Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Civil Service People Plan 2024–2027, published on 10 January 2024, what was the cost to central government departments of ensuring 100 per cent of Senior Civil Servants achieved Chartered FCIPD status and 100 per cent of G6/G7 officials achieved Chartered MCIPD status by 1 April 2024.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

There are several methods of gaining CIPD Membership including study options, apprenticeships and experiential routes. For experiential routes, there is a central Cabinet Office contract with the CIPD for departments to utilise. The costs associated with this accreditation to date are provided below:

Departments may also utilise other methods that are available for their SCS and Grade 6/7 HR professionals to gain CIPD membership that are not included in the central Cabinet Office contract

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Civil Service People Plan 2024–2027, published on 10 January 2024, whether the Central Employee Identifier has been fully implemented across government.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

No, the Central Employee Identifier has not been fully implemented across government. The capability to issue IDs is available but changing the legacy ERPs across government departments to hold this has been deemed inefficient with the new cluster ERPs about to commence rollout. These will be following the data standards laid out in the Nova model which includes holding the Central Employee Identifier.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many legal aid providers held contracts but did not take on any cases in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

In the financial year 2023/24, of the 1320 legal aid providers holding a contract to deliver civil legal aid services, 81 (6%) did not take on any cases within that period. Of those 81 providers, only 18 have a current contract to deliver civil legal aid services.

Of the 1066 legal aid providers holding a contract to deliver criminal legal aid services, 22 (2%) did not take on any cases in that period. Of those 22 providers, only 6 have a current contract to deliver criminal legal aid services.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to pages 8 and 64 of the Sourcing Playbook, published in June 2023, how many suppliers are currently classified as "public sector dependent suppliers".

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Cabinet Office maintains a list of public sector dependent suppliers where the suppliers have a contractual obligation to confirm their status to us. 7 suppliers have currently notified us that they are public sector dependent suppliers. The Cabinet Office does not hold a list of all public sector dependent suppliers.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Twycross on 27 January (HL3974), whether contracting authorities that fail to publish pipeline notices under section 93 of the Procurement Act 2023 are subject to financial penalties; and if not, what consideration has been given to introducing such penalties to encourage compliance.

Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Procurement Act 2023 does not contain financial penalties for failure to publish pipeline notices. There are sufficient remedies and processes in place to manage compliance and the Cabinet Office considers it would not be good use of public funds to introduce such a measure. As per the previous answer (HL3974), Cabinet Office is establishing the Procurement Review Unit which will play a big part in procurement oversight and any non-compliance will be monitored and potentially investigated in detail.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Merron on 30 January (HL3973), what was the total cumulative impairment of public dividend capital for each NHS provider listed in that answer in each of the past 10 financial years, broken down by financial year.

Answered by Baroness Merron - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)

The attached table shows the cumulative Public Dividend Capital impairment for each of the listed NHS Providers in HL3973, per year, for the past seven financial years.

Please note that as detailed on page 187 of the document, Department of Health and Social Care Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20, Public Dividend Capital impairments have only been recognised on an individual provider basis by the Department since the 2019/20 Annual Report and Accounts, which included a prior period adjustment to apply the same across 2017/18 and 2018/19. Due to the size of the document, a copy has been placed in the Library.

For this reason, the Department has been unable to provide data for the past 10 financial years, although the Department has provided the full information held.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the DFE Government Major Projects Portfolio Data March 2024, published on 16 January, what assessment they have made of the expected monetised benefits of the Early Years Childcare Reform Programme, given its reported whole life cost of £15.1 billion; why these benefits are currently recorded as "£0 million"; and by what date they expect to finalise and publish a full benefits realisation plan.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)

The data published on 16 January 2025 reflects the status and delivery stage of the early years and childcare programme, as of 31 March 2024. Since then, central estimates for the financial benefits of extending early years education and childcare entitlements were published in April 2024 by the National Audit Office. These estimates indicate, as of March 2024, a benefit-to-cost ratio of £1.26:£1.00, and a total benefit of £15.972 billion.

