Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how the Civil Service learning and development contracts awarded to KPMG and EY will complement UK Research and Innovation programmes like P2R: increasing UK policymaker engagement with research, which aim to strengthen direct links between policymakers, civil servants and UK research organisations.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service values its people, invests in their growth, and is serious about building the capability to meet the challenges of the future. This autumn the National School of Government and Public Services will formally open its doors to civil servants. The learning the school provides will boost public sector productivity and accelerate the pace of progress towards delivering the excellent, digitally-enabled public services to be expected from a modern state.
The learning and development contracts awarded to KPMG and EY enable the National School to procure evaluation and research services from UK universities and research organisations. This complements our wider evaluation, research and data strategy. As part of this, we recently launched our College of Experts, a set of academic and external experts who can bring insight to and advise on all aspects of the National School’s work, and presented on this work at the Universities Policy Engagement Network.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what role UK universities will have in the National School of Government and Public Services; and whether the School will have the ability to commission training and expertise directly from universities and university consortia.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service values its people, invests in their growth, and is serious about building the capability to meet the challenges of the future. This autumn the National School of Government and Public Services will formally open its doors to civil servants. The learning the school provides will boost public sector productivity and accelerate the pace of progress towards delivering the excellent, digitally-enabled public services to be expected from a modern state.
The National School will move away from the historical prime-contractor framework model. This new approach will create direct relationships with the learning and developing sector, including UK universities and university consortia. These relationships will be a combination of direct commercial relationships and strategic relationships.
We recently launched our College of Experts, a set of academic and external experts who can bring insight to and advise on all aspects of the National School’s work. The College of Experts will broaden the National School’s evidence base and strengthen knowledge exchange across government and academia.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of training under the new Civil Service learning and development contracts awarded to KPMG and EY they expect to be delivered by subcontractors; and what assessment they have made of the value for money of using contractors rather than procuring such expertise directly.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service values its people, invests in their growth, and is serious about building the capability to meet the challenges of the future. This autumn the National School of Government and Public Services will formally open its doors to civil servants. The learning the school provides will boost public sector productivity and accelerate the pace of progress towards delivering the excellent, digitally-enabled public services to be expected from a modern state.
Many of the Civil Service’s training needs can be delivered in-house, by civil servants and the government is committed to reducing outsourced training contracts as we transition to an in-house delivery model through the new National School. In the meantime, we need to provide continuity of current provision of essential training and development for civil servants.
The new contracts include an explicit aspiration to source at least 51% of the total contract value, excluding service charges, through small and medium enterprises, whether directly or indirectly through the supply chain.
There are three core elements upon which the centralised contracts deliver value for money:
Economies of scale: we leverage the Civil Service’s collective buying power to deliver significant savings;
Consistency: we ensure that consistent quality standards are maintained across all training programmes and across the Civil Service; and
Efficiency: applying a "build once, use many times" approach prevents the costly fragmentation that occurs when individual departments procure training separately and manage individual contracts.
Individual or direct procurement of learning prior to the launch of National School would remove the benefits of economies of scale, resulting in duplication and lack of consistency across central government departments. It would also take a significant portion of commercial and business resources to manage individual procurements and contracts thereafter.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to support retired civil servants who have not received their pensions from the Civil Service Pension Scheme in January.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government.
The issues and delays facing a number of civil servants and pension scheme members in accessing their pensions is unacceptable.
Angela MacDonald, Deputy Chief Executive at HMRC, is working with the Cabinet Office and Capita to lead and support delivery of a full recovery plan. This includes commitments, with milestones, to immediately deal with priority cases, restore service levels and improve communication with affected members.
In response, we have set up a dedicated team to work urgently with Capita, with 650 full time staff across Government and Capita and with an aim to restoring normal service as soon as possible. We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery.
Capita has prioritised the most urgent cases and by the end of February, all death in service cases were either settled or progressed to the final stage or awaiting a member response. A similar position will be reached for ill health retirement applications by mid-March.
Alongside these arrangements, Capita has prioritised payment of tax-free pension lump sums for members who had received quotations but were not in receipt of their benefits, with the vast majority of these having been paid in February.
Since 26 January, the recovery team has received detailed data on all the outstanding cases, allowing us to track progress and actively manage the most urgent situations.
The pension scheme continues to make monthly pension payments to approximately 730,000 existing pensioner members on time.
No former civil servant should be facing financial hardship as a result of delays to their pension and we are supporting government employers to provide direct support to people facing delays in their first payments.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with Capita about retired civil servants who have not received pensions from the Civil Service Pension Scheme in January.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government.
The issues and delays facing a number of civil servants and pension scheme members in accessing their pensions is unacceptable.
Angela MacDonald, Deputy Chief Executive at HMRC, is working with the Cabinet Office and Capita to lead and support delivery of a full recovery plan. This includes commitments, with milestones, to immediately deal with priority cases, restore service levels and improve communication with affected members.
In response, we have set up a dedicated team to work urgently with Capita, with 650 full time staff across Government and Capita and with an aim to restoring normal service as soon as possible. We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery.
Capita has prioritised the most urgent cases and by the end of February, all death in service cases were either settled or progressed to the final stage or awaiting a member response. A similar position will be reached for ill health retirement applications by mid-March.
Alongside these arrangements, Capita has prioritised payment of tax-free pension lump sums for members who had received quotations but were not in receipt of their benefits, with the vast majority of these having been paid in February.
Since 26 January, the recovery team has received detailed data on all the outstanding cases, allowing us to track progress and actively manage the most urgent situations.
The pension scheme continues to make monthly pension payments to approximately 730,000 existing pensioner members on time.
No former civil servant should be facing financial hardship as a result of delays to their pension and we are supporting government employers to provide direct support to people facing delays in their first payments.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the findings of the report published on 20 November by the UK COVID-19 Inquiry, Module 2, 2A, 2B, 2C Report: Core decision-making and political governance, what assessment they have made of the advisability of lockdowns in a future pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The Government remains committed to learning the lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic and to better prepare the country for future pandemics.
The Government will consider the findings and recommendations in the Module 2 report in detail and respond in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to appoint a Chair of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
An interim Chair of the Committee, Isabel Doverty, was appointed on 1 April 2025 by the Prime Minister. Ministers are considering options for the recruitment of a permanent Chair to lead ACOBA.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many competitions for public appointments have been paused before completion since 9 July 2024; what are the reasons for pausing these processes; and when they will be resumed.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
The public appointments digital system, run by the Cabinet Office, enables departments to effectively and consistently manage their public appointment campaigns. It shows the current stage of a campaign and the outcome when completed. However, the system does not record if a campaign has been paused, and where campaigns are paused, the Cabinet Office does not collect the reasons for this or data on when such campaigns might be resumed. That would be a matter for individual sponsor departments and their ministers as part of the normal day-to-day management of the recruitment campaigns they run.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to continue the process for appointing new members of the House of Lords Appointments Commission; and whether the appointment criteria have changed.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Captain of the King's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Ministers are in the process of considering the next steps for this campaign.
Asked by: Baroness Deech (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 11 May (HL7431), what assessment they have made of the impact of the cost limit for responding to freedom of information requests remaining at £600 since 2004 on (1) any curtailment of the time that may be spent in dealing with freedom of information requests, and (2) any increase in the number of refusals of requests as a result of that curtailment.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
There has been no curtailment, so no assessment has been made of any increase in the number of refusals as a result of the "curtailment"'. The cost limit is a calculation based on officials’ time and has remained at a flat rate of £25 per hour since 2004.