Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they intend to establish a judge-led inquiry into allegations of UK involvement in torture overseas.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Further to the Prime Minister’s Written Statement of 22 November 2018 (HCWS1100), the Government continues to give serious consideration to the examination of detainee issues and whether any more lessons can be learned and, if so, how. This includes the question of whether or not there should be a further judge-led inquiry.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the current (1) number, and (2) value of contracts between Interserve and (a) government departments, (b) local authorities, and (c) other public agencies.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Details of central government contracts above the value of £10,000 and wider public sector contracts above the value of £25,000 are published on Contracts Finder.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the performance, and (2) the future of Interserve in the delivery of services commissioned by them or public bodies.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The various contracting authorities, such as individual departments, manage their contracts with Interserve including monitoring of performance against each contract.
The Cabinet Office monitors the financial health of all of our strategic suppliers, including Interserve, and have regular discussions with the company’s management. Interserve announced on 06 February 2019 that it had agreed the key commercial terms of its deleveraging plan with its lenders, bonding providers and Pension Trustee. We welcome this announcement and recognise that it is a key milestone for the company in delivering the long term plan that it set out in 2018.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many (1) EU students, and (2) students of other nationalities, remain in the UK after completing their university courses in the UK; and in each case for how long on average.
Answered by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply. What happens in terms of the migration system that will be established as we leave the EU is a matter that will be very closely scrutinised and looked at in great detail by the government and within the government.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the fact that four million people have been added to the electoral register in recent months, whether they will publish details of the comparison between the final register for the EU referendum and that as at December 2015, and if so when.
Answered by Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
The Electoral Commission will publish the total electorate for the EU referendum in due course.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they will require charities to take to establish that no part of their funding of lobbying activity is derived from Government grants.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
Recipients of public money through grants should maintain records of how that money is spent, as required by the grant agreement.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Bridges of Headley on 25 February (HL6124), what is their definition of "political campaigning and lobbying", and how they expect charities to establish that any expenditure on such campaigning and lobbying is funded exclusively from their own resources.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Cabinet Office's interim guidance on applying the new clause in government grant agreements can be found online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/interim-guidance-on-applying-a-new-clause-in-government-grant-agreements
Grant agreements are routinely subject to conditions, as well as a monitoring/audit process. The new grant clause builds on those existing processes
The new clause has successfully been trialled by the Department for Communities and Local Government over the last 12 months.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government to what extent their proposed new restrictions on lobbying by charities extend the existing restrictions imposed by charity legislation.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The announcement on 6 February was on a new clause for all government grant agreements. This new clause makes clear that grant recipients must not use the grant funding for political campaigning and lobbying unless it is expressly authorised in the grant agreement.
Charities remain free to lobby the government, subject to charity law restrictions. They simply cannot use government grant funding to do so.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what response they have made to the report of the Committee on Standards in Public Life on ethical standards for providers of public services submitted to the Cabinet Office in June 2014.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Government welcomed the Committee's consideration of ethical procurement issues in its report "Ethical standards for public services".
In our response of June 2015 we accepted a large number of the Committee's recommendations, including championing high ethical standards in our relationships with strategic suppliers and implementing ethical awareness.
Asked by: Lord Beecham (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many special advisers were employed on 1 November 2009, and at what total annual cost, and what were the figures on 1 November for each year thereafter.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
Information on the number and cost of special advisers for 2009 and subsequent years is available in the Libraries of the House. Information for 2015 will be published shortly.