of the Trade Negotiations group.

Noël Harwerth

Noël Harwerth has been an ex-officio Non-Executive Board Member of DIT since January 2017. Noël is also a Non-Executive Director for UKEF and chair of its Board. Her tenure was extended for a further three years to January 2023.

Statement of Accounting Officer’s Responsibilities

Under the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 (the GRAA), HM Treasury has directed the Department for International Trade to prepare, for each financial year, consolidated resource accounts detailing the resources acquired, held or disposed of, and the use of resources, during the year by the Department inclusive of its sponsored non-departmental public body (The Trade Remedies Authority) designated by order made under the GRAA by Statutory Instrument 2021 No. 1441 (together known as the ‘departmental group’, consisting of the Department and sponsored body listed at note 1.3 to the accounts). The accounts are prepared on an accruals basis and must give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Department and the departmental group and of the income and expenditure, Statement of Financial Position and cash flows of the departmental group for the financial year.

In preparing the accounts, the Accounting Officer of the Department is required to comply with the requirements of the Government Financial Reporting Manual and in particular to:

• observe the Accounts Direction issued by the Treasury, including the relevant accounting and disclosure requirements, and apply suitable accounting policies on a consistent basis;

• ensure that the Department has in place appropriate and reliable systems and procedures to carry out the consolidation process;

• make judgements and estimates on a reasonable basis, including those judgements involved in consolidating the accounting information provided by the non-departmental public body (The Trade Remedies Authority);

• state whether applicable accounting standards as set out in the Government Financial Reporting Manual have been followed, and disclose and explain any material departures in the accounts;

• prepare the accounts on a going concern basis; and

• confirm that the Annual Report and Accounts as a whole is fair, balanced and understandable and take personal responsibility for the Annual Report and Accounts and the judgements required for determining that it is fair, balanced and understandable.

HM Treasury has appointed the Permanent Head of the Department as Accounting Officer of the Department for International Trade. In addition, HM Treasury has appointed an additional Accounting Officer to be accountable for that part of the Department’s accounts relating to a specified Estimate section and the associated assets, liabilities and cash flows. This appointment does not detract from the Head of Department’s overall responsibility as Accounting Officer for the Department’s accounts.

The allocation of Accounting Officer responsibilities in the department is as follows:

• Estimate section A: James Bowler, Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer, DIT

• Estimate section B: Oliver Griffiths, Chief Executive and Accounting Officer, Trade Remedies Authority

The Accounting Officer of the Department has also appointed the Chief Executive of the Trade Remedies Authority as Accounting Officer of this non-departmental public body. The Accounting Officer of the Department is responsible for ensuring that appropriate systems and controls are in place to ensure that any grants that the Department makes to its sponsored bodies are applied for the purposes intended and that such expenditure and the other income and expenditure of the sponsored bodies are properly accounted for, for the purposes of consolidation within the resource accounts. Under their terms of appointment, the Accounting Officer of the sponsored body are accountable for the use, including the regularity and propriety, of the grants received and the other income and expenditure of the sponsored body.

The responsibilities of an Accounting Officer, including responsibility for the propriety and regularity of the public finances for which the Accounting Officer is answerable, for keeping proper records and for safeguarding the assets of the Department or non-departmental public body for which the Accounting Officer is responsible, are set out in Managing Public Money published by HM Treasury.

As the Accounting Officer, I have taken all the steps that I ought to have taken to make myself aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that DIT’s auditors are aware of that information. So far as I am aware, there is no relevant audit information of which the auditors are unaware.

Governance Statement

Scope of responsibility

As Permanent Secretary and Principal Accounting Officer for the Department for International Trade, I am accountable for maintaining a sound system of internal control that supports the realisation of the Department’s mission and strategic objectives and safeguards public funds in accordance with Managing Public Money.

The purpose of this Governance Statement is to give an explanation of DIT’s governance framework, including how it has supported the discharge of these duties in financial year 2021-22 and up to the date of approval of the Annual Report and Accounts, and how it enables DIT to comply with cross-government frameworks, such as the Cabinet Office’s Corporate Governance in Central Government Departments: Code of Good Practice (the Corporate Governance Code).

Context for the Governance Statement

This was an another exceptionally busy year for DIT. As the COVID-19 situation evolved, DIT continued to adapt its response to the pandemic in line with wider government policy as well as local restrictions overseas. A focus was also placed on practical support to businesses to help the UK economy and British businesses bounce-back. In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, DIT pivoted resource to lead the government’s trade response, including implementing sanctions on designated Russian individuals and businesses as well as changes to our tariff regime with Ukraine. We expect there to be an enduring role for DIT in the coming year as the conflict unfolds and government policy and that of our international allies continues to develop.

The Department’s ministerial team and Executive Committee have led an international economic department that works collaboratively to deliver its strategic objectives. Over the period, the Department has successfully embedded our Outcome Delivery Plan, focusing on the priority outcomes, with governance mechanisms to support our oversight of delivery. DIT’s first multi-year Spending Review settlement in November 2021, given the fiscal context, provides the basis for planning and delivery over the period up to March 2025.

The Department’s updated ODP clearly defines our focus for 2022-23. This includes negotiating trade deals and opening up markets; giving UK exporters the tools, support and opportunities to succeed through global trade; driving investment; building a global appetite for British goods and services; promoting choice and value for UK consumers; and improving international trading standards and fighting unfair trading practices.

DIT governance structures

The central elements of DIT’s governance framework are:

• the Departmental Board, Executive Committee and their sub-committees;

• the scheme of financial delegations which flows from HM Treasury through the Accounting Officer and into the organisation;

• the portfolio management function, portfolio reporting pack and keyholder system for investment decision making; and

• the risk management framework and strategic risk register.

The Departmental Board

The operation of the Departmental Board is set out in a Terms of Reference and in a Board Operating Framework. These documents are refreshed annually.

Board activities for this period included reviewing ODP delivery; monitoring performance, finance and risk; refreshing the Department’s risk appetite; and implementation of the Spending Review outcome. The Board also reviewed progress on the Department’s trade negotiations programme, the Export Strategy, the Green Trade Strategy and investment opportunities and priorities.

The Board met three times over the financial year in June 2021, October 2021 and February 2022. A further meeting was held following the end of the reporting year in April 2022. The Board has also continued to fulfil its role through a variety of other forums. The interim lead Non-Executive Board Member joined a ministerial and executive departmental strategy away day in January. An ODP Delivery Board was also established in August 2021 as a subset of the Departmental Board, providing scrutiny and challenge on the Department’s performance against each of its priority outcomes and strategic enablers. The ODP Delivery Board met three times over the financial year (August 2021, November 2021, and February 2022) and reviewed performance from the last quarter of 2021-22 in April 2022.

The Departmental Board and its sub-committees are provided with a range of management information in order to review the Department’s performance and capability. This includes performance reports, risk registers and corporate data. The Board secretariat provide a secretariat service, oversee the information provided to the Board and sub-committees, and ensure its quality complies with the Departmental guidance on writing board papers to facilitate informed discussion.

Board performance and effectiveness

An annual Board Effectiveness Evaluation (BEE) is carried out in line with the Corporate Governance Code to enhance and improve the functioning of future Board activities. This year the BEE process has benefitted from independent challenge and scrutiny from Mike Green, a Non-Executive Director at the Government Legal Department. Questionnaires were circulated to members to seek their views on the Board’s effectiveness. The information gathered was supplemented by one-to-one interviews.

The findings of the evaluation and draft recommendations were shared with the Departmental Board in June. Overall, the evaluation was positive, particularly noting the commitment, knowledge and expertise of members, and the constructive assistance the Board provides to executives. Some areas for continuous improvement were identified, including: aligning Non-Executive Board Members with the Department’s transformation projects to provide support and challenge; providing more time for detailed discussion of items at Board meetings; and allowing for more face-to-face informal time for all Board Members.

Engagement and transparency

The secretariat ensures that the views of the Board are captured, minutes kept on record, and actions distributed to the Department as appropriate. A Governance Operating Framework is available on the intranet for all staff to access, providing a comprehensive overview of governance at DIT and aims to improve awareness amongst staff of governance structures and how to engage with them.

Non-Executive Board Members

Over the course of 2021-22, Dominic Johnson continued to serve as Lead Non-Executive Board Member (NEBM) on an interim basis. In January, an open competition was launched to appoint a permanent Lead NEBM.

Non-Executive Board Members support and challenge the Department and provide independent perspectives inside and outside of Departmental Board meetings. Over the course of 2021-22, the Non-Executive Board Members have continued to deepen their engagement across the Department. This has included briefings sessions and meetings on: International Trade Week; Digital, Data and Technology; implementation of the Spending Review settlement; and the Department’s ODP. The non-executives have also undertaken individual projects to support the Department, including reviews of export control and market access barriers, and engaged and contributed to a range of DIT’s Trade Advisory Groups.

In line with Cabinet Office guidance, non-executives have taken on specific responsibilities and championed these across the Department. Dominic Johnson is the NEBM leading on the union and levelling up and Dambisa Moyo is the NEBM leading on climate change. In addition, our NEBMs have supported wider activity across the Department, for example with Dambisa Moyo acting as master of ceremonies for the Global Investment Summit.

Sub-committees of the Departmental Board

The Departmental Board has two sub-committees. Both are chaired by Non-Executive Board Members who report to the Board.

The Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC) carries out its role in line with HM Treasury’s ARAC Handbook, including reviewing DIT’s Annual Report and Accounts, internal and external audit activities, and the development of the risk management framework. Over the year, the ARAC has also considered mandatory training, cyber security standards, the Department’s assurance framework, the processes for joiners, movers and leavers and plans for further improvements in DIT’s transactional corporate infrastructure.

In line with the Handbook, the ARAC carried out its annual review of its effectiveness in April and May. This review was carried out by the Committee with input from regular ARAC attendees. The evaluation was positive and some areas for continuous improvement were identified, for example, drawing on others’ experience and best practice to drive improvements; featuring cross-cutting government priorities (e.g. levelling up) more on the ARAC agenda and more deep dives to build on the current programme.

Dominic Johnson serves as Chair of ARAC. Sir Stephen O’Brien and Hanif Barma served as members of ARAC throughout the year. In September 2021, Robert Milburn was appointed as an ARAC Independent Member following the end of Chris Jenkins’ tenure on the Committee. Jos Creese also stepped down as an Independent Member of the Committee in January 2022 and was replaced by Jim Watson who was appointed in April.

The Nominations and Governance Committee met once in 2021-22 (as required by the Corporate Governance Code) and also reviewed items by correspondence. The Committee reviewed the senior civil servants’ pay award, talent management and succession planning, and compliance with the Corporate Governance Code. The Committee is currently chaired by the Interim Lead Non-Executive Dominic Johnson. An effectiveness review of the Committee was undertaken in November and December 2021. The evaluation was positive and some areas for continuous improvement were identified, for example, to better align the Committee’s terms of reference with the Committee’s future workplan.

The Executive Committee and its sub-committees

The Executive Committee (ExCo) has regularly scrutinised and advised on the delivery of the Department’s priorities and normally meets once per week. During the reporting year, alongside its business-as-usual areas of focus, ExCo has led on two significant issues: the continued monitoring of the impact of COVID-19; and the Department’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The situation in Ukraine has been a standing item on the ExCo’s agenda since February, ensuring that DIT’s response has been strategic, focussed and well resourced, and that affected staff overseas have been well supported.

Other key areas of focus have included: the Department’s newly launched Vision and Mission statements; publication of the government’s refreshed Export Strategy; the launch of the ‘Made in the UK, Sold to the World’ export promotion campaign; and the establishment of a new Export Support Service. ExCo has also provided challenge and scrutiny of its green trade strategy, the successful delivery of its COP26 responsibilities and the Department’s work on diversity and inclusion, while also continuing to scrutinise departmental performance, finance and risk.

The three sub-committees of ExCo – the Performance, Finance and Risk Committee (PFRC); the People Committee (supported by the Shadow People Committee); and the Projects and Change Committee (PCC) – have continued to provide strong support to the executive governance of the Department, maintaining a strong link between ExCo and its sub-committees and further strengthening the sub-committees’ line of sight across the Department. PFRC’s role was expanded during 2021-22 to include a quarterly challenge and scrutiny discussion with Director Generals as part of new governance oversight of ODP delivery.

Effectiveness reviews for each of ExCo’s sub-committees were carried out during 2021-22. These assured ExCo of the positive role the sub-committees were continuing to play in DIT’s governance. The reviews also provided the opportunity for further continuous improvements, including improved organisation, a clearer focus in the committees’ work and refreshed memberships.

A subset of Executive Committee members, along with a non-executive, also met during the year as the Remuneration Committee to decide annual pay increases and performance bonuses for members of the Senior Civil Service (SCS) in line with the parameters set annually by the Cabinet Office and HM Treasury with regard to the Pay Remit and relevant pay controls for members of the SCS.

Board and committee attendance: 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022

Board or Committee Member	Departmental Board	Executive Committee	Audit & Risk Assurance Committee	Nominations & GovernanceCommittee
Ministers
Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP	1 of 2
Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP	2 of 2
Lord Grimstone of Boscobel	1 of 3
Ranil Jayawardena MP	2 of 3
Mike Freer MP	2 of 2
Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP (resigned 15 September 2021)	1 of 1
Rt Hon Greg Hands MP(resigned 16 September 2021)	1 of 1
Graham Stuart MP (resigned 16 September 2021)	1 of 1

Board or Committee Member	Departmental Board	Executive Committee	Audit & Risk Assurance Committee	Nominations & GovernanceCommittee
Non-Executives
Dominic Johnson CBE	3 of 3		5 of 5	1 of 1
Rt Hon Sir Stephen O’Brien KBE	1 of 3		5 of 5
Dr Dambisa Moyo	3 of 3
Douglas Carswell	3 of 3
Noël Harwerth	3 of 3
Jos Creese*			3 of 4
Chris Jenkins*			2 of 2
Hanif Barma*			5 of 5
Robert Milburn*			3 of 3

Board or Committee Member	Departmental Board	Executive Committee	Audit & Risk Assurance Committee	Nominations & GovernanceCommittee
Executive Committee members
James Bowler CB	2 of 2	20 of 23		0 of 1
Crawford Falconer	3 of 3	34 of 38
Amanda Brooks CBE	3 of 3	24 of 31
Ceri Smith	3 of 3	33 of 38		1 of 1
Andrew Mitchell CMG	3 of 3	36 of 38
Joanna Crellin CMG	3 of 3	31 of 38
Catherine Vaughan	3 of 3	35 of 38
Louis Taylor	3 of 3	26 of 38
Anthony Green**	3 of 3	37 of 38
John Alty (retired 15 August 2021)	1 of 1	14 of 15
Chris Barton CMG		7 of 7

Board or Committee Member	Departmental Board	Executive Committee	Audit & Risk Assurance Committee	Nominations & GovernanceCommittee
Executive Committee associate members
Bidesh Sarkar**	3 of 3	37 of 38
Richard Price		29 of 38
Jon Tunney**	3 of 3	30 of 32
Kenan Poleo		5 of 6
John Edwards		5 of 5
Rebecca Woodward***		8 of 8		1 of 1
James Norton (resigned 29 October 2021)		11 of 11
Alan Gemmell		10 of 28

*Indicates that these individuals are or were Independent Members of ARAC.

**Indicates a Standing Attendee for meetings of the Departmental Board.

***Indicates a Standing Attendee for people and workforce agenda items.

Trade Remedies Authority

The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) was established on 1 June 2021 following Royal Assent of the Trade Act 2021, which provided the statutory footing for the TRA to be formally established. The legislation contains provisions related to the TRA’s governance arrangements that follow Cabinet Office reporting guidelines for non-departmental public bodies. It also confers powers on the TRA to provide advice, support and assistance to the Secretary of State for International Trade on specified trade and trade remedies related matters.

On 30 June 2021, the Secretary of State announced a review of the overall Trade Remedies Framework to ensure it remains up-to-date, champions WTO rules and is fit for purpose going forwards. This review has progressed through the cross-government write-round process, with legislative updates to the Trade Act 2021 and the Taxation (Cross-border Trade) Act 2018 due to be made in the forthcoming Finance Bill. A framework agreement between the TRA and DIT was signed in June 2022 setting out all governance, reporting and funding arrangements.

Governance arrangements with UK Export Finance (UKEF)

UKEF updated its mission statement this year to put sustainability at the centre of its purpose. UKEF’s mission is now to advance prosperity by ensuring no viable UK export fails for lack of finance or insurance, doing that sustainably and at no net cost to the taxpayer. It is strategically aligned with DIT but is a separate ministerial government department in its own right, which publishes its own Annual Report and Accounts and has its own independent Board and sub-committees, reflecting the specialist nature of its work. Both departments report to the Secretary of State for International Trade. The Principal Accounting Officer for UKEF is the Chief Executive Officer. The Secretary of State writes to the UKEF CEO on an annual basis to outline their priorities for UKEF for the coming year.

UKEF’s Chief Executive reports to the Chair of the UKEF Board and sits on the DIT Board and Executive Committee. UKEF colleagues are represented throughout DIT’s governance framework and there is extensive engagement at working level. The Chair of UKEF’s Board is also one of DIT’s Non-Executive Board Members.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between DIT and UKEF in March 2021, has been used to further develop and strengthen relationships across policy and operational functions. This has enabled DIT and UKEF to deliver shared objectives for trade, exports and investment, leveraging opportunities across the two departments through increased engagement, including through the MoU’s senior sponsors – the Director General for Exports and UK Trade and the CEO of UKEF, who sit on both DIT and UKEF’s Departmental Boards.

The MoU has Principles of Collaboration that are reflected in mutually agreed actions and key performance indicators. These form the basis for regular reviews of progress by senior sponsors. In 2021-22, collaboration between DIT and UKEF also successfully supported the development and publication of the UK government’s Export Strategy and both departments continue to work together closely on its implementation.

Compliance with the Corporate Governance Code

The Nominations and Governance Committee reviewed the Department’s compliance with the Cabinet Office’s Corporate Governance in Central Government Departments: Code of Good Practice and concluded that the Department’s approach to governance was in line with the Code other than the fact that the Departmental Board had not met quarterly. The Committee acknowledged that the Board had met formally only three times over the period, but had continued to fulfil its role in other ways, including enhanced NEBM engagement and quarterly meetings of the newly established ODP Delivery Board. They also noted activity underway to maintain and continually improve compliance in the upcoming year.

