Figures slipped out in the Department for International Trade's
annual report on Thursday evening show that government-backed
British exports crashed by almost a third last year.
The annual ‘export wins’ figure published by the DIT, which
measures export deals supported by its network of UK and overseas
staff, fell from £24.4 billion in 2019-20 to £16.9 billion in
2020-21.
The 30.7% decrease compares to a 17.8% fall in overall UK exports
in 2020-21, so cannot be explained by the impact of the Covid
pandemic alone.
, Labour’s Shadow International Trade Secretary,
said:
“In last year’s annual report, boasted
about her achievements in this area, saying ‘I am proud of the
£24.4 billion in Export Wins my department recorded in 2019-20.’
“In this year’s report, slipped out without a press release last
night, she has nothing to say about the catastrophic collapse she
has presided over in government-backed export deals.
“At a time when we urgently need to buy, make and sell more
British goods to drive our recovery from the pandemic, has shown
she is just not up to the task.”
Ends
Notes to editors
· The Department for International Trade’s Annual Report is
available here, with the export wins figures published as one of
its ‘key performance measures and statistics’ on Page 28: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1002839/DIT-annual-report-2020-to-2021.pdf
· Export Wins were first established as a performance measure by
the newly-created DIT in 2016/17. The figures published in each
year’s annual report since then are as follows:
o 2017/18: £30.5bn, 4.92 per cent of the total exports reported
by the DIT in that year;
o 2018/19: £27.2bn (down 10.8%), 4.23 per cent of the DIT’s total
exports figure;
o 2019/20: £24.4bn (down 10.3%), 3.53 per cent of the DIT’s total
exports figure; and
o 2020/21: £16.9bn (down 30.7%), 3.02 per cent of the DIT’s total
exports figure.
· In the 2020-21 Report, the DIT defines an ‘export win’ as
follows: “DIT records export deals, contracts, sales or
agreements where there has been support provided by our export
promotion operations as an Export Win...The metric is a
departmental performance measure and does not capture exporting
or investment activity on the same basis as measured in official
statistics.”