The Office for Budget Responsibility also estimated that 60,000 additional parents will enter work, and 1.5 million will increase their working hours by 2027/28 as a result of the policy.

As expected of all Major Projects that form part of the Government Major Projects Portfolio, we will continue to provide regular data to the Infrastructure and Projects Authority on the progress of programme delivery. Now the programme is in live delivery, we will continue to monitor how these estimated benefits develop throughout the programme lifecycle and at the appropriate points provide an update on our position, reflecting the latest delivery data.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the 2022–2025 Roadmap for Digital and Data, published on 29 November 2023, how many of the 50 government services that were due to reach a “great” standard by 2025 have now met that standard; whether they remain committed to this target; and if not, why this commitment has been omitted from the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government, published on 21 January.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology has provided a report to the Public Accounts Committee on the closure of the 2022-25 Roadmap. The report indicates that 29 of the Top 75 Services have reached the ‘Great’ standard, an increase from 8 ‘Great’ services at baselining.

The Government Digital Service has established a Service Transformation team to drive delivery of the next phase of service transformation work set out in Blueprint for Modern Digital Government, building on the learnings from the Top75 Services Programme.

As set out in the Blueprint, the government will develop a detailed Government Digital & AI Roadmap alongside the second phase of the Spending Review, to be published in summer 2025. This will supersede the 2022-2025 Roadmap, and will include details of how we plan to measure progress through the next phase of digital transformation.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many government departments met the April 2023 deadline to confirm an adoption strategy for One Login, as set out in the 2022–2025 Roadmap for Digital and Data, published on 29 November 2023; whether the Blueprint for Modern Digital Government sets a new deadline for full adoption; and if not, why no specific timeframe has been included in the strategy.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

In the 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, Mission Two states that 'All departments will confirm an adoption strategy and roadmap for One Login by April 2023 and their services will have begun onboarding by 2025.'

In April 2023, 16 of the 17 departments in scope had a delivery plan and were working with GDS to onboard their first services. All departments in scope have now committed to onboarding services to GOV.UK One Login, and are actively implementing delivery plans. 59 services have onboarded to GOV.UK One Login, with an extensive roadmap of new services scheduled to onboard over the course of the next 12 months. They are supported by the GDS Onboarding and Engagement team who provide advice and assets to enable technical service teams to onboard their services smoothly.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many Ministry of Justice projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio have been delayed due to planning permission in each of the past five years, broken down by (1) project, (2) length of delay, and (3) additional costs incurred.

Answered by Lord Timpson - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Ministry of Justice’s Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) includes 21 projects. 7 of these make up the 20k Prison Place Programmes, which developed from the original 10,000 places commitment announced in 2019 under the previous Government.

These projects are:

• 10k Additional Prison Places – New Build

• 10k Additional Prison Places Estate Expansion Category D

• 10k Additional Prison Places Estate Expansion Houseblocks and Refurbishments

• Accelerated Houseblocks Delivery Programme

• PFI Expiry and Transfer Tranche 2

• Rapid Deployment Cell Project

• Small Secure Houseblocks

Several of the 20k programmes experienced a range of delays due to planning determination outside of the statutory timeframe. It means that despite promising to deliver 20,000 prison places by the mid 2020s, the previous Government only delivered approximately 6,000 as set out in the 10-year Capacity Strategy.

Within the New Prisons Programme, known as the 10k Additional Prison Places – New Build within the GMPP, delays to planning determinations have been documented in the recently published 10-Year Prison Capacity Strategy. The strategy outlines challenges in securing planning permission at the new prisons in Lancashire, Buckinghamshire and Leicestershire, which were in the planning system for 40 months, 30 months and 29 months respectively. The strategy notes that each three-month delay to a new prison adds around £8 million in construction cost inflation.

We are unable to draw out the specific, quantifiable time and cost impact of individual planning delays alone on the overall delivery of the majority of the 20k programmes, as the delays were cumulative with planning being one of several factors, including site-specific requirements and administration of key contractors.