As set out in the Code, the ARAC has continued to benefit from independent, non-executive membership, including from sources other than the Board, in order to ensure an appropriate level of skills and experience. The Chair also has a standing update to raise issues to the Board.

Registered interests

The Department maintains a register of Departmental Board members’ interests. A list of declared interests for all executive and non-executive members who have served on the Board in 2021-22 is published on gov.uk.^{[footnote 8]} Departmental Board members are required to declare any personal, business or related party interests that may, or may be perceived by a reasonable member of the public to, influence their judgements in performing their obligations to the Department. In January, the Accounting Officer approved a new policy and updated processes for Departmental Board members. Since then, Board members have been prompted to refresh their declarations on a quarterly basis and are required to update the Department on relevant changes to their circumstances that may result in an actual, or perceived, conflict of interest. At the start of Departmental Board meetings, members are also asked to declare any potential conflicts of interest. Appropriate arrangements are in place to manage any conflicts identified, in line with Departmental and Cabinet Office policy. This could, for example, include recusal from Board discussions relating to those interests.

In addition, in line with the current Declaration of Interests policy for special advisers, all special advisers have declared any relevant interests or confirmed that they do not consider they have any relevant interests. The Permanent Secretary has considered these returns and the following relevant interests are set out in public:

Name	Interest
William Sweet	Local councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth

The Department has a clear conduct policy in place that applies to all staff and incorporates the principles of the Civil Service Code and Civil Service Management Code. Staff in the Department are reminded of their obligations under these codes as well as the need to comply with the Cabinet Office’s Business Appointment Rules when leaving the Civil Service. Information on any applications made under the Business Appointment Rules are reported to the ARAC, including any rule breaches and any applications that have been referred to the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA). In 2021-22, DIT recorded no breaches of the Rules and all advice given to applications from SCS (Senior Civil Service) members of staff was published on gov.uk.

In line with Cabinet Office guidance, DIT also maintains a central record of any personal or financial interests held by SCS staff that may be of relevance to their role. This includes any outside employment, work or appointment that is paid or otherwise remunerated. At the start of the year all SCS were asked to review their own compliance with this conduct policy. This review of compliance identified no cases of outside employment conflicting with staff responsibilities as civil servants. The Department will undertake a further review of compliance following publication of new guidance from Cabinet Office that will take effect from the 2022-23 financial year.

Risk management

The DIT risk management policy and framework sets out the process by which risk appetite is established, and how risks are identified, managed, and mitigated. The Accounting Officer has overall responsibility for the Department’s risk policy and framework, with Executive Committee owners assigned to and accountable for each of the Department’s strategic risks to the delivery of its objectives. A refresh of the Department’s risk appetite statement is undertaken annually and is approved by the Executive Committee and the Departmental Board. This year the refresh recast the risk appetite statement around the Department’s Outcome Delivery Plan.

The strategic risk register has been reported to each meeting of the Performance, Finance and Risk Committee (PFRC) who then recommends to the Executive Committee the risks for inclusion. Both the PFRC and the Executive Committee help to verify, review, and challenge the way that DIT is managing the critical, strategic risks that could have the greatest impact on the work of the Department. Deep-dive reviews of strategic risks are regularly conducted at PFRC to provide additional scrutiny and support to ensure that each risk is being managed and mitigated effectively.

The ARAC reviews the DIT strategic risk register, and the process which supports its development, and provides independent challenge to DIT’s management in order to assure the Accounting Officer, and the Board, that risks are being appropriately identified and mitigated. The strategic risk position is reported at each meeting of the Departmental Board, alongside consideration of performance and finance.

An annual risk session is also held with the Executive Committee to refresh the strategic risk register. This ensures that the strategic risk register continues to reflect both the operating landscape and the priorities set out in the Outcome Delivery Plan. This year the risk workshop, held in Spring 2022, focused on the future impacts of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.

Head of Risk Management annual review

The Head of Risk Management led a review of DIT’s risk management arrangements and reported to the ARAC in May 2022. This review follows HM Treasury’s Risk management Assessment Framework. Key findings from the review include:

• DIT has maintained and built on good risk management practises, with a particular focus on supporting teams managing key strategic risks;

• DIT has strengthened its risk support to major projects, including more focused work with new projects to develop their initial risk registers; and

• Further work is required to refine and develop the Department’s risk reporting processes and products to support active risk management and oversight in committees and boards.

Significant thematic risks and key mitigating factors

The principal risks in 2021-22 that could affect DIT in delivering its objectives were as follows:

Key
Risk assessment (as at 31 March 2022)	Very High	High	Medium	Low
Direction of risk trend (from date identified)	Risk Increase	Risk Decrease	No risk movement	At target score

Risk description		Examples of mitigating actions
High No risk movement	Capacity, capability and wellbeing: sustained demand on our people impacts on wellbeing and morale, leading to increased turnover, absences or causes ineffective work practices.	Enhanced support services for staff through the Employee Assistance Programme.
		Development of a ‘Workload Pressures Working Group’ to reduce workloads and enhance our working culture.
		Implementation of new learning and development programmes to address capacity or capability gaps in specialist teams.
Medium At target score	Financial planning: resources do not meet the scale of DIT’s ambitions and impact our ability to transform services and improve value for money and outcomes.	Implementation of business planning processes designed to enable prioritisation and ensure alignment between ambition and capability to deliver.
		Development of a robust evidence base for plans to reinforce Spending Review bids and demonstrate value for money in DIT activities.
High No risk movement	Delivery of transformed operating model: DIT fails to deliver the intended benefits of its new operating model with organisational transformation not leading to a more efficient, joined up service for DIT’s customers.	Critical stand-up activities completed for the Export and Investment Services transformation projects, with defined and robust governance arrangements established.
		Development of comprehensive design information, coordinated by a dedicated programme team that deploys user needs-based insights.
		Review of programme objectives relating to the transformation of export licensing services, including ongoing migration of licensing data onto more secure DIT systems to improve resilience of delivery.
High Risk Decrease	Security and information governance: the nature of the information that DIT holds is vulnerable to security threats and information loss impacting on the Department’s reputation and delivery of key priorities including FTA negotiations.	Completion of the final phase of a security transformation project to further raise security standards, building on the improvements from prior years.
		Development of enhanced capability to detect incidents with particular focus on digital services.
		Implementation of a new programme of work to promote and maintain a positive security culture.

Accounting Officer’s review of effectiveness

As Accounting Officer, I am required to conduct an annual review of the effectiveness of the Department’s governance structures, risk management and internal control framework. This review is informed by my senior officials, the Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) that provides the Department’s internal audit function, and other governance reports from which I have received assurance. I have also received assurances from my predecessor, John Alty, who was the Department’s Accounting Officer from the start of the 2021-22 reporting year until 15 August 2021.

Internal audit: GIAA

A key source of independent assurance for DIT is its internal audit function, which is designed to add value to DIT’s operations and support with the delivery of our priority outcomes. The purpose, authority and responsibility of internal audit activity is formally defined in an internal audit charter that is periodically reviewed and agreed by the ARAC and the Accounting Officer.

The annual internal audit programme is closely linked to the key risks of the Department and is recommended by the ARAC to the Accounting Officer at the start of each year. The internal audit plan was kept under review throughout the year to ensure it remained relevant and risk focused, and any revisions were approved at each meeting of the ARAC. During the year, the Department also continued to work with the GIAA on reviewing progress with the implementation of actions from prior internal audits.

External audit: National Audit Office and the Public Accounts Committee

During the year, the National Audit Office (NAO) undertook a value for money study into the government’s progress with its trade negotiations programme. The NAO published its report on 8 December 2021^{[footnote 9]} concluding that DIT and other government departments had made good progress in negotiations with new partners, but that pursuing multiple negotiations at the current speed and intensity posed a risk of insufficient resources being allocated to implementing trade agreements already secured and compressed the time available for consultation. Following the publication of the NAO’s report, the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) conducted its own inquiry into progress with trade negotiations, including a public evidence session with DIT’s Permanent Secretaries, the Director General for Trade Negotiations, the Director General for Trade and Brexit Opportunities at the Cabinet Office and the Director General for International and Borders at DEFRA. The PAC published its report on 18 March^{[footnote 10]}, including several recommendations, to which government responses were published on 27 May. The NAO is currently undertaking a value for money study into the Department’s role supporting inward investment, which is due to report early next year.

Priorities of the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee

As part of its effectiveness review in 2020-21, the ARAC agreed to focus more time on its core remit and agreed the following five priority areas for improvement to monitor throughout the year. A new set of priorities have also been agreed for 2022-23.

Security and cyber security standards:

DIT continues to develop its security capabilities in line with its requirements as a globally operating, high profile, government department. Each year, the Department assesses itself against security standards set by the Cabinet Office’s Government Security Group through an annual health check, which is independently audited by the GIAA. DIT has demonstrated further improvement this year against these security standards with progress being driven by a Security Transformation Board, chaired by the Chief Operating Officer.

A focus of this year has been on implementing our Cyber Security Strategy and developing a new Security Operations Centre to identify and mitigate cyber security threats to the Department. The Department has also continued with ongoing testing of its business continuity and incident management capabilities with real time scenario exercises.

Future Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Shared Services Programme:

DIT currently receives services from two shared services providers: for UK based operations, BEIS provides a variety of finance and HR functions to DIT, which are delivered and fulfilled by UK Shared Business Services Ltd (UK SBS); and the FCDO provides business support services to our overseas network through the OneHMG platform.

The Department continues to work with UK SBS to drive improvements to the services it provides. Alongside this work, DIT is planning further improvements to its operational and transactional corporate infrastructure through an ERP and Shared Services Programme. Working with a matrix portfolio of seven other government departments, DIT has been taking a leading role this year in the development of a business case aimed at delivering new technology and digital services for our HR, payroll and finance functions of the future.

DIT has also continued to support the FCDO with its introduction of a new cloud-based ERP system that supports our staff working overseas. This has included establishing an intelligent client function that works with the FCDO on this and other services provided to the Department, and this year also encompassed a review of the memorandum of understanding that governs the relationship between FCDO and other government departments operating overseas. A focus for next year will be on improving the governance and assurance processes relating to the MoU, including the management information and data the Department receives on the services provided to our staff overseas.

Joiners, movers and leavers:

As part of the Future ERP and Shared Services Programme, the Department has also focused on improving and mitigating risks within processes related to staff joining DIT, those moving between roles and those leaving the Department. In 2021-22, the Chief Operating Officer established a four-month task and finish group to accelerate changes to these processes and deliver an improved experience for staff and hiring managers. The group successfully delivered a new suite of guidance that has made expectations on hiring managers clearer and helped alleviate some of the delays that can occur when hiring new staff. The Department also continues to work on an improved digital solution to integrate the processes for staff resigning from DIT.

Assurance framework:

DIT’s assurance framework has been developed to provide an overview of the governance structures, risk management and internal control framework across all business areas. Each DIT Director and HMTC completes an annual assurance statement, which supports assurance statements made by each group Director General. These statements underpin this Governance Statement and provide the Accounting Officer with evidence that the DIT system of internal controls is functioning effectively.

This process has been further refined and improved for 2021-22 with more detail provided to Directors and HMTCs on best practice for each area, supplemented by an assessment rating and supporting narrative from subject matter experts. While our assurance process initially focussed on controls and activities that operate within business areas (i.e. the first line of defence), we have also identified where further work in corporate functions (i.e. the second line of defence) could support and verify those controls.

Mandatory training:

Mandatory training is an important part of reducing organisational risks and ensuring the Department is compliant with its statutory and regulatory responsibilities. Despite best efforts to improve compliance over the last two years, the overall level of recorded completion rates in DIT has remained low. To address this the Department has reviewed its suite of mandatory training topics to ensure training modules are focused on the most important topics and implemented more tracking of staff completion rates to ensure Directors and other senior management have clearer sight over any non-compliance. Next year, DIT will also be the first government department to introduce upfront testing to ascertain knowledge retention on important topics covered by mandatory training and reduce the necessity of staff annually repeating entire modules regardless of their understanding of the subject matter.

Functional standards

The structure of DIT’s corporate functions follows the functional model of government adopted in 2015. This includes 13 recognised government functions each with a set of functional standards developed over recent years. Since the end of September 2021, the Cabinet Office has required all government departments to implement mandatory elements of each functional standard. During the year, the Department undertook a stocktake of compliance with functional leaders in the Cabinet Office. This identified a strong consensus on the progress DIT had made with its functional capability, controls and standards. Further information about how DIT has further assessed itself against the following functional standards is set out below.

Finance and Managing Public Money:

In 2021-22, the Department undertook quarterly reviews of compliance with HM Treasury and Cabinet Office controls and at the end of the year reported the findings to ARAC. No evidence of non-compliance was found, including against the Cabinet Office’s policy on spend approvals that was updated in October 2021. The GIAA also reviewed compliance with specific spending controls and similarly found no evidence of any compliance issues. The Department’s end of year finance assessment with HM Treasury concluded that DIT has continued to manage its resources effectively, remaining within its control totals and utilising underspends to meet pressures within the Department as far as possible. DIT’s financial reporting was also assessed to be fully compliant with all reporting requirements.

Fraud and bribery:

DIT has continued to focus on assessing and managing fraud risks and during the year experienced a small rise in the number and diversity of cases detected. The introduction of digital tools has successfully detected attempted fraud, enabling the Department to be more proactive in fraud prevention. Understanding fraud risks has also enabled DIT to identify and implement new controls to help mitigate the risks to both DIT and to other government departments.

DIT continues to comply with the counter fraud functional standards and fraud, bribery and corruption training sessions have been delivered across the Department to raise awareness and help embed a counter fraud culture. The Department is also developing its anti-bribery and corruption capability by undertaking a comprehensive assessment of current risks and reviewing the departmental due diligence framework in respect of working with business.

Grants:

The Department self-assesses its grant making maturity against functional standards on an annual basis. In 2021-22, this self-assessment included a review of the management of grant making as a whole and a more in-depth review of two of DIT’s grants: the Northern Powerhouse and the Digital Trade Network. The Cabinet Office also reviewed two other grants issued by DIT. This assessment determined that DIT is currently operating at a ‘better’ standard and in some areas exhibiting ‘best’, which was a positive outcome and proportionate to the volumes, value and risk of our current grant portfolio. The assessment has been reviewed by the GIAA and a grants improvement plan put in place to address areas where further improvements could be achieved.

COVID-19 response

The Department has continued to adapt its response to the COVID-19 pandemic in line with wider government policy as well as varying local restrictions overseas. Staff continued to be provided with regular updates on changes to guidance as the pandemic evolved as well as on the health and wellbeing support available.

In April 2021, DIT moved into its new London headquarters at Old Admiralty Building and began implementing a new hybrid model of some remote and office-based working for its staff. Following the government’s decision to move to its ‘Plan B’ Covid response this transition was temporarily put on hold towards the end of the year; however, since restrictions were lifted at the end of January, DIT has again implemented its hybrid working model for all staff based in the UK.

The Department has also been preparing to input into the UK COVID-19 public inquiry, which was formally established on 28 June.

Project delivery

During the year the Department has continued to oversee its portfolio of major projects and programmes. Projects or programmes are added to this portfolio where the whole life cost or net cashable benefits are over £1 million and approved by the Projects and Change Committee. In 2021-22, there was a significant delivery focus including leading the UK’s participation at the Dubai Expo and initial phases of our ambitious transformation of export and investment support services. Resourcing our projects and programmes with staff that hold the required skills and experience to successfully deliver complex change projects continues to be a challenge for the Department. A focus for next year will be on further embedding functional standards in our Project Delivery and Change function, in line with Infrastructure and Projects Authority best practice. Raising departmental capability and capacity, particularly senior leadership of projects and embedding our flexible resourcing model will be priorities.

Information management and governance

In 2021-22, there were a total of 62 data breaches within DIT – a slight increase on the 53 breaches identified the previous year. Of these breaches, only one met the threshold to be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and a further two were reported voluntarily. The one case that met the reporting threshold has been mitigated successfully and preventative measures put in place. The rise in breaches can be attributed to greater awareness across DIT as the engagement work of our data protection team has expanded.

The Department also concluded on two complaints to the ICO regarding the handling of FOI requests. Both complaints resulted in DIT’s original decision being upheld by the ICO. Four complaints continue to be investigated by the ICO. In one further case, DIT is seeking permission to appeal against a second-tier tribunal ruling. Further information about the Department’s performance in responding to FOI requests is included within the Performance Report under the strategic enablers.

A focus of our Knowledge and Information Management team this year has been promoting good information and records management practices overseas. The Department’s Information Risk Assessment Process (IRAP) has also proven to be a vital assurance tool in assessing cyber, data protection and information security risks with an increasing number of cases resulting from the wider adoption of technologically driven solutions within DIT.

Management information and economic statistics

Management information and economic statistics, performance dashboards, financial dashboards and risk registers are regularly reported to meetings of the Departmental Board, Executive Committee and PFRC. The current delivery performance framework measures activity and outcomes across all departmental objectives over the short, medium, and long term.

The Department’s Chief Statistician is responsible for the presentation, content and timing of all statistical releases and is directly accountable to the UK Statistics Authority for statistics regulation in the Department, quality assurance and promotion of best practice. In 2021-22, the DIT developed its UK Trade in Numbers release that provides up-to-date headline trade and investment statistics in a visual format and supported the publication of new experimental statistics on the count of businesses that trade and associated employment at local levels.

The Department has continued to focus on improving the accuracy and reporting of people data over the past year. This has led to the successful automation of several people data sets, including data relating to joiners and leavers. Further data sets are to be added to DIT’s cloud database, including sickness absence, diversity data and recruitment data.

Business critical models

The Department maintains a list of business critical models and analyses, as recommended by the Macpherson Review. The Department annually reviews its modelling landscape, collecting detail on all analytical models and assessing for risk and scale. Those that were assessed as high in risk (financial, reputational, frequency of decision, legal and operational) and large in scale were defined as business critical. Each business critical model has a Senior Responsible Owner accountable for quality assurance as it is constructed and used and there are central frameworks to continuously monitor and ensure appropriate quality assurance is applied.

Business critical models currently maintained by the Department are:

• CGE Model (GTAP) – the CGE Model is a multi-country Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) macroeconomic model of international trade that captures trade linkages with countries around the world. It provides a coherent macroeconomic framework to estimate the long-run economic impact of trade policy. CGE GTAP is used to deliver ex ante assessment of the economic impacts of trade agreements.

