Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their reason for replacing the Union Jack flag flying above His Majesty's Treasury with a flag to celebrate Gay Pride.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Following instruction from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (the government department responsible for informing other departments regarding flag flying protocol), for the assigned period the flag in recognition of Pride month was flown over 100 Parliament Street. This is the official and principal address and entrance for the following Departments:
HM Revenue and Customs
Department of Culture, Media and Sport
Department of Science, Innovation and Technology
The Union Flag was flown during the same period at 1 Horse Guards Road, the official and principal address and entrance for the following Departments:
HM Treasury
UK Export Finance
Northern Ireland Office
Cabinet Office
This has been confirmed with the operatives who manage the flags process for designated flying days.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the security cameras installed in the combined government offices at Quay House in Peterborough, which includes the offices of the Passport Office, Natural England and Joint Nature Conservation Committee, are supplied by Hikvision. [I]
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
As has been the case under successive administrations, it is not government policy to comment on the security arrangements of government departments. Specific details regarding the security systems used by departments are withheld on national security grounds.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what internal disciplinary action has been taken against officials who were fined for breaking Covid rules.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Metropolitan Police have made clear that they have issued Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs) in private and the identities of recipients will not be released to the public or to their employer.
In line with the practice of successive administrations, the Government does not comment on individual personnel matters.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which official or officials recommended that the President of the European Commission should have a high-level political meeting with HM The King.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
His Majesty’s Government operates on the principle of collective responsibility. The Government would not normally comment on the internal processes of how such advice is determined.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil servants were employed in each government department in each year from 2015 to the present day.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Civil service headline employment numbers by government departments on both a headcount and full-time equivalent (FTE) basis are published each quarter by ONS as part of their Quarterly Public Sector Employment release. The quarterly data from June 2011 to September 2022 (the latest published data) are available at Table 9 of each of the quarterly datasets from the link below, and has been collated into the attached.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil servants who were issued fixed-penalty notices in relation to gatherings in Downing Street that broke the COVID-19 rules, are still working in any of the buildings in Downing Street.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government does not hold this information; this was an operational matter for the Metropolitan Police.
Notwithstanding, I would refer the noble peer to the report published by the Second Permanent Secretary of 25 May 2022, and the Government's response of 25 May 2022, Official Report, House of Commons, Cols. 295-297.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the activities of a:gender within Government departments, including its support for a statement by the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention dated 29 November 2022 which describes the gender critical movement as “fascist” and “genocidal”.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
A:gender is one of the cross-government networks which operates across the Civil Service. All of these networks are expected to operate within the Civil Service Code and its values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether safeguards around government procurement prevent goods produced by slave labour in Xinjiang from entering UK supply chains.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
This government is committed to preventing modern slavery occurring in public sector supply chains.
The Cabinet Office has published commercial policy and guidance setting out the steps that all Government departments must take to identify and mitigate modern slavery and labour abuse risks throughout the commercial life cycle focussing on the areas of highest risk. This policy is mandatory for all Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies. The policy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0519-tackling-modern-slavery-in-government-supply-chains.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what estimate they have made, if any, of the amount by which the gender pay gap has been narrowed by the inclusion of biological men who identify as women in the same statistical category as biological women.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician
The Rt Hon. the Lord Blencathra
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
16 November 2021
Dear Lord Blencathra,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate they have made, if any, of the amount by which the gender pay gap has been narrowed by the inclusion of biological men who identify as women in the same statistical category as biological women (HL3757).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes the annual Gender Pay Gap statistics; the latest data for 2021 was published on 26 October (1). These data are formed from the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), for which employers are asked to supply pay levels for a 1% sample of employees taken from the Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) system. ASHE does not collect information on either sex or gender directly. This information is taken from the PAYE data supplied by HMRC for the sample, provided to them by employers in respect of their employees (2).
This means that we do not currently have data on the earnings of transgender people (those whose gender identity is different from their sex registered at birth). In October 2020, I commissioned an independent Inclusive Data Taskforce to recommend how best to make a step-change in the inclusivity of UK data and evidence. Its report identified transgender people as among those about whom the absence of data reflecting their lives and experiences was especially critical (3).
Following the inclusion of a gender identity question for the first time in Census 2021, we will have more data about this population than ever before. The first results from Census 2021 will be available in late spring 2022, followed by further statistical and analytical publications, including on gender identity. When census data processing is complete, the ONS will explore what insights about the experiences of transgender people can be gained based on the census and other data.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether all government departments are expected to abide by the Cabinet Office Consultation Principles and Code of Practice to conduct 12-week formal written consultations where the voluntary and community sector are involved.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government Consultation Principles provide departments with guidance on conducting consultations. Individual departments are accountable for their own consultation practice.
The Consultation Principles replaced the Code of Practice on Consultations in 2012 and were updated in 2018. The Principles do not prescribe a minimum length of a consultation but are clear that consultations should last for a proportionate amount of time. The length of a consultation should be judged on a case by case basis and in certain cases consulting for too long will unnecessarily delay policy development.