No other Ministry of Justice GMPP projects on the list published in January 2025 have been delayed due to planning permission.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many central government organisations have submitted business cases for pay flexibility under the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance 2024–25, published on 29 July 2024; and how many have been approved.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

For 2024/2025, the Cabinet Office has received 11 business cases. Of these, two have been approved to date.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) annual report and accounts 2023–24, published on 24 July, when they expect the Office for National Statistics to complete its review of the CCS classification status; whether they support reclassifying the CCS as a central government entity; and how such a reclassification might affect the trading fund model and the future financial freedoms of the CCS.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

HM Treasury (HMT) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) initiated a formal review of the sector classification in 2024 of CCS as part of their ongoing programme of assessments of the statistical and financial reporting classification of public sector bodies in the National Accounts. The ONS completed the final review in October 2024 and published the outcome on its website. It concluded that CCS’s existing sector classification as a public corporation is correct. This means that CCS will remain a Trading Fund.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/governmentpublicsectorandtaxes/publicsectorfinance/articles/developmentofpublicsectorfinancestatistics/september2024

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the Government Commercial Function’s report Raising standards: our ambition (17 May 2024), whether the Procurement Review Unit has powers to compel disclosure of procurement-related documents and conduct on-site audits of contracting authorities; and if not, whether they have conducted an assessment of the feasibility of amending the Procurement Act 2023 to grant such powers.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Procurement Review Unit (PRU) has been established to exercise the procurement oversight powers set out in Part 10 of the Procurement Act 2023 (the Act). Part 10 comprises three provisions (sections 108-110) which provide for the investigation of a contracting authority’s compliance with the requirements of the Act, the issuing of recommendations to a contracting authority following an investigation and the publishing of statutory guidance to all contracting authorities.

Under section 108 (procurement investigations) the PRU can formally request, via notice, that a relevant contracting authority provide documents and give assistance in connection with the investigation, as is reasonable. The contracting authority has 30 days to comply with the notice.

The conducting of on-site visits to aid investigations may fall under the scope of “give assistance” and would be by mutual agreement between the PRU and the contracting authority. The circumstances giving rise to an on-site visit would have to be proportionate and relevant to the investigation. On-site audits or visits are not currently contemplated as part of a standard PRU investigation, and nor are we considering an amendment to Part 10 of the Act to provide such powers, although the procurement oversight powers and processes will remain under review as the new regime embeds.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the Government Commercial Function’s report Raising standards: our ambition (17 May 2024), whether they will publish the findings and recommendations of Procurement Review Unit investigations on Gov.uk; and what assessment they have made of the merits of requiring their publication by default, except where necessary to safeguard national security or sensitive commercial information.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

In accordance with Part 10, the results of any investigations, including any s.109 recommendations and progress reports submitted by the contracting authority may be published, assessed on a case by case basis. Such documents will be published on GOV.UK. Any s.109 recommendations will be issued to support the contracting authority’s compliance with the requirements of the Act and follow a lessons learned approach in order for contracting authorities to reflect on their own approach to compliance and identify areas for improvement.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether a supplier that has been debarred from rendering procurement services in a foreign jurisdiction is automatically debarred from UK public procurement; and what criteria are used to assess whether a foreign debarment should be recognised in the UK.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Procurement Act, which comes into force on 24 February 2025, will allow the Government to investigate high-risk suppliers on behalf of the entire public sector.

International debarment lists can be considered as part of a debarment investigation that determines whether an exclusion ground applies and enables a Minister of the Crown to decide whether the supplier should be placed on the debarment list.

A live debarment investigation does not prevent a supplier from bidding for public contracts or provide a basis for any further regulatory or legal action against the supplier.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent government procurement suppliers from facing legal or regulatory action for bidding for public procurement contracts while being investigated by authorities under the Procurement Act 2023.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Procurement Act, which comes into force on 24 February 2025, will allow the Government to investigate high-risk suppliers on behalf of the entire public sector.

International debarment lists can be considered as part of a debarment investigation that determines whether an exclusion ground applies and enables a Minister of the Crown to decide whether the supplier should be placed on the debarment list.