• CGE Environmental Model (GTAP-E) – this is a CGE model which allows for the estimation of the long-run impact of trade policy on energy use and the environment (GHG emissions and air pollutants). It can be used in complement to the results of the main CGE GTAP Model to capture the environmental impacts of trade policies or to assess the economic implications of environmental policies.

• Gravity Model – the Gravity Model is an econometric model which provides input scenarios for the CGE Model.

• PE Model – the Partial Equilibrium (PE) model provides a means of simulating the direct impact of trade shocks on output and trade at a detailed (generally four digit) product level. It complements the CGE model which simulates the overall impact (including indirect effects) of trade shocks but only at a more aggregated product level.

• Export Promotion Support Value for Money (VfM) Calculator – the VfM calculator determines the anticipated value for money of different export promotion support activities by estimating the expected economic impacts of providing different services.

• Trade and Investment Factsheets – code used to produce the Trade and Investment factsheets published on GOV.UK and the Digital Workspace. These include a compendium of 220+ documents, outlining key trade and investment statistics for each country/territory.

Methodological developments of CGE models,the Gravity Model and the PE Model are considered and agreed with relevant government departments, including HM Treasury, DEFRA and BEIS.

Whistleblowing

All whistleblowing and safeguarding issues formally raised are investigated according to the Department’s policy and procedure, which is aligned with Civil Service policy and best practice. The code of conduct policy is in place for all staff to abide by and the annual People Survey includes regular questions on whether staff know where to find this information, use it and raise concerns where needed. Wider departmental communication on the importance of reporting matters of concern and any perceived conflicts with the Civil Service Code has also taken place this year to remind staff of the key information.

In 2021-22, DIT participated in the Cabinet Office’s whistleblowing health check exercise that confirmed that our policies, procedures and practices remain in line with best practice guidance. The Department also undertook an additional internal review to ensure effective routes to raise concerns are in place. Information on whistleblowing cases is reported to ARAC on a quarterly basis; however, no new whistleblowing cases were reported in 2021-22. A focus for next year will be to further build confidence among staff to report concerns.

Complaints

DIT has a stated aim to provide a full response to any complaint within 20 working days and resolve 90% of complaints at the first attempt. In 2021-22, DIT received seven complaints of which six were responded to within 20 working days and all concluded complaints were resolved at the first attempt.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman has a role in investigating complaints that central government departments and/or agencies have acted improperly, unfairly or have provided a poorservice. In 2021-22, no complaints wereinvestigated by the Ombudsman concerning DIT.

Conclusion

I am satisfied that the Department’s overall governance arrangements are adequate. The Department has continued to operate well in a challenging environment. Having noted the GIAA’s Moderate audit opinion and considered all the evidence, I am content with the Department’s system of internal controls and assured that continued improvements will be made to ensure it remains robust.

Remuneration and Staff Report

Remuneration Report

Remuneration policy

The remuneration of senior civil servants (SCS) is set by the Prime Minister, following independent advice from the Senior Salaries Review Body. The Review Body also periodically advises the Prime Minister on the pay and pensions of Members of Parliament and their allowances; on Peers’ allowances; and on the pay, pensions and allowances of ministers and others whose pay is determined by the Ministerial and Other Salaries Act 1975. In reaching its recommendations, the Review Body was required to have regard to the following considerations:

• the need to recruit, retain and motivate suitably able and qualified people to exercise their different responsibilities;

• regional/local variations in labour markets and their effects on the recruitment and retention of staff;

• government policies for improving public services, including the requirement on departments to meet the output targets for the delivery of departmental services;

• the funds available to departments as set out in the government’s Departmental Expenditure Limits; and

• the government’s inflation target.

The Review Body takes account of the evidence it receives about wider economic considerations and the affordability of its recommendations. Further information about the work of the Review Body can be found at www.gov.uk/

Senior official appointments

The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 requires Civil Service appointments to be made on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition. The Recruitment Principles published by the Civil Service Commission specify the circumstances when appointments may be made otherwise.

The officials covered by this report hold appointments which are open-ended. Early termination, other than for misconduct, would result in the individual receiving compensation, as set out in the Civil Service Compensation Scheme.

Further information about the work of the Civil Service Commission can be found at: www.civilservicecommission.org.uk.

Remuneration (salary, benefits in kind and pension benefits)

The following sections provide details of the remuneration and pension interests of ministers and senior officials of the Department.

Ministers’ salaries and pension benefits in 2021-22 and 2020-21 were as follows. These tables has been subject to audit. Figures in brackets represent full year equivalents.

	2021-22
Ministers	Salary(£)	Pension Benefits (to nearest £000) (1)	Total (to nearest £000)
Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP (from 15 September 2021) Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade	35,345 (67,505)	10,000	45,000
Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP (from 15 September 2021) Minister of State for Trade Policy	15,840 (31,680)	4,000	20,000
Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (2) Minister of State for Investment	–	–	–
Ranil Jayawardena MP Minister for International Trade	22,375	6,000	28,000
Mike Freer MP (from 16 September 2021) Minister for Exports	11,373 (22,375)	3,000	14,000
Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP (until 14 September 2021) Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade	33,753 (67,505)	7,000	41,000
Rt Hon Greg Hands MP (until 15 September 2021) Minister of State for Trade Policy	15,840 (31,680)	3,000	19,000
Graham Stuart MP (3) (until 15 September 2021) Minister for Exports	15,848 (22,375)	2,000	18,000

	2020-21
Ministers	Salary(£)	Pension Benefits (to nearest £000) (1)	Total (to nearest £000)
Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP (from 15 September 2021) Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade	–	–	–
Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP (from 15 September 2021) Minister of State for Trade Policy	–	–	–
Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (2) Minister of State for Investment	–	–	–
Ranil Jayawardena MP Minister for International Trade	20,270 (22,375)	5,000	25,000
Mike Freer MP (from 16 September 2021) Minister for Exports	–	–	–
Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP (until 14 September 2021) Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade	67,505	17,000	85,000
Rt Hon Greg Hands MP (until 15 September 2021) Minister of State for Trade Policy	31,680	8,000	40,000
Graham Stuart MP (3) (until 15 September 2021) Minister for Exports	22,375	5,000	27,000

1 The value of pension benefits accrued during the year is calculated as: (the real increase in pension multiplied by 20) less (the contributions made by the individual). The real increase excludes increases due to inflation or any increase or decrease due to a transfer of pension rights.

2 Lord Grimstone of Boscobel did not draw a ministerial salary or pension benefits.

3 Graham Stuart MP left under severance terms on 15 September 2021. He received a compensation payment of £5,593. This payment is included in the remuneration disclosed in this table.

Senior officials are defined as members of the DIT Departmental Board. Senior officials’ salaries and pension benefits in 2021-22 and 2020-21 are set out below. These tables have been subject to audit. Figures in brackets represent full year equivalents.

	2021-22
Senior Officials	Salary £000	Bonus Payments £000	Pension Benefits (to the nearest £000) (1)	Benefits in Kind (to the nearest £100)	Total £000
James Bowler (from 16 August 2021)Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer	100-105 (160-165)	–	56	–	155-160
Crawford Falconer (2) Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent Secretary	265-270	15-20	–	–	285-290
Amanda Brooks (from 1 June 2021)Director General, Trade Negotiations	100-105 (120-125)	10-15	91	–	205-210
Ceri Smith (from 19 April 2021)Director General, Strategy and Investment	140-145 (145-150)	–	201	–	340-345
Andrew Mitchell Director General, Exports and UK Trade	130-135	0-5	115	–	250-255
Joanna Crellin (3) Director General, Trading Systems	120-125	–	89	14,000	225-230
Catherine Vaughan Director General, Chief Operating Officer	140-145	5-10	56	–	205-210
Louis Taylor (4) UKEF Chief Executive	–	–	–	–	–
John Alty (5) (until 15 August 2021)Interim Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer	75-80 (160-165)	–	12	–	90-95
Chris Barton (6) (until 30 June 2021)Interim Director General, Trade Negotiations	25-30 (120-125)	–	11	–	35-40

	2020-21
Senior Officials	Salary £000	Bonus Payments £000	Pension Benefits (to the nearest £000) (1)	Benefits in Kind (to the nearest £100)	Total £000
James Bowler (from 16 August 2021)Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer	–	–	–	–	–
Crawford Falconer (2) Chief Trade Negotiation Adviser and Second Permanent Secretary	265-270	10-15	–	–	280-285
Amanda Brooks (from 1 June 2021)Director General, Trade Negotiations	35-40 (120-125)	5-10	47	–	90-95
Ceri Smith (from 19 April 2021)Director General, Strategy and Investment	–	–	–	–	–
Andrew Mitchell Director General, Exports and UK Trade	120-125 (130-135)	10-15	42	–	175-180
Joanna Crellin (3) Director General, Trading Systems	45-50 (120-125)	–	50	–	95-100
Catherine Vaughan Director General, Chief Operating Officer	140-145	10-15	56	–	210-215
Louis Taylor (4) UKEF Chief Executive	–	–	–	–	–
John Alty (5) (until 15 August 2021)Interim Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer	140-145 (160-165)	10-15	24	–	175-180
Chris Barton (6) (until 30 June 2021)Interim Director General, Trade Negotiations	20-25 (120-125)	–	32	–	50-55

1 The value of pension benefits accrued during the year is calculated as: (the real increase in pension multiplied by 20) plus (the real increase in any lump sum) less (the contributions made by the individual). The real increases exclude increases due to inflation or any increase or decreases due to a transfer of pension rights.

2 Crawford Falconer is a member of the Partnership pension scheme. The employer contributions to his Partnership pension in 2021-22 were £39,700 (to the nearest £100).

3 In 2021-22, a payment was made to Joanna Crellin for relocation expenses, whereby she was able to access an expense-based relocation package of up to £14,000 as part of the Places for Growth programme. In total, a sum of £14,000 was claimed for during 2021-22. Receipted actuals were provided for all expenses, in line with DIT policy. This payment is included in the remuneration disclosed in this table.

4 Louis Taylor is paid by UKEF. Please refer to UKEF’s Annual Report and Accounts for full details.

5 John Alty served as Director General for Trade Policy prior to being appointed Interim Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer in January 2021

6 Chris Barton served as a Director in the Civil Service prior to being appointed as Interim Director General, Trade Negotiations in February 2021.

Salary

‘Salary’ includes gross salary, overtime, reserved rights to London weighting or London allowances, recruitment and retention allowances, private office allowances and any other allowance to the extent that it is subject to UK taxation. This report is based on accrued payments made by the Department and thus recorded in these accounts. In respect of ministers in the House of Commons, departments bear only the cost of the additional ministerial remuneration; the salary for their services as an MP (£81,932 from 1 April 2021) and various allowances to which they are entitled are borne centrally. However, the arrangement for ministers in the House of Lords is different in that they do not receive a salary but rather an additional remuneration, which cannot be quantified separately from their ministerial salaries. This total remuneration, as well as the allowances to which they are entitled, is paid by the Department and is therefore shown in full in the ministers’ salaries and pension benefits table.

Benefits in kind

The monetary value of benefits in kind covers any benefits provided by the Department and treated by HMRC as a taxable emolument. There are no benefits in kind to be disclosed in relation to DIT ministers. In 2021-22, a payment was made to Joanna Crellin (Director General, Trading Systems) for relocation expenses, whereby she was able to access an expense-based relocation package of up to £14,000 as part of the Places for Growth programme. A sum of £14,000 was claimed for, which is included in the remuneration disclosed above.

Bonuses

Bonuses are based on performance levels attained and are made as part of the appraisal process. Bonuses relate to the performance in the year in which they become payable to the individual. The bonuses reported in 2021-22 relate to performance in 2020-21.

Pay multiples

Reporting bodies are required to disclose the relationship between the remuneration of the highest-paid director in their organisation and the lower quartile, median and upper quartile remuneration of the Core Department’s workforce.

The banded remuneration of the highest-paid director in DIT in the financial year 2021-22 was £285,000 – £290,000 (2020-21, £280,000 – £285,000). This was 6.0 times (2020-21, 6.2 times) the median remuneration of the workforce, which was £48,236 (2020-21, £45,790). The change in this ratio is primarily driven by an increase in the median salary due to changes in the composition of the workforce in 2021-22, including growth of the Department. In 2021-22, no employees (2020-21, zero) received remuneration in excess of the highest-paid director. Remuneration ranged from £15,000 – £20,000 to £285,000 – £290,000 (2020-21, £15,000 – £20,000 to £280,000 – £285,000).

	Total pay and benefits		Salary
	2021-22	2020-21	2021-22	2020-21
25th percentile pay ratio	8.1	8.3	8.4	8.3
Median pay ratio	6.0	6.2	6.2	6.3
75th percentile pay ratio	4.8	4.8	4.8	4.8
25th percentile remuneration	£35,557	£34,076	£32,496	£32,122
Median remuneration	£48,236	£45,790	£44,033	£42,150
75th percentile remuneration	£59,671	£59,420	£56,310	£56,234

Total remuneration includes salary, non-consolidated performance-related pay and benefits-in-kind. It does not include severance payments, employer pension contributions and the cash equivalent transfer value of pensions.

DIT’s highest-paid director’s total renumeration in 2021-22 increased by 1.8% compared to 2020-21. DIT’s average remuneration of employees (excluding highest-paid director) in 2021-22 increased by 1.1% from 2020-21.

Local staff are employed locally by British diplomatic missions overseas. Local staff salaries are excluded from the pay multiple calculation. Data on local staff salaries is not held centrally, salary payments are paid in local currency and based on local market conditions and local staff salaries are subject to individual countries’ taxation and social security arrangements and adhere to local law. The variation of arrangements plus differences in rates of pay and local purchasing power would distort the pay multiple calculation and would hinder meaningful comparisons with other organisations.

The pay multiple disclosures have been subject to audit.

Pension benefits: ministerial pensions

Ministers’ pension and benefits entitlements in 2021-22 and 2020-21 were as follows:

These tables have been subject to audit.

	2021-22
Ministers	Accrued pension at pension age as at 31-03-22 and related lump sum £000	Real increase in pension and related lump sum at pension age £000	CETV at 31-03-2022 £000	CETV at 31-03-2021 £000	Real increase in CETV £000
Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP	0-5	0-2.5	27	17	6
Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP	5-10	0-2.5	72	66	2
Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (1)	–	–	–	–	–
Ranil Jayawardena MP	0-5	0-2.5	7	3	1
Mike Freer MP	0-5	0-2.5	29	25	2
Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP	5-10	0-2.5	119	110	3
Rt Hon Greg Hands MP	5-10	0-2.5	85	80	2
Graham Stuart MP	0-5	0-2.5	65	61	1

	2020-21
Ministers	Accrued pension at pension age as at 31-03-21 and related lump sum £000	Real increase in pension and related lump sum at pension age £000	CETV at 31-03-2021 £000	CETV at 31-03-2020 £000	Real increase in CETV £000
Rt Hon Anne-Marie Trevelyan MP	–	–	–	–	–
Rt Hon Penny Mordaunt MP	–	–	–	–	–
Lord Grimstone of Boscobel (1)	–	–	–	–	–
Ranil Jayawardena MP	0-5	0-2.5	3	–	1
Mike Freer MP	–	–	–	–	–
Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP	5-10	0-2.5	110	93	6
Rt Hon Greg Hands MP	5-10	0-2.5	80	70	5
Graham Stuart MP	0-5	0-.25	61	53	4

1 Lord Grimstone of Boscobel did not draw a ministerial salary or pension benefits.

Pension benefits for ministers are provided by the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF). The scheme is made under statute and the rules are set out in the Ministers’ etc. Pension Scheme 2015.^{[footnote 11]} Those Ministers who are Members of Parliament may also accrue an MP’s pension under the PCPF (details of which are not included in this report). A new MP’s pension scheme was introduced from May 2015, although members who were MPs and aged 55 or older on 1 April 2013 have transitional protection to remain in the previous MP’s final salary pension scheme.

Benefits for ministers are payable from State Pension age under the 2015 scheme. Pensions are re-valued annually in line with Pensions Increase legislation both before and after retirement. The contribution rate from May 2015 is 11.1 per cent and the accrual rate is 1.775 per cent of pensionable earnings. The figure shown for pension value includes the total pension payable to the member under both the pre- and post-2015 ministerial pension schemes.

The Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV)

This is the actuarially assessed capitalised value of the pension scheme benefits accrued by a member at a particular point in time. The benefits valued are the member’s accrued benefits and any contingent spouse’s pension payable from the scheme. A CETV is a payment made by a pension scheme or arrangement to secure pension benefits in another pension scheme or arrangement when the member leaves a scheme and chooses to transfer the pension benefits they have accrued in their former scheme. The pension figures shown relate to the benefits that the individual has accrued as a consequence of their total ministerial service, not just their current appointment as a minister. CETVs are calculated in accordance with The Occupational Pension Schemes (Transfer Values) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 and do not take account of any actual or potential reduction to benefits resulting from Lifetime Allowance Tax which may be due when pension benefits are taken.

The real increase in the value of the CETV

This is the element of the increase in accrued pension funded by the Exchequer. It excludes increases due to inflation and contributions paid by the minister. It is worked out using common market valuation factors for the start and end of the period.

Civil Service pensions

Senior officials’ pension and benefits entitlements in 2021-22 and 2020-21 were as follows. These tables have been subject to audit.

	2021-22
Senior Officials	Accrued pension at pension age as at 31-03-22 and related lump sum £000	Real increase in pension and related lump sum at pension age £000	CETV at 31-03-2022 £000	CETV at 31-03-2021 £000	Real increase in CETV £000
James Bowler	60-65 plus a lump sum of 120-125	2.5-5 plus a lump sum of 0-2.5	1,020	966	33
Crawford Falconer (1)	–	–	–	–	–
Amanda Brooks	50-55 plus a lump sum of 40-45	2.5- 5 plus a lump sum of 2.5-5	879	792	64
Ceri Smith	65-70	10-12.5	1,022	826	145
Andrew Mitchell	55-60 plus a lump sum of 55-60	5-7.5 plus a lump sum of 2.5-5	1,078	928	91
Joanna Crelllin	45-50	2.5-5	614	528	53
Catherine Vaughan	20-25	2.5-5	270	226	27
Louis Taylor (2)	–	–	–	–	–
John Alty	0-5 plus a lump sum of 0-5	0-2.5 plus a lump sum of 0-2.5	22	6	11
Chris Barton	40-45 plus a lump sum of 85-90	0-2.5 plus a lump sum of 0	738	697	6

	2020-21
Senior Officials	Accrued pension at pension age as at 31-03-21 and related lump sum £000	Real increase in pension and related lump sum at pension age £000	CETV at 31-03-2021 £000	CETV at 31-03-2020 £000	Real increase in CETV £000
James Bowler	–	–	–	–	–
Crawford Falconer (1)	–	–	–	–	–
Amanda Brooks	45-50 plus a lump sum of 35-40	0-2.5 plus a lump sum of 0-2.5	755	717	35
Ceri Smith	–	–	–	–	–
Andrew Mitchell	50-55 plus a lump sum of 50-55	2.5-5 plus a lump sum of 0	929	871	24
Joanna Crelllin	35-40	2.5-5	528	492	32
Catherine Vaughan	20-25	2.5-5	226	183	26
Louis Taylor (2)	–	–	–	–	–
John Alty	75-80 plus a lump sum of 225-230	0-2.5 plus a lump sum of 2.5-5	1,651	1,652	24
Chris Barton	40-45 plus a lump sum of 80-85	0-2.5 plus a lump sum of 2.5-5	697	671	25

1 Crawford Falconer is a member of the Partnership pension scheme. The employer contributions to his Partnership pension in 2021-22 were £39,700 (to the nearest £100).

