Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent discussions have taken place at Cabinet level on the issue of large-scale housing development being accompanied by social and community infrastructure and access to green space.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its committees is not normally shared publicly.
Asked by: Lord Blencathra (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government why membership of the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists is not a recognised Property Professional Accreditation within the Government Property Profession Career Framework.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Property and Built Environment has a large number of professional bodies and routes to qualification. The Government Property Profession Career Framework, which was introduced in 2020, sets the standard for accreditation across roles in the government property profession.
Departments are still able to set their own accreditation requirement where a role is particularly specialist or does not fit well in the Government Property Profession Career Framework. This means that if a department needs to recruit an Architectural Technologist, they would be able to do so.
In addition, in 2025/26 we will be reviewing the framework to ensure roles, skills and required accreditations reflect the current civil service workforce and future industry demands. We will engage with the Chartered Institute of Architectural Technologists as part of this process.
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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 - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
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.