A live debarment investigation does not prevent a supplier from bidding for public contracts or provide a basis for any further regulatory or legal action against the supplier.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Twycross on 28 January (HL3970), why the reclassification of the sub-lease from an operating lease to a finance lease was not reflected in the 2022–23 accounts or identified during its 2022–23 audit, given that the deed of variation was agreed in March 2023; and why it was only corrected in the 2023–24 accounts.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The reclassification of the sub-lease from an operating lease to a finance lease arose due to a correction in a sub-lease extension which was identified during 2023/24.

A lease end extension that was agreed by both parties in February 2023 was not clearly documented in the Deed of Variation, resulting in GPA’s Horizon system incorrectly recording the lease end date as 2033. As a result, this was accounted for as an operating lease as at March 2023.

The error in the lease end date was identified during 2023/24 when the Deed of Variation needed updating for occupancy and rent setting changes. At this point, the Horizon system was updated to reflect the correct lease end date of 2045. Correcting the lease end date changed the classification from an operating lease to a finance lease.

GPA has strengthened its control processes as a result of identifying this error. Unambiguous data tables are now attached to each occupancy agreement and signed off by both Property and Finance teams to: prevent future misinterpretation of lease terms, ensure the accurate uploading of lease data onto the Horizon system, and ensure that the accounting for leases accurately reflects the agreed lease terms.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the publication of the Crown Commercial Service annual report and accounts 2023–24, published on 24 July, what criteria are used to determine which public bodies receive payments under the new Customer Payment Initiative; what administrative costs have and will be incurred in operating this scheme for the past and next financial year; and what assessment they have made of reducing the CCS levy rate instead of issuing payments under the Customer Payment Initiative.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

Customers who have used CCS agreements in FY2022/23 were eligible to receive a payment in proportion to the amount of income collected by CCS from suppliers as result of those customers’ transactions.

Activity by customers on 231 frameworks has contributed to the distribution to individual customers, with the lowest value payment threshold being set at £1k, resulting in just under 1,500 customers being eligible to receive a payment. These payments are not part of any written agreement and are non-contractual.

CCS has not made an assessment of the administrative costs that have been, or will be, incurred in operating this scheme.

CCS is considering its opportunities to reduce its levy rates on a case by case basis as new agreements are put in place. Frameworks do not provide a level of committed spend and therefore reducing levy rates across the board would incur an unnecessary degree of risk into CCS’s financial planning. CCS’s levy rates are the lowest of all Public Sector Buying Organisations, at an average of 0.7% across the whole portfolio.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many government departments currently lack a strategic asset management plan; and what actions they are taking to ensure that all departments have one.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The UK Government Functional Standard for Property GovS 004 sets expectations for the management of government property - including mandating a forward-looking strategic asset management plan (SAMP).

Departments are responsible for their own asset plans, and the Office of Government Property in the Cabinet Office supports their planning as part of the assurance process for the property function. Departments are asked to share their ‘working copy’ plans each year, which provides the ‘functional centre’ with an overview of their strategic intentions to help inform the development of cross-government policy and programmes.

In 2024, all but one ministerial department produced an asset plan. By agreement, some departments did not produce a stand alone plan but are featured in the Government Property Agency’s office portfolio SAMP as its clients. The Government Chief Property Officer is currently writing to all Property Leaders in Departments reminding them of their responsibility to have an up to date strategic asset management plan.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government why they have not published data on central Government spend with small and medium-sized enterprises beyond the financial year 2021–22; and when they plan to publish figures for subsequent financial years.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

On 13 February the Government published a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS), which sets out our priorities for public procurement and maximises the impact of every pound spent. New measures to support the transformation of public procurement and to deliver on the Government’s Plan for Small Businesses includes requiring all government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 1 April 2025, and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSEs) from 1 April 2026, and publish progress annually.

Under this new policy, departments will be responsible for publishing their own spend with SMEs on an annual basis. Departmental SME Action Plans (published from 1 April 2025) will include SME spend targets approved by departmental Ministers and any previous financial years unpublished SME spend data.