2 Louis Taylor is paid by UKEF. Please refer to UKEF’s Annual Report and Accounts for full details

Pension benefits for civil servants are provided through the Civil Service pension arrangements. From 1 April 2015 a new pension scheme for civil servants was introduced – the Civil Servants and Others Pension Scheme or, alpha, which provides benefits on a career average basis with a normal pension age equal to the member’s State Pension Age (or 65 if higher). From that date all newly appointed civil servants and the majority of those already in service joined alpha. Prior to that date, civil servants participated in the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS). The PCSPS has four sections: three providing benefits on a final salary basis (classic, premium or classic plus) with a normal pension age of 60; and one providing benefits on a whole career basis (nuvos) with a normal pension age of 65.

These statutory arrangements are unfunded with the cost of benefits met by monies voted by Parliament each year. Pensions payable under classic, premium, classic plus, nuvos and alpha are increased annually in line with Pensions Increase legislation. Existing members of the PCSPS who were within 10 years of their normal pension age on 1 April 2012 remained in the PCSPS after 1 April 2015. Those who were between 10 years and 13 years and 5 months from their normal pension age on 1 April 2012 will switch into alpha sometime between 1 June 2015 and 1 February 2022. All members who switch to alpha have their PCSPS benefits ‘banked’, with those with earlier benefits in one of the final salary sections of the PCSPS having those benefits based on their final salary when they leave alpha. (The pension figures quoted for officials show pension earned in PCSPS or alpha – as appropriate. Where the official has benefits in both the PCSPS and alpha the figure quoted is the combined value of their benefits in the two schemes.) Members joining from October 2002 may opt for either the appropriate defined benefit arrangement or a ‘money purchase’ stakeholder pension with an employer contribution (partnership pension account).

Employee contributions are salary-related and range between 4.6 per cent and 8.05 per cent for members of classic, premium, classic plus, nuvos and alpha. Benefits in classic accrue at the rate of 1/80th of final pensionable earnings for each year of service. In addition, a lump sum equivalent to three years initial pension is payable on retirement. For premium, benefits accrue at the rate of 1/60th of final pensionable earnings for each year of service. Unlike classic, there is no automatic lump sum. Classic plus is essentially a hybrid with benefits for service before 1 October 2002 calculated broadly as per classic and benefits for service from October 2002 worked out as in premium. In nuvos a member builds up a pension based on his pensionable earnings during their period of scheme membership. At the end of the scheme year (31 March) the member’s earned pension account is credited with 2.3 per cent of their pensionable earnings in that scheme year and the accrued pension is uprated in line with Pensions Increase legislation. Benefits in alpha build up in a similar way to nuvos, except that the accrual rate is 2.32 per cent. In all cases, members may opt to give up (commute) pension for a lump sum up to the limits set by the Finance Act 2004.

The partnership pension account is a stakeholder pension arrangement. The employer makes a basic contribution of between 8 per cent and 14.75 per cent (depending on the age of the member) into a stakeholder pension product chosen by the employee from a panel of providers. The employee does not have to contribute, but where they do make contributions, the employer will match these up to a limit of 3 per cent of pensionable salary (in addition to the employer’s basic contribution). Employers also contribute a further 0.5 per cent of pensionable salary to cover the cost of centrally-provided risk benefit cover (death in service and ill health retirement).

The accrued pension quoted is the pension the member is entitled to receive when they reach pension age, or immediately on ceasing to be an active member of the scheme if they are already at or over pension age. Pension age is 60 for members of classic, premium and classic plus, 65 for members of nuvos, and the higher of 65 or State Pension Age for members of alpha. (The pension figures quoted for officials show pension earned in PCSPS or alpha – as appropriate. Where the official has benefits in both the PCSPS and alpha the figure quoted is the combined value of their benefits in the two schemes but note that part of that pension may be payable from different ages.)

Further details about the Civil Service pension arrangements can be found at the website www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

Cash Equivalent Transfer Values (CETV)

A CETV is the actuarially assessed capitalised value of the pension scheme benefits accrued by a member at a particular point in time. The benefits valued are the member’s accrued benefits and any contingent spouse’s pension payable from the scheme. A CETV is a payment made by a pension scheme or arrangement to secure pension benefits in another pension scheme or arrangement when the member leaves a scheme and chooses to transfer the benefits accrued in their former scheme. The pension figures shown relate to the benefits that the individual has accrued as a consequence of their total membership of the pension scheme, not just their service in a senior capacity to which disclosure applies.

The figures include the value of any pension benefit in another scheme or arrangement which the member has transferred to the Civil Service pension arrangements. They also include any additional pension benefit accrued to the member as a result of their buying additional pension benefits at their own cost. CETVs are worked out in accordance with The Occupational Pension Schemes (Transfer Values) (Amendment) Regulations 2008 and do not take account of any actual or potential reduction to benefits resulting from Lifetime Allowance Tax which may be due when pension benefits are taken.

Real increase in CETV

This reflects the increase in CETV that is funded by the employer. It does not include the increase in accrued pension due to inflation, contributions paid by the employee (including the value of any benefits transferred from another pension scheme or arrangement) and uses common market valuation factors for the start and end of the period.

Fees paid by DIT to Non-Executive Board Members

Below are the annual fees plus expenses paid to the Non-Executive Board Members of DIT as at 31 March 2022. The total amounts due for the year to each person were in the following ranges (full year equivalent figures for non-executives who served part of the year can be found in brackets). This table has been subject to audit.

Name	2021-22	2020-21
	£000	£000
Noël Harwerth is paid by UKEF. Please refer to UKEF’s Annual Report and Accounts for full details.
Dominic Johnson	20-25	5-10 (20-25)
Sir Stephen O’Brien	15-20	15-20
Dr Dambisa Moyo	15-20	5-10 (15-20)
Douglas Carswell	15-20	5-10 (15-20)
Noël Harwerth	–	–

Staff Report

Staff numbers and costs

The average number of full-time equivalent1 (FTE) persons employed during the year (from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022) was as follows. This table has been subject to audit.

	Permanent employed (2) staff	Other staff (3)	Ministers	Special advisers (4)	Overseas – UK based staff	Overseas – locally engaged staff	Total 2021-22	Total 2020-21
Core Department	2,619	473	5	3	178	1,415	4,693	4,428
Trade Remedies Authority	122	4	–	–	–	–	126	–
Total	2,741	477	5	3	178	1,415	4,819	4,428

1 The average number of staff is calculated by summing the FTE at the end of each month within the period and dividing this by the number of months in the period.

2 ‘Permanently employed’ includes permanent civil servants (including those on fixed term contracts) working in the UK.

3 ‘Other staff’ includes agency staff, specialist contractors, Cabinet Office fast streamers working on DIT objectives, inward secondees and MOD staff working on DIT objectives.

4 Average FTE figures include special advisers who continue to be employed by the appointing minister, however administration responsibilities were transferred to the Cabinet Office during July 2019.

Number of senior civil servants by pay band (FTE)

This table has been subject to audit.

Range	2021-22	2020-21
SCS1	129	126
SCS2	39	40
SCS3	5	5
SCS4	2	2
Total	176	173

Staff costs of people engaged in delivering DIT’s objectives

The cost of people engaged in delivering DIT’s objectives is disclosed in the following tables. DIT is recharged the full costs of all FCDO staff overseas and at DIT headquarters who spend more than 50 per cent of their role on DIT objectives. These tables have been subject to audit.

	Core Department
	Civil servants	Other staff (1)	Ministers	Special advisers (2)	UK basedcivil servants working overseas	Localstaff	Total 31 March 2022	Total 31 March 2021
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Wages and salaries	123,526	8,465	142	–	14,729	46,169	196,030	192,054
Social security costs	14,158	505	15	–	388	–	15,066	14,283
Other pension costs	32,275	1,224	–	–	2,595	6,430	42,524	38,424
Agency and temporary staff	–	21,503	–	–	–	–	21,503	29,297
Voluntary exit scheme	93	–	–	–	–	–	93	168
Compulsory redundancies	294	–	–	–	–	–	294	78
Other departures	–	–	6	–	–	–	6	8
Recoveries from outward secondments	(317)	–	–	–	–	–	(317)	(203)
Total staff costs	170,030	31,697	162	–	17,712	55,599	275,200	274,110

1 ‘Other staff’ includes agency staff, specialist contractors, Cabinet Office fast streamers working on DIT objectives, inward secondees and MoD staff working on DIT objectives.

2 The costs relating to special advisers from July 2019 are included in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts as the administration responsibilities transferred to the Cabinet Office. Costs up until July 2019 are included in the comparative information above.

	Departmental Group
	Civil servants	Other staff (1)	Ministers	Special advisers (2)	UK basedcivil servants working overseas	Localstaff	Total 31 March 2022	Total 31 March 2021
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Wages and salaries	128,627	8,465	142	–	14,729	49,169	201,131	192,054
Social security costs	14,755	505	15	–	388	–	15,663	14,283
Other pension costs	33,601	1,224	–	–	2,595	6,430	43,850	38,424
Agency and temporary staff	–	22,075	–	–	–	–	22,075	29,297
Voluntary exit scheme	93	–	–	–	–	–	93	168
Compulsory redundancies	294	–	–	–	–	–	294	78
Other departures	–	–	6	–	–	–	6	8
Recoveries from outward secondments	(333)	–	–	–	–	–	(333)	(203)
Total staff costs	177,037	32,268	162	–	17,712	55,598	282,778	274,110

1 ‘Other staff’ includes agency staff, specialist contractors, Cabinet Office fast streamers working on DIT objectives, inward secondees and MoD staff working on DIT objectives.

2 The costs relating to special advisers from July 2019 are included in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts as the administration responsibilities transferred to the Cabinet Office. Costs up until July 2019 are included in the comparative information above.

The Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS) and the Civil Servant and Other Pension Scheme (CSOPS) – known as “alpha” – are unfunded multi-employer defined benefit schemes, but the Department is unable to identify its share of the underlying assets and liabilities. The scheme actuary valued the PCSPS as at 31 March 2016. Further details can be found in the resource accounts of the Cabinet Office: Civil Superannuation.

For 2021-22, employers’ contributions of £36,758,813 were payable to the PCSPS (2020-21: £31,846,572) at one of four rates in the range 26.6% to 30.3% of pensionable earnings, based on salary bands. The Scheme Actuary reviews employer contributions usually every four years following a full scheme valuation. The contribution rates are set to meet the cost of the benefits accruing during 2021-22 to be paid when the member retires and not the benefits paid during this period to existing pensioners.

Employees can opt to open a partnership pension account, a stakeholder pension with an employer contribution. Employers’ contributions of £353,790 were paid to one or more of the panel of three appointed stakeholder pension providers. Employer contributions are age-related and ranged from 8% to 14.75%. Employers also match employee contributions up to 3% of pensionable earnings.

In 2021-22, zero individuals (2020-21: 2 individuals) across the Department retired early on ill-health grounds; the total additional accrued pension liabilities in the year amounted to £0 (2020-21: £10,148).

Staff redeployments

The number of staff redeployed (on loan) into DIT from other government departments (OGDs) and the number of staff redeployed (on loan) out of DIT into OGDs as at 31 March 2022 is shown below. The number of redeployments does not include staff from the Government Legal Department (GLD). This is because DIT pays an agreed annual set fee to GLD for legal services provided to DIT by their staff and this annual fee does not directly equate to wages and salaries. The average duration of staff redeployments into DIT from OGDs is 1.1 years. The average duration of staff redeployments out of DIT into OGDs is 1.3 years.

Grade	Redeployments into DIT		Redeployments out of DIT
	Short term (less than 6 months)	Long term (6 months or longer)	Short term (less than 6 months)	Long term (6 months or longer)
AO	–	–	–	1
EO	2	3	2	5
Faststream	4	165	–	3
HEO	–	10	8	20
SEO	3	18	12	18
G7	14	40	10	34
G6	7	20	4	12
SCS1	4	14	3	8
SCS2	–	5	–	2
Special adviser	1	2	–	–
Unspecified	–	6	2	–
Total	35	283	41	103

The following tables show the programme / administration classification of the cost of staff on short-term loan for DIT both as a home and host department with reference to the work performed.

Grade	Redeployments into DIT (Host)		Redeployments out of (Home)
	Short term (less than 6 months)		Long term (6 months or longer)
	Administration £000	Programme £000	Administration £000	Programme £000
EO	7	5	7	6
Faststream	9	7	–	–
HEO	–	–	28	22
SEO	9	7	81	64
G7	93	72	71	55
G6	56	44	33	25
SCS1	48	38	30	23
Special adviser	–	–	–	–
Unspecified	–	–	–	–
Total	221	173	249	195

Staff composition

The following table reports workforce gender diversity for DIT as at 31 March 2022.

Workforce diversity	Number	%
Female	1,317	49%
Male	1,398	51%
Senior civil servants (1)
Female	79	46%
Male	95	54%
Senior officials (2)
Female	3	43%
Male	4	57%

1 Senior civil servants includes Directors and Deputy Directors.

2 Senior officials refers to members of the Departmental Board (including Permanent Secretary and Directors General) who are executives of the Department as at 31 March 2022 – this does not include ministers or non-executive directors.

For further information on diversity declaration rates for UK-based DIT staff and DIT’s work on equality, diversity and inclusion more generally please see the relevant section of the Performance Report.

Sickness absence

The average working days lost through recorded sickness absence, per staff year is disclosed below. This relates to DIT civil servants working in the UK and all UK based staff and local staff working overseas (excludes MoD, agency staff, specialist contractors and inward secondees).

Sickness absence	Average working days lost
2021-22	2.5
2020-21	1.7

The table below shows the top three reasons for recorded sickness absence in the period 1 April 2021 – 31 March 2022.

Absence category	Total (%)
Mental health conditions	24%
Unknown (1)	17%
COVID-19	13%

1 ‘Unknown’ covers absences where the line manager has not added a sick absence reason or where they have marked that the reason for absence is not in the list of available values.

Staff turnover

The departmental staff turnover at DIT in 2021-22 was 16.7%. Turnover has increased from the restated 2020-21 figure when the departmental staff turnover was 16.2%. This has been restated due to a change in methodology.

The turnover figure is calculated as the number of leavers over a 12-month period divided by the average number of staff in post over the period.

The definition of leavers includes all UK Civil Service exits from DIT including retirements, resignations, death in service, end of contracts, dismissals, transfers to other government departments, end of loans and secondments, outward loans and secondments or other exit in accordance with the published departmental turnover guidance.

Health and safety

The Permanent Secretary and Executive Committee remain committed to providing working environments that are safe and healthy for our staff, visitors and those directly affected by our business activities. In February, the Department’s general health and safety policy was reviewed and updated. In 2021-22, the Department had one reportable incident.

The Department operates a Health, Safety and Wellbeing Committee that continued to meet more frequently than usual as part of the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Committee includes Trades Union representatives and representatives from the business units within DIT. The Department also continued to grow and utilise its recently formed health and safety champions network to improve communications and engagement; and received a positive assessment following an independent internal audit of its physical health and safety arrangements.

As well as responding to the evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the Department’s health and safety function has this year been supporting the delivery of new office sites across the UK as part of the Places for Growth programme. This included assessing the general health and safety arrangements at those premises, including in relation to COVID-19, fire safety, first aid and ergonomics.

Wellbeing

Ensuring that there is a comprehensive health and wellbeing offer that suits the needs of DIT employees and offers relevant and appropriate support to staff is extremely important. The Department’s wellbeing offer includes webinars and online workshops and a learning offer for leaders on building resilience. Other targeted support includes an internal wellbeing check-in service, mental health first aid support and health and wellbeing coaching. Wellbeing approaches have also been developed for specific groups such as BAME, LGBTQ+ and overseas colleagues, including a particular recent focus on DIT staff based in Russia and Ukraine. This builds on the support already available through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and available online resources.

Resourcing and capability

DIT has sought to attract and retain people of talent and experience from a range of sectors and broaden the diversity in our workforce. The Department has also expanded its talent management work to conduct succession planning and critical roles analysis for all our senior posts.

DIT has continued to prioritise capability building to deliver the UK’s trading ambitions. We are an attractive employer and are hiring people in the UK and abroad to work across policy, negotiation, market access, trade promotion and investment. The range of hires and the associated specialisms continue to grow and across the Department we are consistently exploring opportunities to innovatively attract the diverse range of skills we need.

Further information about how DIT is building the capability of its workforce is included in the Performance Report under the strategic enablers.

Diversity and inclusion

DIT is committed to being a diverse and inclusive department with the capability of delivering the priorities and outcomes of our ambitious trade and prosperity agenda. Through focusing on designing better, more inclusive systems and processes that empower our people to take charge of their career progression, we plan to give our people the opportunities to choose the development and support that best suits their needs. We also want to reduce the opportunities for biases to be acted upon in our processes, ensuring decision making is fairer and based on the merit and talent of our diverse workforce. More information on DIT’s achievements in the past year relating to diversity and inclusion is given as part of a section on the strategic enablers within the Performance Report.

Engaging with DIT staff

DIT’s priorities are supported – and its people informed and engaged – through a range of channels, campaigns and events, aimed at ensuring staff are closely updated on DIT’s and the government’s agenda. There is significant focus on ensuring a smooth and timely drumbeat of relevant information, including virtual all-staff, all-group and all-directorate meetings and events, weekly Permanent Secretary meetings with all directors, weekly all-staff newsletters and regular updates on the Department’s intranet. Senior leaders are also actively encouraged to cascade and share information locally, including from the weekly Executive Committee meetings, ministers’ meetings with senior officials, and monthly senior leadership bulletins. Engagement and motivation of all staff is a high priority, and there is a strong focus in our communications on our people and our priorities: celebrating successes, championing the ‘DIT Spirit’ (our values) and our global collaborative culture. We run a hearts and minds Vision and Mission campaign to help colleagues get behind the organisations goals and have space to discuss how their work contributes towards them.

Trade Union facility time

The Trade Union Act 2016 introduced a number of reforms to Britain’s industrial relations framework, which are set out in the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”). The aim of the Trade Union Act 2016 is to modernise the UK industrial relations framework to better support an effective and collaborative approach to industrial relations, balancing the interests of Trade Unions with interests of the wider public sector.

These facility time regulations help fulfil these objectives by ensuring that relevant employers publish facility time data in order to promote transparency and public scrutiny of this information. The regulations provide a framework for open and transparent monitoring. In DIT, we currently have three unions represented: PCS, Prospect and FDA.

Table 1: Relevant union officials

Number of employees who wererelevant union officials during the relevant period	Full-time equivalent employee number
11	11

Table 2: Percentage of time spent on facility time

Percentage of time	Number of Employees
0%	2
1-50%	9
51-99%	–
100%	–

Table 3: Percentage of pay bill spent on facility time

Total cost of facility time	£35,780
The total pay bill	£185,133,655
Percentage of the total pay bill spent on facility time, calculated as: (total cost of facility time divided by total pay bill) x 100	0.02%

Table 4: Paid trade union activities

Time spent on paid trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours calculated as: (total hours spent on paid trade union activities by relevant union officials during the relevant period divided by total paid facility time hours) x 100

–

Consultancy

Consultancy spend as at 31 March 2022 was £380k (2020-21: £5,782k). This relates to the provision of objective advice to DIT relating to strategy, structure, management or operations in pursuit of its purposes and objectives. This has been subject to audit.

Off-payroll engagements

HMT requires all departments to publish details of off-payroll engagements and the assurances sought that the correct tax is being paid.

Table 1: Highly paid off-payroll worker engagements as at 31 March 2022, earning £245 per day or greater.

	Core Department	Trade Remedies Authority	Total
Number of existing engagements as of 31 March 2022	203	6	209
Of which, number that existed:
Less than 1 year	111	5	116
For between 1 and 2 years	38	1	39
For between 2 and 3 years	12	0	12
For between 3 and 4 years	15	0	15
For 4 or more years	27	0	27

Table 2: All highly paid off-payroll workers engaged at any point during the year between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022, earning £245 per day or greater

	Core Department	Trade Remedies Authority	Total
Number of temporary off-payroll workers engaged during the year ended 31 March 2022	379	10	389
Of which:
Not subject to off-payroll legislation	8	0	8
Subject to off-payroll legislation and determined as in-scope of IR35	309	10	319
Subject to off-payroll legislation and determined as out-of-scope of IR35	62	0	62
Number of engagements reassessed for compliance or assurance purposes during the year	27	0	27
Number of engagements that saw a change to IR35 status following a review	23	0	23

DIT has introduced an IR35 Status determination board to review assessments conducted on new ‘out of scope’ contractor roles. This is to ensure all ‘Out of Scope’ status determinations are justified and accurate, including reviews of any changes in contractor working arrangements. This action takes place at pre-source, therefore we expect to see smaller numbers being reassessed once in role. The board meets when required to address any ‘out of scope’ determinations. In 2021-22, 27 statuses were reviewed with 23 being determined as ‘in scope’ rather than ‘out of scope’.

Table 3: For any off-payroll engagements of board members, and/or, senior officials with significant financial responsibility, between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022

	Core Department	Trade Remedies Authority	Departmental Group
Number of off-payroll engagements of board members and/or, senior officials with significant financial responsibility, during the financial year.	–	–	–
Total number of individuals on payroll and off payroll that have been deemed “board members and/or senior officials with significant financial responsibility”, during the financial year. This figure should include both on payroll and off-payroll engagements.	7	–	7

Reporting of Civil Service and other compensation schemes – exit packages

Redundancy and other departure costs have been paid in accordance with the provisions of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, a statutory scheme made under the Superannuation Act 1972. Exit costs are accounted for in full in the year of departure. Where the Department has agreed early retirements, the additional costs are met by the Department and not by the Civil Service pension scheme. Ill-health retirement costs are met by the pension scheme. This table has been subject to audit.

Exits disclosed in 2021-22 and 2020-21 include exits of locally employed staff (non-civil servants) overseas. Overseas redundancy payments are determined in line with local employment law and the terms of the specific local contract of employment.

	2021-22
Exit package cost band	Number of compulsory redundancies	Number of other departures agreed (1)	Total number of exit packages by cost band
<£10,000	3	–	3
£10,000 – £24,999	4	1	5
£25,000 – £49,999	4	–	4
£50,000 – £99,999	1	1	2
£100,000 – £149,999	–	–	–
Total number of exit packages	12	2	14
Total cost /£000	294	93	388

	2020-21
Exit package cost band	Number of compulsory redundancies	Number of other departures agreed (1)	Total number of exit packages by cost band
<£10,000	–	–	–
£10,000 – £24,999	–	–	–
£25,000 – £49,999	–	1	1
£50,000 – £99,999	1	2	3
£100,000 – £149,999	–	–	–
Total number of exit packages	1	3	4
Total cost /£000	78	168	247

1 Other departures relating to ministers are not disclosed as this table only includes civil servants.

Parliamentary Accountability and Audit Report

Statement of Parliamentary Supply

In addition to the primary statements prepared under International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), the Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) requires DIT to prepare a Statement of Parliamentary Supply (SoPS) and supporting notes to show resource outturn against the Supply Estimate presented to Parliament, in respect of each budgetary control limit. The SoPS and related notes are subject to audit. Explanations of variances between Estimates and outturn are given in the Financial Review.

Summary of resource and capital outturn 2021-22

		Estimate			Outturn			2021-22 £000	2020-21 £000
	SoPS note	Voted	Non-Voted	Total	Voted	Non-Voted	Total	Voted outturn compared with Estimate saving/ (excess)	Total
Departmental Expenditure Limit
– Resource	1.1	543,716	–	543,716	532,386	–	532,386	11,330	501,377
– Capital	1.2	22,926	–	22,926	18,167	–	18,167	4,759	34,347
Total		566,642	–	566,642	550,553	–	550,553	16,089	535,724
Annually Managed Expenditure
– Resource	1.1	9,500	–	9,500	1,471	–	1,471	8,029	1,814
– Capital	1.2	2,500	–	2,500	–	–	–	2,500	–
Total		12,000	–	12,000	1,471	–	1,471	10,529	1,814
Total Resource	1.1	553,216	–	553,216	533,857	–	533,857	19,359	503,191
Total Capital	1.2	25,426	–	25,426	18,167	–	18,167	7,259	34,347
Total Budget Expenditure		578,642	–	578,642	552,024	–	552,024	26,618	537,538
Non-Budget	1.1	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total Budget and Non-budget Expenditure		578,642	–	578,642	552,024	–	552,024	26,618	537,538

Net cash requirement 2021-22

				2021-22	2020-21
	SoPS Note	Estimate £000	Outturn £000	Outturn compared with Estimate saving / (excess) £000	Outturn £000
Net cash requirement	3	556,296	519,517	36,779	520,013

Administration costs 2021-22

				2021-22 £000	2020-21 £000
	SoPS Note	Estimate	Outturn	Outturn compared with Estimate saving / (excess)	Outturn
Administration costs	1.1	190,164	165,342	24,822	159,225

Figures in the areas outlined in bold are voted totals subject to Parliamentary control. In addition, although not a separate voted limit, any breach of the administration budget will also result in an excess vote.

The notes below support the SoPS. Explanations of variances between Estimate and outturn are given in the Financial Review.

Notes to the Statement of Parliamentary Supply

SoPS 1 Net outturn

SoPS 1.1 Analysis of net resource outturn by section

								2021-22 £000		2020-21 £000
	Administration			Programme			Outturn	Estimate		Outturn
	Gross	Income	Net	Gross	Income	Net	Total	Net Total	Net total compared to Estimate	Total
Spending in Departmental Expenditure Limit
Voted: A. DIT – Department for International Trade (DEL)	156,035	–	156,035	379,591	(13,388)	366,203	522,238	532,962	10,724	501,377
Voted: B. TRA – Trade Remedies Authority (ALB) (Net) (DEL)	9,307	–	9,307	841	–	841	10,148	10,754	606	–
Annually Managed Expenditure
Voted: C. DIT – Department for International Trade (AME)	–	–	–	1,471	–	1,471	1,471	9,500	8,029	1,814
Total	165,342	–	165,342	381,903	(13,388)	368,515	533,857	553,216	19,358	503,191

SoPS 1.2 Analysis of net capital outturn by section

				2021-22 £000		2020-21 £000
	Outturn			Estimate		Outturn
Administration costs	Gross	Income	Net	Net	Net total compared to Estimate	Net
Spending in Departmental Expenditure Limit
Voted: A. DIT – Department for International Trade (DEL)	17,934	–	17,934	22,037	4,103	145,812
Voted: B. TRA – Trade Remedies Authority (ALB) (Net) (DEL)	233	–	233	889	656	–
Annually Managed Expenditure
Voted: C. DIT – Department for International Trade (AME)	–	–	–	2,500	2,500	–
Total	18,167	–	18,167	25,426	7,259	145,812

Explanations of variances between Estimate and outturn are given in the Financial Review.

SoPS 2 Reconciliation of outturn to net operating expenditure

Outturn and the Estimates are compiled against the budgeting framework – which is similar to, but different from, IFRS. Therefore, this reconciliation bridges the resource outturn to net operating expenditure, linking the SoPS to the financial statements.

Total resource Outturn in Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure against Parliamentary Supply

		2021-22 £000	2020-21 £000
	Note	Outturn	Outturn
Total resource outturn in SoPS	SoPS 1.1	533,858	503,191
Add: Research and development *	Note 4	4,054	3,997
Capital grant in kind expenditure	Note 4	–	18,796
Less: Other provision items	Note 12	–	(287)
Net Operating Expenditure in SoCNE		537,912	525,697

*Research and development expenditure relates to work on mainly digital products, Overseas and Communication and Marketing projects classified as capital expenditure in budgeting terms under the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA10) requirements.

SoPS 3 Reconciliation of net resource outturn to net cash requirement

	Note	Estimate £000	Outturn £000	Net total outturn compared with estimate: savings (excess) £000
Resource outturn	SoPS 1.1	553,216	533,857	19,358
Capital outturn	SoPS 1.2	25,426	18,167	7,259
Accruals to cash adjustments		578,642	552,024	26,617
Adjustment for ALBs:
Remove voted resource and Capital		(11,643)	–	(11,643)
Add cash grant-in aid		11,643	–	11,643
Adjustments to remove non-cash items:
Depreciation and amortisation	4	(22,346)	(34,896)	12,552
Other non-cash items:	4	–	–	–
National Audit Office – Auditors’ remuneration	4	–	(215)	215
New provisions and adjustment to previous provisions	4	–	(2,291)	2,291
Movement in impairment of trade and other receivables	4	–	(67)	67
Other Non Cash Expenditure		–	(39)	39
Adjustments to reflect movements in working balances:
(Decrease) / Increase in receivables	10	–	12,782	(12,782)
Decrease / (Increase) in payables		–	(9,027)	9,027
Use of provisions	12	–	1,246	(1,246)
Net cash requirement		556,296	519,517	36,779

Explanations of variances between Estimate and outturn are given in the Financial Review.

SoPS 4 Income payable to the Consolidated Fund

The type of income allowed to be retained by the Department is set out in the ambit of the Supply Estimate. Income of a type not included in the Estimate, or in excess of amounts agreed with HM Treasury, is required to be surrendered to the Consolidated Fund. The Department received no such income during 2021-22.

		Outturn 2021-22		Outturn 2020-21
	Income	Receipts	Income	Receipts
	£000	£000	£000	£000
Income outside the ambit of the Estimate	–	–	–	–
[Excess] cash surrenderable to Consolidated Fund	–	–	–	–
Total income payable to the Consolidated Fund	–	–	–	–

Parliamentary Accountability Disclosures

Regularity of expenditure

(This section has been subject to audit.)

Losses and special payments

	Core Department 2021-22	Departmental Group 2021-22	Department 2020-21
Number of Losses	87	89	25
Total value of losses (£000)	3,514	3,520	650

Losses include foreign exchange rate movements, events cancelled because of COVID-19 and lost and damaged IT equipment. For 2021-22, non-reportable losses also include the write-off of a number of minor historic debt balances for which costs could not be recovered; transport and accommodation paid for but not used; and damage to IT equipment. During 2021-22 the Core Department also made four special payments totalling £91k (2020-21: nil).

Details of individual, reportable losses greater than £300,000 during the year
	£000
The Department incurred additional costs arising from work to remedy a defective coating applied to the UK pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai by a contracted third party. The Department intends to seek recovery of these additional costs.	1,650
As part of Expo 2020 Dubai, the Department exchanged sponsorship rights with third-parties for services, including hotel accommodation. Due to COVID-19 and related travel restrictions, the Department was unable to utilise the full amount of accommodation to which it was entitled. The loss disclosed reflects the fair value of waived entitlement to this accommodation but is not a cash loss.	323
As a result of COVID-19 and travel restrictions, the Department’s contracted supplier of in-market support to UK businesses exporting to China supported fewer referrals than it was contracted for: this meant the Department paid more than the value of the services ultimately obtained. The Department has now renegotiated the contract to derive value for money for the remainder of its term.	995

Remote contingent liabilities

There were no material remote contingent liabilities at the reporting date. This disclosure has been subject to audit.

Fees and charges

The Department’s financial statements do not include any fees or charges within the scope of the 2021-2022 Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) disclosure requirements. This disclosure has been subject to audit.

Regularity

(This section has been subject to audit).

I can confirm that, for the financial year ended 31 March 2022, neither I, nor my staff, authorised a course of action, the financial impact of which is that transactions infringe the requirements of regularity as set out in Managing Public Money, and that Treasury approval has been obtained for all novel, contentious or repercussive transactions relating to 2021-22.

James Bowler
Accounting Officer
13 July 2022

The Certificate and Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the House of Commons

Opinion on financial statements

I certify that I have audited the financial statements of the Department for International Trade and of its Departmental Group for the year ended 31 March 2022 under the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000. The Departmental Group consists of the Department and the bodies designated for inclusion under the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 (Estimates and Accounts) Order 2021. The financial statements comprise:

• Statement of Financial Position as at 31 March 2022;

• Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure, Statement of Cash Flows and Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity for the year then ended; and

• the related notes including the significant accounting policies.

The financial reporting framework that has been applied in the preparation of the Group financial statements is applicable law and UK adopted international accounting standards.

In my opinion, the financial statements:

• give a true and fair view of the state of the Department’s and the Departmental Group’s affairs as at 31 March 2022 and its net operating expenditure for the year then ended; and

• have been properly prepared in accordance with the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 and HM Treasury directions issued thereunder.

Opinion on regularity

In my opinion, in all material respects:

• the Statement of Parliamentary Supply properly presents the outturn against voted Parliamentary control totals for the year ended 31 March 2022 and shows that those totals have not been exceeded; and

• the income and expenditure recorded in the financial statements have been applied to the purposes intended by Parliament and the financial transactions recorded in the financial statements conform to the authorities which govern them.

Basis for opinions

I conducted my audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs UK), applicable law and Practice Note 10 ‘Audit of Financial Statements of Public Sector Entities in the United Kingdom’. My responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of my certificate.

Those standards require me and my staff to comply with the Financial Reporting Council’s Revised Ethical Standard 2019. I have also elected to apply the ethical standards relevant to listed entities. I am independent of the Department and its Group in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to my audit of the financial statements in the UK. My staff and I have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.

I believe that the audit evidence I have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for my opinion.

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, I have concluded that the Department and its Group’s use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work I have performed, I have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the Department or its Group’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

My responsibilities and the responsibilities of the Accounting Officer with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this certificate.

The going concern basis of accounting for the Department and its Group is adopted in consideration of the requirements set out in HM Treasury’s Government Financial Reporting Manual, which require entities to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements where it anticipated that the services which they provide will continue into the future.

Other Information

The other information comprises information included in the Annual Report but does not include the financial statements nor my auditor’s certificate and report. The Accounting Officer is responsible for the other information.

My opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in my certificate, I do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with my audit of the financial statements, my responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or my knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated.

If I identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, I am required to determine whether this gives rise to a material misstatement in the financial statements themselves. If, based on the work I have performed, I conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, I am required to report that fact.

I have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinion on other matters

In my opinion the part of the Remuneration and Staff Report to be audited has been properly prepared in accordance with HM Treasury directions made under the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000.

In my opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

• the parts of the Accountability Report to be audited have been properly prepared in accordance with HM Treasury directions made under the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000; and

• the information given in the Performance and Accountability Reports for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements and is in accordance with the applicable legal requirements.

Responsibilities of the Accounting Officer for the financial statements

As explained more fully in the Statement of Accounting Officer’s Responsibilities, the Accounting Officer is responsible for:

• maintaining proper accounting records;

• the preparation of the financial statements and Annual Report in accordance with the applicable financial reporting framework and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view;

• ensuring that the Annual Report and accounts as a whole is fair, balanced and understandable;

• internal controls as the Accounting Officer determines is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements to be free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error; and

• assessing the Department and its Group’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the Accounting Officer anticipates that the services provided by the Department and its Group will not continue to be provided in the future.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

My responsibility is to audit, certify and report on the financial statements in accordance with the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000.

My objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue a certificate that includes my opinion.

Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements.

Extent to which the audit was considered capable of detecting non-compliance with laws and regulations including fraud

I design procedures in line with my responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud. The extent to which my procedures are capable of detecting non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud is detailed below.

Identifying and assessing potential risks related to non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud

In identifying and assessing risks of material misstatement in respect of non-compliance with laws and regulations, including fraud, we considered the following:

• the nature of the sector, control environment and operational performance including the design of the Department and its Group’s accounting policies, key performance indicators and performance incentives.

• Inquiring of management, the Department’s head of internal audit and those charged with governance, including obtaining and reviewing supporting documentation relating to the Department and its Group’s policies and procedures relating to:

• identifying, evaluating and complying with laws and regulations and whether they were aware of any instances of non-compliance;

• detecting and responding to the risks of fraud and whether they have knowledge of any actual, suspected or alleged fraud; and

• the internal controls established to mitigate risks related to fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations including the Department and its Group’s controls relating to the Department’s compliance with the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 and Managing Public Money.

• discussing among the engagement team regarding how and where fraud might occur in the financial statements and any potential indicators of fraud.

As a result of these procedures, I considered the opportunities and incentives that may exist within the Department and its Group for fraud and identified the greatest potential for fraud in the following areas: revenue recognition, posting of unusual journals, complex transactions, and bias in management estimates. In common with all audits under ISAs (UK), I am also required to perform specific procedures to respond to the risk of management override.

I also obtained an understanding of the Department and Group’s framework of authority as well as other legal and regulatory frameworks in which the Department and Group operates, focusing on those laws and regulations that had a direct effect on material amounts and disclosures in the financial statements or that had a fundamental effect on the operations of the Department and its Group. The key laws and regulations I considered in this context included Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000, Managing Public Money, Supply and Appropriation (Main Estimates) Act 2021, employment law and tax legislation.

Audit response to identified risk

As a result of performing the above, the procedures I implemented to respond to identified risks included the following:

• reviewing the financial statement disclosures and testing to supporting documentation to assess compliance with provisions of relevant laws and regulations described above as having direct effect on the financial statements;

• enquiring of management, the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee and legal counsel concerning actual and potential litigation and claims;

• reading and reviewing minutes of meetings of those charged with governance and the Board and internal audit reports;

• in addressing the risk of fraud through management override of controls, testing the appropriateness of journal entries and other adjustments; assessing whether the judgements made in making accounting estimates are indicative of a potential bias; and evaluating the business rationale of any significant transactions that are unusual or outside the normal course of business.

I also communicated relevant identified laws and regulations and potential fraud risks to all engagement team members and remained alert to any indications of fraud or non-compliance with laws and regulations throughout the audit.

A further description of my responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at: www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of my certificate.

Other auditor’s responsibilities

I am required to obtain appropriate evidence sufficient to give reasonable assurance that the Statement of Outturn against Parliamentary Supply properly presents the outturn against voted Parliamentary control totals and that those totals have not been exceeded.

The voted Parliamentary control totals are Departmental Expenditure Limits (Resource and Capital), Annually Managed Expenditure (Resource and Capital), Non-Budget (Resource) and Net Cash Requirement.

I am also required to obtain evidence sufficient to give reasonable assurance that the expenditure and income recorded in the financial statements have been applied to the purposes intended by Parliament and the financial transactions recorded in the financial statements conform to the authorities which govern them.

I communicate with those charged with governance regarding, among other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies in internal control that I identify during my audit.

Report

I have no observations to make on these financial statements.

Gareth Davies
Comptroller and Auditor General
15 July 2022

National Audit Office
157 – 197 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9SP

Financial report

Financial statements

Consolidated Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure

For the year ended 31 March 2022

			2021-22	2020-21
		CoreDepartment	Departmental Group	Department
	Note	£000	£000	£000
Income from other government departments	5	(6,810)	(6,810)	(2,091)
Expo 2020 Dubai	5	(4,198)	(4,198)	(219)
Other operating income	5	(3,122)	(2,380)	(2,868)
Total operating income	5	(14,130)	(13,388)	(5,178)
Staff costs	3	275,200	282,778	274,110
Trade and Investment Activities	4	40,860	40,889	45,093
Recharges from other government departments	4	61,989	61,989	55,352
Promotion activities	4	20,199	20,225	23,899
Events	4	19,566	19,574	9,032
Grants	4	9,715	9,715	5,313
Depreciation and amortisation	4	34,109	34,896	9,934
Grant-in-aid to TRA	4	9,921	–	–
Capital Grant in Kind		–	–	18,796
Other expenditure	4	79,455	81,234	89,346
Total operating expenditure		551,014	551,300	530,875
Net operating expenditure		536,884	537,912	525,697
Loss on net assets transferred to TRA	4	1,842	–	–
Net expenditure		538,726	537,912	525,697
Other comprehensive net expenditure
Items which will not be reclassified to net operating expenditure:
Net gain on revaluation of non-current assets	6,7	(943)	(943)	(3,244)
Comprehensive net expenditure for the year		537,783	536,969	522,453

Departmental Group comprises the Core Department and the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA), an arm’s length body, which was established on 1 June 2021. Comparative figures therefore include the Core Department only. All income and expenditure is derived from continuing operations.

The notes in the following section form part of these Accounts.

Consolidated Statement of Financial Position

As at 31 March 2022

		31 March 2022		31 March 2021
		Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	Note	£000	£000	£000
Non-current assets
Property, plant and equipment	6	7,384	7,707	28,227
Intangible assets	7	29,911	31,394	30,714
Total non-current assets		37,295	39,101	58,941
Current assets
Trade and other receivables	10	33,360	33,449	20,774
Cash and cash equivalents	9	1,975	1,975	11,892
Total current assets		35,335	35,424	32,666
Total assets		72,630	74,525	91,607
Current liabilities
Trade and other payables	11	(122,916)	(123,900)	(124,877)
Provisions	12	(3,201)	(3,201)	(2,157)
Total current liabilities		(126,117)	(127,101)	(127,034)
Total assets less current liabilities		(53,487)	(52,576)	(35,427)
Taxpayers’ equity and other reserves
Revaluation reserve	SoCTE	504	570	–
General fund	SoCTE	(53,991)	(53,146)	(35,427)
Total equity		(53,487)	(52,576)	(35,427)

The notes in the following section form part of these financial statements.

James Bowler
Accounting Officer
13 July 2022

Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows

For the year ended 31 March 2022

		2021-22		2020-21
		CoreDepartment	Departmental Group	Department
	Note	£000	£000	£000
Cash flows from operating activities
Net operating expenditure	SoCNE	(536,884)	(537,912)	(525,697)
Adjustments for non-cash transactions:
Non-cash Expenditure	4	35,424	35,732	10,046
Movement in provisions	4	2,291	2,291	1,781
(Increase)/decrease in trade and other receivables	4,10	(12,693)	(12,782)	1,570
Increase/(decrease) in trade and other payables	11	(1,962)	(978)	(43,046)
Use of provisions	12	(1,246)	(1,246)	(287)
Movements in payables relating to items not passing through SoCNE	11	10,004	10,004	47,214
Capital grant Expenditure	4	–	–	18,796
Net cash outflows from operating activities		(505,066)	(504,891)	(489,623)
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchase of property, plant and equipment	6	(5,929)	(6,104)	(20,825)
Purchase of intangible assets	7	(8,522)	(8,522)	(9,566)
Net cash outflows from investing activities		(14,451)	(14,626)	(30,391)
Cash flows from financing activities
From the Consolidated Fund (Supply) – Current year	SoCTE	509,600	509,600	472,800
Net financing		509,600	509,600	472,800
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents in the period before adjustment for receipts and payments to the Consolidated Fund		(9,917)	(9,917)	(47,214)
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents in the period after adjustment for receipts and payments to the Consolidated Fund		(9,917)	(9,917)	(47,214)
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the period	9	11,892	11,892	59,106
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period	9	1,975	1,975	11,892

The notes in the following section form part of these financial statements.

Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity (Core Department)

For the year ended 31 March 2022

		General Fund	Revaluation Reserve	Total
	Note	£000	£000	£000
At 31 March 2020		(38,798)	5,610	(33,188)
Net Parliamentary funding – drawn down	SoCF	472,800	–	472,800
Net Parliamentary funding – deemed	SoCF	59,106	–	59,106
Supply payable adjustment	11	(11,892)	–	(11,892)
Net expenditure	SoCNE	(525,697)	–	(525,697)
Other comprehensive expenditure
Revaluation gains and losses	6	–	3,244	3,244
Non-cash items
National Audit Office – Auditors’ remuneration	4	200	–	200
Movement in reserves
Transfers from revaluation reserve		8,854	(8,854)	–
At 31 March 2021		(35,427)	–	(35,427)
Net Parliamentary funding – drawn down	SoCF	509,600	–	509,600
Net Parliamentary funding – deemed	SoCF	11,892	–	11,892
Supply payable adjustment	11	(1,975)	–	(1,975)
Net expenditure	SoCNE	(538,726)	–	(538,726)
Other comprehensive expenditure
Revaluation gains and losses	SoCNE	–	943	943
Non-cash items
National Audit Office – Auditors’ remuneration	4	215	–	215
Movement in reserves
Transfers from revaluation reserve		342	(342)	–
Other Movements		88	(97)	(9)
At 31 March 2022		(53,991)	504	(53,487)

The notes in the following section form part of these financial statements.

Consolidated Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity (Departmental Group)

For the year ended 31 March 2022

		General Fund	Revaluation Reserve	Total
	Note	£000	£000	£000
At 31 March 2020		(38,798)	5,610	(33,188)
Net Parliamentary funding – drawn down	SoCF	472,800	–	472,800
Net Parliamentary funding – deemed	SoCF	59,106	–	59,106
Supply payable adjustment	11	(11,892)	–	(11,892)
Net expenditure	SoCNE	(525,697)	–	(525,697)
Other comprehensive expenditure
Revaluation gains and losses	6	–	3,244	3,244
Non-cash items
National Audit Office – Auditors’ remuneration	4	200	–	200
Movement in reserves
Transfers from revaluation reserve		8,854	(8,854)	–
At 31 March 2021		(35,427)	–	(35,427)
Net Parliamentary funding – drawn down	SoCF	509,600	–	509,600
Net Parliamentary funding – deemed	SoCF	11,892	–	11,892
Supply payable adjustment	11	(1,975)	–	(1,975)
Net expenditure	SoCNE	(537,912)	–	(537,912)
Other comprehensive expenditure
Revaluation gains and losses	6	–	943	943
Non-cash items
National Audit Office – Auditors’ remuneration	4	215	–	215
Movement in reserves
Transfers from revaluation reserve		373	(373)	–
Other Movements		88	–	88
At 31 March 2022		(53,146)	570	(52,576)

Notes to the 2021-22 Resource Accounts

1. Statement of accounting policies

1.1 Basis of accounting

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the 2021-2022 Government Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) and the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000. The accounting policies contained in the FReM apply International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adapted, or interpreted, for the public-sector context. Where the FReM permits a choice of accounting policy, the accounting policy which is judged to be most appropriate to the particular circumstances of the Department for International Trade (Core Department) and its consolidated Non-Departmental Public Body (the Departmental Group) for the purpose of giving a true and fair view has been selected. The accounting policies adopted by the Departmental Group are described below. They have been applied consistently in dealing with items that are considered material to the financial statements.

In addition to the primary statements prepared under IFRS, the FReM also requires DIT to prepare a Statement of Parliamentary Supply (SoPS) and supporting notes which show outturn against Estimate in terms of the net resource requirement and the net cash requirement. The SoPS and supporting notes can be found in the Parliamentary Accountability and Audit Report.

In common with other government departments, the financing of the Departmental Group’s future service provision and liabilities are to be met by future grants of Supply and the application of future income, approved annually by Parliament. Parliament has authorised spending for 2022-23 in the Central Government Main Supply Estimates and Spending Review 2021 set budgets for the Departmental Group up to 2024-25. It has therefore been considered appropriate to adopt a going concern basis for the preparation of the financial statements.

1.2 Accounting convention

These financial statements have been prepared on an accruals basis under the historical cost convention, modified to account for the revaluation of intangible assets as described in paragraph 1.11.

As required by the FReM, Supply funding drawn down from HM Treasury is credited to the Departmental Group’s Statement of Changes in Taxpayer’s Equity.

1.3 Basis of consolidation

The Departmental Group’s financial statements consolidate the balances of the Core Department and the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA). The TRA was created as a Non-Departmental Public Body on 1 June 2021 and is included within DIT’s Departmental boundary as defined by Statutory Instrument 2021 No. 1441 made under the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2021. Prior to 1 June 2021, the Trade Remedies function existed within the Core Department. The TRA will prepare individual financial statements, in accordance with the FReM, beginning with a long period of account to 31 March 2023. The TRA is initially following a different reporting period from the Core Department in order to meet reporting requirements stipulated within the Trade Act 2021.

Accounting policies are harmonised across the Departmental Group. Intra group transactions and balances are eliminated on consolidation.

1.4 Transfer by absorption

Transfers of function between public sector bodies within a departmental group are accounted for as Transfers by Absorption.

On 1 June 2021, the Trade Remedies Directorate within the Core Department was moved to a newly created Non-Departmental Public Body – The Trade Remedies Authority (TRA). All assets and liabilities held within the Core Department which related to the Trade Remedies function were transferred to the TRA at their carrying values. The net value of assets transferred is recorded as a non-operating loss through net expenditure within the Core Department’s financial statements (see Note 4) and as a non-operating gain within the TRA. The transfer adjustments are eliminated within the Departmental Group. Revaluation reserves and accumulated depreciation were also transferred from the Core Department’s to the TRA’s Statement of Financial Position.

In accordance with the FReM, the carrying values of the assets and liabilities transferred were not adjusted to fair value. There has been no recognition of goodwill and no restatement of comparatives in the financial statements as a result of the transfer of function, as required by the FReM.

1.5 GREAT Machinery of Government Change

On 1 April 2021 responsibility for the GREAT Campaign transferred from the Department to the Cabinet Office. Such transfers, where material, are usually accounted for as a Transfer by Merger under the FReM with comparative information restated to exclude all balances and transactions relating to the transferred function. The GREAT Campaign was not material to the Department’s 2020-21 financial statements (expenditure of £2,058k – see Note 2) and as such comparative information has not been restated for this transfer.

Not all contracts relating to GREAT have yet novated to the Cabinet Office and, as such, the Department continues to procure GREAT-related services on behalf of the Cabinet Office. These are reimbursed by the Cabinet Office and so do not appear within the Department’s reported expenditure. However, at the reporting date the Department’s receivables balance includes £6.5 million which is due from Cabinet Office in respect of GREAT expenditure.

1.6 Operating income and revenue recognition

The Departmental Group has recognised operating income in accordance with IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers as adapted in the FReM.

The Core Department has earned sponsorship revenue through its participation at the Expo 2020 Dubai. The Core Department sold sponsorship rights, and other associated services, in exchange for cash and other services. Non-cash transactions have been recognised in accordance with IFRS 15 as described in the section below.

During the reporting period the Core Department launched a new Internationalisation Fund which provides grants to eligible businesses in England. The scheme is funded by the European Structural and Investment Funds overseen by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC). The Department is reimbursed by DLUHC for the cost of eligible grants paid, which is recognised as revenue under IAS 20. DIT is the principal in awarding the grant funding and bears the risk and rewards associated with the grant’s administration.

Income is measured at the fair value of the consideration received or receivable and is recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure following performance of contractual obligations, where amounts can be reliably measured and it is probable that economic benefits will flow to the Departmental Group. This includes amounts collected on behalf of third parties where the Core Department or TRA is considered Principal to the arrangement under IFRS 15.

The Departmental Group’s income is primarily derived from providing services, with income recognised at a point in time when services transfer to our customers. Where consideration is received prior to the transfer of goods and services, the amounts are recorded as contract liabilities. Where goods and services are transferred to a customer before the customer pays consideration or before payment is due, the amounts are recorded as contract assets.

The Departmental Group does not have any material obligations for returns, refunds or warranties.

1.7 Operating expenditure

Operating expenditure comprises mainly of staff and corporate services costs, and programme spending to further the delivery of the Departmental Group’s objectives.

In accordance with IAS 19 Employee Benefits, all short-term staff costs, such as leave entitlement accrued at the year end, are recognised in the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure (SoCNE).

Platform charges are paid to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for the provision of accommodation, maintenance, and corporate services support to the Departmental Group’s overseas activities. The charge for each financial year is agreed in advance and invoiced by FCDO on a quarterly basis. FCDO also processes some income and expenditure for the Core Department. This includes costs incurred by the FCDO on behalf of the Core Department (such as wages, travel and accommodation expenses for overseas staff).

1.8 Pensions

Pension benefits to Ministers are provided by the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund. Further details are provided in the Remuneration and Staff Report. The Departmental Group is recharged the total cost of pension contributions payable for FCDO civil servants engaged in delivering DIT’s objectives.

From 1 April 2015 a new pension scheme for civil servants was introduced known as the Alpha Pension Scheme. From that date all newly appointed civil servants and the majority of those already in service have joined Alpha. Prior to that date UK-based employees were covered by the provisions of the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS).

Both Alpha and PCSPS are unfunded defined benefit schemes. The participating employers in these schemes are unable to identify their share of the underlying net liability. As such, the FReM interpretation of IAS 19 requires that these schemes are accounted for as defined contribution pension schemes.

The expected cost of these schemes are recognised on a systematic and rational basis over the period during which it benefits from employees’ services by payment to the scheme of amounts calculated on an accruing basis. Liability for payment of future benefits is a charge on the PCSPS.

Some employees are members of defined contribution plans (Partnership Pension Account). A defined contribution plan is a post-employment benefit plan under which an entity pays fixed contributions into a separate entity and will have no legal or constructive obligation to pay further amounts.

Obligations for contributions to defined contribution pension plans are recognised as an employee benefit expense in the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure in the periods during which services are rendered by employees.

1.9 Value Added Tax (VAT)

The net amount due from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs in respect of VAT is included within receivables in the Statement of Financial Position. Income and expenditure are shown net of VAT where output tax is charged, or input tax is recoverable. Irrecoverable VAT is charged to the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure and included under the relevant expenditure category. Irrecoverable VAT on the purchase of an asset is included in additions.

1.10 Property, plant and equipment

Property, plant and equipment assets are initially recognised at cost, including all costs directly attributable to bringing them into working condition. The threshold for capitalising non-current assets is £3,000 subject to grouping conventions where appropriate.

Subsequent costs are included in an asset’s carrying amount or recognised as a separate asset, as appropriate, only when it is probable that future economic benefits associated with the item will flow to the Departmental Group and the cost of the item can be measured reliably.

Property

The Department occupies a number of properties which it leases from the Government Property Agency. All such leases have been accounted for as operating leases under IAS 17. As such, none of DIT’s office accommodation is currently recognised on the Statement of Financial Position.

Plant and equipment

In accordance with the FReM, the Department values plant and equipment assets on a depreciated historical cost basis, as a proxy for fair value where assets have short useful lives or are of low value, or both.

Depreciation

Property, plant and equipment assets are depreciated to write down the cost or valuation to their estimated residual values on a straight-line basis over their estimated useful lives which are as follows:

Leasehold buildings	Up to 99 years or remaining life of lease
Leasehold improvements	10-25 years or shorter of estimated remaining useful life or outstanding term of lease
Assets under construction	Not depreciated until assets are in use
Information Technology	Three to five years
Furniture, fixtures, and fittings	Three to five years

During the year the Department finished the construction of a Pavilion for use at Expo 2020 Dubai. The Pavilion was operational throughout the Expo, which ran from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. The Department is obligated to dismantle the Pavilion following closure of the Expo, and as such it has been fully depreciated over this 6-month period.

Assets under construction

Assets under construction (AUC) are valued at historical cost. The assets’ carrying value are transferred to the appropriate category and depreciated when they are available for use as intended by management.

During the year the pavilion constructed for Expo 2020 Dubai became operational and transferred from AUC to leasehold buildings.

1.11 Intangible assets

Intangible non-current assets are capitalised if they are intended for use on a continuing basis and their original carrying value, on an individual or asset pool basis, exceeds the capitalisation threshold of £3,000.

There are no active markets for the majority of the Departmental Group’s intangible non-current assets which are valued at the lower of depreciated replacement cost, or value in use. Intangible non-current assets are revalued with reference to a published labour cost index relevant to the Information Technology sector. This index provides an approximation of what the Department would pay to re-build the same assets at current prices. The revaluation model has been applied for the first time in this reporting period as the value of intangible assets has become more significant to the Department’s financial statements. Comparative information has not been retrospectively adjusted as the impact on prior years is not material.

Revaluation gains are recognised through Other Comprehensive Expenditure and credited to the Revaluation Reserve. A portion of the Revaluation Reserve balance is transferred annually to the General Fund to cover additional amortisation recognised within the SoCNE due to revaluation.

Amortisation of intangible assets is charged to the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure on a straight-line basis when the assets are available for use. This allocates the carrying amounts of the intangible assets over their estimated useful economic lives.

Intangible assets are normally amortised over the following periods:

Website	Four to five years
Software licenses	Three to five years
Information Technology	Three to five years
Assets under construction	Not amortised until assets are in use

Development costs directly attributable to the design and testing of identifiable and unique software products are recognised as assets under construction when they meet the recognition criteria under IAS 38 Intangibles.

Assets under construction are valued at historical cost. The assets’ carrying values are transferred to the respective asset category and amortised when they are available for use as intended by management.

The Departmental Group regularly reviews progress on projects and the products delivered to assess whether they have been brought into service in accordance with IAS 38.

1.12 Impairments

The Department reviews the carrying amounts of its tangible and intangible assets to determine whether there is any indication that those assets have suffered an impairment loss. If any such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset is estimated to determine the extent of any impairment loss. An impairment loss is recognised when the carrying amount of an asset exceeds its recoverable amount. The recoverable amount is the higher of fair value, less costs to sell and value in use.

Residual values and useful lives are reviewed and adjusted if appropriate, at each reporting date.

1.13 Trade and other receivables

The only financial assets held by the Departmental Group are cash and cash equivalents along with short-term trade and other receivables. Cash and cash equivalents are detailed further in note 1.17. The receivables are held to collect contractual cash flows and do not contain significant financing components. They are held at amortised cost less expected credit losses.

The loss allowance is determined by applying a simplified approach equalling the lifetime expected credit losses. An allowance will be made for potentially irrecoverable receivables based on regular reviews of all outstanding amounts. From this review, there have been no material changes to impairment during the financial year. Prepayments are recognised for goods and services paid for, but not received by, the reporting date.

1.14 Trade and other payables

Trade and other payables are recognised at fair value, which represent liabilities for goods and services provided prior to the financial year end that are unpaid. Trade and other payables are non-interest bearing and the carrying value approximates their fair value. Accruals are recognised for goods and services delivered prior to the financial year end which have not been invoiced.

1.15 Grants

Grants payable are recorded as expenditure in the period in which the underlying event or activity that gives entitlement to the grant occurs.

1.16 Grant-in-aid and intra-group transactions

The Core Department processes cash expenditure payments and receipts on behalf of the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA). Consequently, notional grant-in-aid is recorded in the Core Department at an amount equal to the expenditure and liabilities incurred on the TRA’s behalf.

The Core Department recognises notional grant-in-aid funding provided to the Trade Remedies Authority in its Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure (SoCNE). These transactions are eliminated within the Departmental Group.

The Core Department also supplies services to the TRA under several Memoranda of Understanding (MoU). The intra-group revenues and costs arising from the service provision under these MoUs are eliminated on consolidation.Consequently, the value of revenue reported within the Group Financial Statements is lower than that reported within the Core Financial Statements due to the impact of elimination.

1.17 Cash

Cash and cash equivalents recorded in the Statement of Financial Position and Statement of Cash Flows comprise bank balances held with the Government Banking Service.

1.18 Provisions and contingent liabilities

In accordance with IAS 37 Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets, the Departmental Group provides for legal and constructive obligations that relate to past events, where the obligations are of uncertain timing or value at the reporting date. Provisions are based on the best estimate of the expenditure required to settle the obligation.

Contingent liabilities are disclosed where the likelihood of payment is greater than remote but is less than probable or the obligation cannot be measured reliably.

1.19 Foreign exchange

The presentational currency of the Departmental Group’s Financial Statements is the British pound sterling (£). Transactions which are denominated in a foreign currency are translated into sterling at the exchange rate ruling on the date of the transaction. HM Treasury provides budget protection against foreign exchange losses.

1.20 Leases

The Department accounts for all leases under IAS 17. As discussed within Note 1.23, IFRS 16 will be applied from 1 April 2022. At the reporting date all leases are regarded as operating leases because the Departmental Group does not bear the risks and rewards incidental to ownership of the associated assets. Lease costs are charged to the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure over the term of the lease.

1.21 Accounting judgements, estimates and assumptions

The Accounting Officer, in preparing the Accounts, is required to select suitable accounting policies, apply them consistently and make estimates and assumptions that are reasonable and prudent. These judgements and estimates are based on historical experience and other factors considered relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates and assumptions and could require an adjustment to the carrying value of assets or liabilities.

The following are considered areas of significant judgement or estimation uncertainty.

• Liability for leave entitlement of overseas staff

  Annual leave requests of UK-based employees are managed through an automated system which provides a record of the amount of untaken annual leave at the reporting date. This system is not used for civil servants and locally employed staff based overseas, where leave is managed and recorded locally. The Department was unable to obtain leave data for all overseas staff and so the liability has been estimated by extrapolating the leave data that it was able to obtain.

• Incentive Payments

  At year end, the Departmental Group determines whether to accrue or create a provision for incentive payments earned on high value contracts based on probability of payment. Incentive payments are used as a means of motivating of supplier performance during the course of a contract.

  The provisions and accruals for incentive payments are based on the suppliers’ performance at the year end, as well as forecast data. Incentive payment values are agreed and paid once performance data has been validated.

1.22 New and amended standards adopted

There were no new or amended standards that are effective for the financial year beginning on the 1 April 2021 that have a material impact on the Departmental Group’s financial statements.

1.23 Impending application of newly issued accounting standards not yet effective

The new standards as detailed below are not yet effective for the year ended 31 March 2022 and have not been applied in these financial statements.

IFRS 16 Leases

IFRS 16 Leases replaces IAS 17 Leases and will be applied by HM Treasury in the FReM from 1 April 2022. IFRS 16 introduces a single lessee accounting model, requiring lessees to recognise assets and liabilities for all leases unless the lease term is 12 months or less (from the date of initial application of the standard) or the underlying asset has a low value. The de-minimis limit of low value has been set at £3,000 in line with the Departmental Group’s capitalisation policy. Under IFRS 16, a contract is, or contains, a lease if it conveys the right to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time.

• Scope

  The Departmental Group is currently engaged in several operating lease arrangements with the Government Property Agency (GPA), the most significant of which relates to the lease of Old Admiralty Building. The FReM expands the definition of a lease contract under IFRS 16 to include intra-UK government agreements where non-performance may not be enforceable by law. Our preliminary application of IFRS 16 to these arrangements suggests that most of the department’s leases will fall within the scope of IFRS 16.

• Practical Expedients on Transition

  The FReM has mandated the following transition options which the Departmental Group has implemented in its transition workings:

  Grandfathering – all leases classified as operating leases under IAS 17 are assumed to be in scope of IFRS 16 as at 1 April 2022 with the exception of those qualifying as low value or short term.

  Upon transition, entities shall measure the right-of-use asset for leases previously classified as operating leases at an amount equal to the lease liability, adjusted by the amount of any prepaid or accrued lease payments relating to that lease recognised in the statement of financial position immediately before the date of initial application.

• Impact of Transition on Primary Financial Statements

  Our preliminary application of IFRS 16 to our operating leases disclosed at 31 March 2022 would result in the following assets and lease liabilities being recognised.

	Core Department	Departmental Group
	31 March 2022	31 March 2022
	£’000	£’000
Right of Use assets	102,621	103,215
Lease Liability	102,621	103,215

An associated material increase in depreciation charge is expected in the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure following implementation. A non-material finance charge will be recognised to reflect unwinding of the lease liability.

The table below presents a reconciliation from the Department’s commitments under operating lease at 31 March 2022 disclosed in Note 14 to the expected lease liabilities as at 1 April 2022, following adoption of IFRS 16.

The material reconciling item is the impact of discounting under IFRS 16. Adjustments have also been made for short term lease exemptions under IFRS 16 and differences in the lease term assumptions between IFRS 16 and IAS 17.

Impact of applying IFRS 16 at reporting date	Leasehold Buildings £’000
Commitments under IAS 17 operating leases	110,359
Impact of discounting cashflows under IFRS 16	(7,148)
Adjustments for payments due on leases outside scope of IFRS 16	(60)
Adjustments due to lease term assumptions between IFRS 16 and IAS 17	64
IFRS 16 opening lease liabilities as at 1 April 2022	103,215

IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts

IFRS 17 ‘Insurance Contracts’ was issued in May 2017 and once effective it will replace IFRS 4 ‘Insurance Contracts’, which requires identification of insurance contracts, and recognition of an insurance contract liability for those contracts.

The insurance contract liability is calculated as the present value of future insurance cashflows (the fulfilment cash flows) plus a subsequent risk adjustment. The IASB announced the deferral of IFRS 17 by two years until 1 January 2023 and therefore, the implementation timetable in the public sector is being extended to at least 1 April 2023. No material impact is anticipated from this standard.

2. Statement of net operating expenditure by segment (Departmental Group)

	2021-22			2020-21
	Gross Expenditure	Income	Net	Gross Expenditure	Income	Net
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Exports and UK Trade	92,207	(7,473)	84,734	92,818	(3,897)	88,921
Strategy and Investment	103,497	(5,358)	98,139	70,626	(227)	70,399
Overseas	86,389	(497)	85,892	81,672	(1,040)	80,632
Overseas Platform	61,989	–	61,989	55,247	–	55,247
Trade Negotiations	30,555	–	30,555	26,283	–	26,283
Trading Systems	48,847	(57)	48,790	52,020	(12)	52,008
Corporate Functions
– Digital, Data and Technology	45,767	–	45,767	41,687	–	41,687
– Estates	14,285	–	14,285	37,064	–	37,064
– Communication and Marketing	24,145	–	24,145	29,769	–	29,769
– Other Corporate Functions	34,181	(6)	34,175	34,658	(1)	34,657
Total	118,378	(6)	118,372	143,178	(1)	143,177
Trade Remedies Authority	8,365	–	8,365	–	–	–
Centrally Managed Resources	1,073	3	1,075	6,972	(1)	6,971
GREAT Programme	–	–	–	2,058	–	2,058
Net operating expenditure	551,300	(13,388)	537,911	530,874	(5,178)	525,696

Operating Segments are determined in accordance with IFRS 8 Operating Segments based on what information is presented for decision making purposes to the Chief Operating Decision Maker (CODM) who is the Accounting Officer. Over 10% of DIT’s revenue during the reporting period was derived from other government departments (2021-22: £6,810k, 2020-21: £2,091k). This revenue is included within the following segments: Strategy and Investment, Exports and UK Trade, Overseas).

Towards the end of 2020-21, the Department introduced some changes to its operating structure to fully align behind the delivery of the new Outcome Delivery Plan for 2021-22. Four new business groups were established: Trade Negotiations, Trading Systems, Exports and UK Trade, and Strategy and Investment. These replaced the Trade Policy group and the Global Trade and Investment group. The presentation of operating segments has therefore changed compared to previous years to reflect this new structure, and comparators have been restated for comparability.

The Accounting Officer receives financial information at aggregate level as well as information on outcomes relating to each group. These are measured on the same basis as for financial reporting purposes in the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure. The structure of the Departmental Group means that materially all of the assets included in the Statement of Financial Position are used for the general administration and benefit of DIT as a whole. Consequently, they are not apportioned to operating segments in the table above. A description for each segment is given below:

• Exports and UK Trade: supporting UK business to take full advantage of trade opportunities. This includes four pillars: export strategy and delivery; sector specific support for exporters and investors; support for exporters from teams across the UK; and support to exporters in teams in around 130 locations overseas.

• Strategy and Investment: working across government to enhance the UK’s investment environment, attracting high-value, high-impact investment through the Office for Investment (a joint DIT and Number 10 unit), while delivering cross-government priorities through attraction and retention of internationally mobile investment. Supporting the Department’s work for national security, the Dubai World Expo and other world events. Trade Envoys and delivery of analysis and support for Ministers in setting and delivering the Department’s strategy.

• Overseas Platform: contribution to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) for their delivery on behalf of HMG of the overseas infrastructure which DIT uses to deliver its objectives.

• Overseas: a network of over 1,400 staff in more than 100 countries providing expert advice in support of UK exports and investment and the implementation of free trade agreements. The network is divided into nine regions, each led by an HMTC responsible for delivering a Regional Trade Plan.

• Trade Negotiations Group: delivering an ambitious programme of free trade agreements, securing greater market access for exporters and bringing greater opportunities and supporting economic growth across the UK.

• Trading Systems Group: responsible for leading on creating a fair rules-based trading environment, managing the UK’s trade disputes and remedies interests, implementing agreements, supporting businesses to access markets, supporting supply chain management and resilience and the licensing of military and dual-use exports.

• Trade Remedies Authority (an arm’s length body): undertaking investigations into the economic impact of unfair trade practices and making recommendations on appropriate measures to the Secretary of State for International Trade.

• Digital, Data and Technology: provides the digital services to support exporters and investors as well as the infrastructure required for the achievement of DIT objectives.

• Estates: including the buildings and facilities management in the UK for the DIT workforce.

• Communications and Marketing: responsible for press and media relations, strategic communications, internal communications and marketing, support for inward and outward trade missions and major trade-related events.

• Other Corporate Functions: including Analysis, Business Services, Commercial, Finance and HR, which provide the support structures and resources required for the achievement of DIT objectives.

• Centrally Managed Resources: departments are encouraged by the Treasury in the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance not to allocate their budgets fully against their programmes at the start of a financial year but to hold some budget back to deal with unforeseen pressures that emerge subsequently.

• The GREAT Britain Campaign: showcased the best of what the UK has to offer to inspire and encourage people to visit, do business, invest and study in the UK. As described within Note 1, responsibility for GREAT transferred to the Cabinet Office on 1 April 2021.

3. Staff costs

	2021-22		2020-21
	Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	£000	£000	£000
Wages and salaries	196,030	201,131	192,054
Social security costs	15,066	15,663	14,283
Other pension costs	42,524	43,850	38,424
Agency and temporary staff	21,503	22,075	29,297
Voluntary exit scheme	93	93	168
Compulsory redundancies	294	294	78
Other departures	7	7	8
Recoveries from outwards secondments	(317)	(333)	(203)
Total	275,200	282,778	274,110

For further information on staff costs, numbers, pensions and compensation schemes, please see the Remuneration and Staff Report.

4. Other costs

	2021-22		2020-21
	Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	£000	£000	£000
International Trade Adviser Costs	25,328	25,328	27,850
Investment support services	9,751	9,751	10,933
Other Trade and Investment Activities	5,781	5,810	6,310
Total Trade and Investment Activities	40,860	40,889	45,093
FCDO platform charge	61,989	61,989	55,352
Promotion activities	20,199	20,225	23,899
Events	19,566	19,574	9,032
Grants	9,715	9,715	5,313
Pan American Games 2019, Lima	516	516	1,729
Official Development Assistance	165	165	4,046
Subscriptions	6,666	6,679	7,057
Travel and subsistence	5,233	5,340	1,838
IT expenditure	17,292	18,023	15,993
Training and other staff costs	8,654	8,894	8,603
Market research and evaluation	1,820	1,820	4,239
Rentals and accommodation	12,607	12,880	12,140
Legal and other professional services	15,824	15,846	14,111
Consultancy	380	380	5,782
Research and development	3,997	4,054	3,997
Business rates	1,623	1,623	3,155
Other costs	2,037	2,356	4,763
Non-cash items
Depreciation	25,974	26,111	2,243
Amortisation	8,136	8,785	7,691
National Audit Office – Auditors’ remuneration	215	233	200
Loss on disposal of assets	513	513	41
Transfer of net assets to TRA*	1,842	–	–
Losses and compensation	39	39	–
Notional Grant-in-Aid to TRA**	9,921	–	–
Movement in impairment of trade and other receivables	67	67	-129
Capital Grant in Kind	–	–	18,796
Movement in provisions	2,291	2,291	1,781
Provisions utilised in respect to Capital	(485)	(485)	–
Total other expenditure	124,811	115,614	116,347
Total other costs	277,656	268,522	256,765

*On the establishment of the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA) on 1 June 2021, all assets and liabilities held within the Core Department relating to the trade remedies function were transferred to the TRA at their carrying values. The Core Department therefore recognises a cost equal to the value of net assets transferred.

**As a Non-Departmental Public Body within the Departmental Group boundary, the TRA is funded by the Core Department. During the reporting period all TRA expenditure was processed and paid by the Core Department on the TRA’s behalf. The amount of expenditure paid on TRA’s behalf is reflected as notional grant-in-aid within the Core Department’s financial statements.

Both TRA-related adjustments described above are eliminated on consolidation within the Departmental Group’s financial statements.

5. Income

	2021-22		2020-21
	Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	£000	£000	£000
Expo 2020 Dubai	4,198	4,198	219
Pan American Games 2019, Lima Income	612	612	1,946
Income from other government departments	6,810	6,810	2,091
Other income	2,510	1,768	922
Total income	14,130	13,388	5,178

6. Property, plant and equipment (Departmental Group)

	Leashold buildings	Leashold Improvements	Information technology	Furniture, fixtures and fittings	Assets under construction £000	Total
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2021	–	666	10,689	460	21,801	33,616
Additions	238	–	3,736	94	2,036	6,104
Disposals	(23,601)	(666)	(668)	(125)	–	(25,060)
Reclassifications	23,363	474	–	–	(23,837)	–
At 31 March 2022	–	474	13,757	429	–	14,660
Depreciation
At 1 April 2021	–	(267)	(4,979)	(143)		(5,389)
Charge in year	(23,601)	(129)	(2,271)	(110)	–	(26,111)
Disposals	23,601	349	494	103	–	24,547
At 31 March 2022	–	(47)	(6,756)	(150)	–	(6,953)
Carrying amount at 31 March 2022	–	427	7,001	279	–	7,707
Of the Total:
Core Department	–	427	6,710	247	–	7,384
Trade Remedies Authority	–	–	291	32	–	323
Carrying amount at 31 March 2022	–	427	7,001	279	–	7,707
Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2020	15,054	1,602	7,677	940	4,634	29,907
Additions	–	–	3,400	258	17,167	20,825
Disposals	(18,298)	(936)	(388)	(737)	–	(20,360)
Revaluations	3,244	–	–	–	–	3,244
At 31 March 2021	–	666	10,689	460	21,801	33,616
Depreciation
At 1 April 2020	(354)	(383)	(3,609)	(323)	–	(4,669)
Charge in year	(294)	(163)	(1,640)	(146)	–	(2,243)
Disposals	648	279	270	326	–	1,523
At 31 March 2021	–	(267)	(4,979)	(143)	–	(5,389)
Carrying amount at 31 March 2021	–	399	5,710	317	21,801	28,227

Assets under construction brought forward at 1 April 2021 relate primarily to the construction of the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. This became operational during the reporting period and was transferred to Leasehold Buildings. The Pavilion was constructed specifically for use at the Expo which took place and ended within the reporting period. Consequently, the Pavilion has been fully depreciated and disposed of within these accounts. All assets held at 31 March 2022 were owned by the Departmental Group. Brought forward balances at 1 April 2020 and 1 April 2021 relate to Core Department only. During the 2020-21 reporting period, the Department transferred a leasehold building to the Government Property Agency which resulted in a material disposal cost.

7. Intangible assets (Departmental Group)

	Software licence	Website	Information technology	Assets under construction	Total
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2021	437	9,943	26,193	11,854	48,427
Additions	–	–	56	8,466	8,522
Disposals	–	–	(158)	–	(158)
Revaluations	–	498	1,309	–	1,807
Reclassifications	–	3,909	6,438	(10,347)	–
At 31 March 2022	437	14,350	33,838	9,973	58,598
Amortisation
At 1 April 2021	(437)	(7,417)	(9,859)	–	(17,713)
Charge in year	–	(1,614)	(7,171)	–	(8,785)
Disposals	–	–	158	–	158
Revaluations	–	(371)	(493)	–	(864)
At 31 March 2022	(437)	(9,402)	(17,365)	–	(27,204)
Carrying amount at 31 March 2022	–	4,948	16,473	9,973	31,394
Of the Total:
Core Department	–	4,948	14,990	9,973	29,911
Trade Remedies Authority	–	–	1,483	–	1,483
Carrying amount at 31 March 2022	–	4,948	16,473	9,973	31,394
Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2020	438	9,943	16,890	11,650	38,921
Additions	–	–	976	8,590	9,566
Disposals	(1)	–	(59)	–	(60)
Reclassifications	–	–	8,386	(8,386)	–
At 31 March 2021	437	9,943	26,193	11,854	48,427
Amortisation
At 1 April 2020	(292)	(4,766)	(5,024)	–	(10,082)
Charge in year	(146)	(2,651)	(4,894)	–	(7,691)
Disposals	1	–	59	–	(60)
At 31 March 2021	(437)	(7,417)	(9,859)	–	(17,713)
Carrying amount at 31 March 2021	–	2,526	16,334	11,854	30,714

The revaluation model has been applied for the first time in this reporting period as the value of intangible assets has become more significant to the Department’s financial statements. Comparative information has not been retrospectively adjusted as the impact on prior years is not material. All intangible assets are owned by the Departmental Group. Brought forward balances at 1 April 2020 and 1 April 2021 relate to Core Department only.

8. Financial instruments

As the cash requirements of the Department are met through the Estimates process, financial instruments play a more limited role in creating and managing risk than would apply to a non-public sector body of a similar size. The majority of financial instruments relate to contracts for non-financial items in line with the Department’s expected purchase and usage requirements and the Department is therefore exposed to minimal credit, liquidity or market risk.

Due to the largely non-trading nature of DIT’s activities and the way in which government departments are financed, DIT is not exposed to the degree of financial risk faced by business entities. Financial assets and liabilities are generated by day-to-day operational activities and are not held to change the risks facing DIT in undertaking its activities.

9. Cash and cash equivalents

	2021-22		2020-21
	Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	£000	£000	£000
At 1 April	11,892	11,892	59,106
Net change in cash and cash equivalents	(9,917)	(9,917)	(47,214)
At 31 March	1,975	1,975	11,892
The following balance was held at:
Government Banking Service	1,975	1,975	11,892
At 31 March	1,975	1,975	11,892

10. Trade and other receivables

	31 March 2022		31 March 2021
	Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	£000	£000	£000
Amounts falling due within one year
Trade receivables	1,488	1,488	1,756
VAT	11,103	11,103	9,518
Other receivables	8,865	8,872	2,966
Prepayments	5,983	6,065	6,459
Contract assets*	5,921	5,921	75
Total trade and other receivables	33,360	33,449	20,774

* Contract assets includes £5,032k due from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in respect of European Union Structural Investment Funds.

11. Trade and other payables

	31 March 2022		31 March 2021
	Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	£000	£000	£000
Amounts falling due within one year
Trade payables	23,290	23,352	16,931
Other payables	–	–	281
Amounts owed to BEIS*	30,528	30,528	27,410
Amounts owed to FCDO**	29,734	29,734	29,502
Accruals	37,038	37,960	35,455
Contract liabilites	351	351	3,406
Amounts issued from the Consolidated Fund for Supply but not spent at year end	1,975	1,975	11,892
Total trade and other payables	122,916	123,900	124,877

* relates to charges paid by BEIS on behalf of DIT, mainly staff related costs.

** relates to charges paid by FCDO on behalf of DIT (e.g. wages, travel and accommodation expenses for overseas staff).

Movement in contract liabilities balance

	2021-22		2020-21
	Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	£000	£000	£000
Contract liabilities balance at the beginning of the period	3,406	3,406	2,254
Decrease due to income recognised for contracts with customers during the year	(4,810)	(4,810)	(2,309)
Increase due to cash received	1,755	1,755	3,460
Contract liabilities balance at the end of the period	351	351	3,406

12. Provisions

	2021-22		2020-21
	Core Department	Departmental Group	Department
	£000	£000	£000
At 1 April	2,157	2,157	663
Provided in the year	2,536	2,536	1,878
Provisions not required written back	(246)	(246)	(97)
Provisions utilised in the year	(1,246)	(1,246)	(287)
At 31 March	3,201	3,201	2,157

At the reporting date, the largest provisions held by the Departmental Group related to the Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai, covering both retention payments in the construction contract and the expected decommissioning costs (£1,499k). Transition costs related to the in-housing of the International Trade Adviser network have also been provided for (£1,023k). All provisions are expected to be settled within one year.

13. Contingent liabilities

The Departmental Group has the following contingent liabilities for which the risk of crystallisation is considered greater than remote but is not thought probable. Amounts disclosed reflect the best estimate of the possible liability. These are summarised by the nature and purpose of the contingent liability:

	31 March 2022	31 March 2021
	£000	£000
Quantifiable contingent liabilities disclosed under IAS 37
Dilapidation liability for leased property. The Department is obligated to reimburse the Government Property Agency (GPA) for any dilapidations incurred during DIT’s tenure on property leased through the GPA when the underlying lease agreements between GPA and its landlords expire. The Department also has a possible obligation to pay for any dilapidations which arose before DIT’s lease agreements with GPA came into effect. The amount disclosed is the reasonable worst-case estimate.	3,829	3,800
Paid in capital subscription for the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) – Government is committed to the payment of a subscription of £2.24m, in the form of Promissory Notes to be redeemed on request by the fund.	2,240	2,240
Callable capital subscription for the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC) – Government is committed to the payment of a subscription of £1.96m to the fund.	1,960	1,960
Possible obligations arising from legal challenge The Department is intermittently subject to legal challenge from third parties on maters relating to International Trade or the discharge of its statutory obligations. The amount disclosed reflects the Department’s best estimate of compensation payable, including reimbursement of legal costss, for challenges that were ongoing at the reporting date.	372	750
Other quantifiable contingent liabilities Other quantifiable contingent liabilities include ongoing employment tribuals, incentive awards that may be payable to suppliers subject to performance, and other costs for which a present obligation has not yet been confirmed.	210	210
Total	8,611	8,960
Contingent liabilities relating to
Core Department	8,491	8,960
Trade Remedies Authority	120	–
Total	8,611	8,960

14. Commitments under leases

Operating leases

Total future minimum lease payments under operating leases are given in the table below for each of the following periods:

	31 March 2022		31 March 2021
	Core Department £000	Departmental Group £000	Department £000
Buildings
Not later than one year	7,136	7,424	581
Later than one year and not later than five years	29,310	29,620	206
Later than five years	73,315	73,315	–
Total	109,761	110,359	787

The operating lease payments represent rentals for buildings. The lease terms and rentals vary depending on the lease contracts and there are no specific restrictions imposed by the lease arrangements. The large increase in commitments is attributable to DIT signing a new long-term lease for Old Admiralty Building, London during the financial year.

The charge for the year in respect of operating leases as recognised within the Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure was £7,404k (2020-21: £8,876k).

15. Capital and financial commitments

The Departmental Group holds contracts with a number of delivery partners both in the UK and overseas. Upon notice of termination by either party, delivery partners may, where permitted under contract, submit an exit plan including costs for termination. The financial commitment in respect of all such delivery partners cannot be quantified. However, notices of termination which have already been served, by either the Department or delivery partners, are recognised in accordance with IAS 37 under provisions or contingent liabilities as appropriate.

16. Related party transactions

No minister, member of the DIT Board, key manager or other related party have undertaken any material transactions with DIT during the year. Details about the Board Members’ remuneration are included in the Remuneration Report.

DIT has entered into transactions with other government departments and central government bodies. The material transactions have been with HM Treasury (HMT), Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Government Property Agency (GPA), Cabinet Office, Government Legal Department (GLD), UKSBS Ltd, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), Ministry of Defence (MOD), The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), and Trade Remedies Authority (TRA – ALB).

17. Entities within the departmental boundary

The entities within the departmental boundary during 2021-22, as stipulated in the Designation and Amendment Orders presented to Parliament, comprise the Core Department and the Trade Remedies Authority (TRA). The TRA is a Non-Departmental Public Body which was established 1 June 2021.

Under the requirements of the Trade Act 2021, the TRA will prepare its first Annual Report and Accounts for the 22 months to 31 March 2023.

18. Events after the reporting period

The financial statements were authorised for issue by the Accounting Officer on the date they were certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Mike Freer MP resigned as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Minister for Exports, on 6 July 2022 and Lord Grimstone of Boscobel resigned as Minister of State for Investment on 7 July 2022. Further details are provided in the Corporate Governance Report.

The Department continues to follow strictly the recommendations of the Committee on Standards in Public Life and Cabinet Office guidelines on handling sponsorship arrangements with the private sector. During 2021-22, DIT agreed the following private sector sponsorship (only sponsorship exceeding £5,000 for a single event is shown here).

Sponsor	Amount (£)	Event Note
Accenture Plc	250,000	Global Investment Summit 2021
BP Plc	400,000	Expo 2020 Dubai
Majid Al Futtaim Group	374,000 estimated value in kind	Expo 2020 Dubai
CT Group Ltd	259,000 estimated value in kind	Expo 2020 Dubai
Barclays Plc	250,000	Global Investment Summit 2021
Nissan Motor Manufacturing (UK) Ltd	250,000(120,000 cash and 130,000 value in kind)	Global Investment Summit 2021
Royal College of Art	189,000	Expo 2020 Dubai
Ernst & Young Ltd	100,000	Global Investment Summit 2021
London EV Company Ltd	80,000 estimated value in kind	Expo 2020 Dubai
KPS Enterprises	57,000 estimated value in kind	Expo 2020 Dubai
Jaguar Land Rover Automotive Plc	50,000 estimated values in kind	Expo 2020 Dubai
Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd	50,000 estimated value in kind	Global Investment Summit 2021
Octopus Investments Ltd	20,000	Future Green Builders of Tomorrow Competition
Standard Chartered	6,000	UK-Turkey Green Finance Conference

Annex B: core tables

Administration budgets

	2017-18 Outturn	2018-19 Outturn	2019-20 Outturn	2020-21 Outturn	2021-22 Outturn	2022-23 Plan	2023-24 Plan	2024-25 Plan
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Spending in Administration budgets
Voted:
A. Department for International Trade (DEL)	80,232	118,201	148,523	159,225	158,061	193,505	196,011	195,837
B. TRA – Trade Remedies Authority (ALB) (Net) (DEL)	–	–	–	–	9,308	14,795	13,789	13,063
Total Administration expenditure	80,232	118,201	148,523	159,225	167,369	208,300	209,800	208,900

Resource

Past, current and future departmental resource spending

	2017-18 Outturn	2018-19 Outturn	2019-20 Outturn	2020-21 Outturn	2021-22 Outturn	2022-23 Plan	2023-24 Plan	2024-25 Plan
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Spending in Department Expenditure Limit (DEL)
Voted:
A. Department for International Trade (DEL)	380,716	410,722	474,582	501,377	521,640	543,060	540,767	534,693
B. TRA – Trade Remedies Authority (ALB) (Net) (DEL)	–	–	–	–	10,150	15,840	14,833	14,107
Total Resource DEL	380,716	410,722	474,582	501,377	531,790	558,900	555,600	548,800
Spending in Annually Managed Expenditure (AME)
Voted:
C. DIT – Department for International Trade (DEL)	125	690	778	1,814	1,471	3,000	–	–
Total Resource AME	125	690	778	1,814	1,471	3,000	–	–
Total Resource	380,841	411,412	475,360	503,191	533,261	561,900	555,600	548,800

Capital

Past, current and future departmental resource spending

	2017-18 Outturn	2018-19 Outturn	2019-20 Outturn	2020-21 Outturn	2021-22 Outturn	2022-23 Plan	2023-24 Plan	2024-25 Plan
	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000	£000
Spending in Department Expenditure Limit (DEL)
Voted:
A. Department for International Trade (DEL)	15,782	17,329	19,550	34,347	17,516	19,354	16,448	14,136
B. TRA – Trade Remedies Authority (ALB) (Net) (DEL)	–	–	–	–	233	1,291	1,052	764
Total Capital DEL	15,782	17,329	19,550	34,347	17,749	20,645	17,500	14,900
Spending in Annually Managed Expenditure (AME)
Voted:
C. DIT – Department for International Trade (DEL)	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total Capital AME	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total Capital	15,782	17,329	19,550	34,347	17,749	20,645	17,500	14,900

Supporting narrative to the Core Table is contained in the Financial Review.

Glossary

AME: Annually Managed Expenditure

ARAC: Audit and Risk Assurance Committee

BEIS: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy

CETV: Cash Equivalent Transfer Value

COP26: United Nations Climate Change Conference 2021

CPTPP: Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership

DDaT: Digital, Data and Technology

DEFRA: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs

DEL: Departmental Expenditure Limit

D&I: Diversity and Inclusion

DIT: Department for International Trade

DLUHC: Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

DMAS: Digital Market Access Service

ECJU: Export Control Joint Unit

EEA: European Economic Ara

EFTA: European Free Trade Association

ETP: Enhanced Trade Partnership

ExCo: Executive Committee

EU: European Union

FCDO: Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office

FDI: Foreign Direct Investment

FESSP: Future Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Shared Services Programme

FOI: Freedom of Information

FReM: Government Financial Reporting Manual

FTA: Free Trade Agreement

FTE: Full Time Equivalent

GDP: Gross Domestic Product

GDPR: General Data Protection Regulation

GGC: Greening Government Commitments

GIAA: Government Internal Audit Agency

GPA: Government Property Agency

GPG: Gender Pay Gap

GVA: Gross Value Added

HMRC: Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs

HMT: Her Majesty’s Treasury

HMTC: Her Majesty’s Trade Commissioner

IAS: International Accounting Standard

ICO: Information Commissioner’s Office

IFRS: International Financial Reporting Standards

IR35: Inland Revenue off-payroll tax

IRAP: Information Risk Assessment Process

ITA: International Trade Adviser

JETCO: Joint Economic and Trade Committee

JTR: Joint Trade Review

KPIs: Key Performance Indicators

LITE: Licensing for International Trade and Enterprise

MC12: 12th WTO Ministerial Conference

MCCO: Maritime Capability Campaign Office

MFN: Most Favoured Nation tariff schedule

MoU: Memorandum of Understanding

MPM: Managing Public Money

NAO: National Audit Office

NEBM: Non-Executive Board Member

NTM: Non-Tariff Measure

OAB: Old Admiralty Building

ODI: Outward Foreign Direct Investment

ODP: Outcome Delivery Plan

OECD: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

ONS: Office for National Statistics

PAC: Committee of Public Accounts

PCC: Projects and Change Committee

PCPF: Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund

PCSPS: Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme

PFRC: Performance, Finance and Risk Committee

PQ: Parliamentary Question

RTPs: Regional Trade Plans

SCS: Senior Civil Servant

SIELS: Standard Individual Export Licenses

SIP: Sovereign Investment Partnership

SMEs: Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

SR: Spending Review

TAC: Trade & Agriculture Commission

TRA: Trade Remedies Authority

UKEF: UK Export Finance

UKGT: UK Global Tariff

UK SBS: UK Shared Business Services Ltd

UNCTAD: United Nations Conference on Trade and Development

UNGGSD: United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development

WTO: World Trade Organization