Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil service employees who have requested flexible working hours have had that request accepted; and how many civil service employees made similar requests in the last three years.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The data of the nature being requested is not routinely captured or reported on by the Cabinet Office. Decisions on flexible working requests are made locally by departments, based on their business needs and delivery requirements.
As departments are individual employers they set out their employees’ terms and conditions, including any flexible working policies.
The Civil Service is fully focused on delivering for the British people and we have been clear on the benefits of face to face working, and departments across government remain committed to having staff working in offices at pre-pandemic levels.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what lessons they are learning from other countries about effective border controls in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic; and what they are doing to put those lessons into effect.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
Governments around the world have had to strike the correct balance between border restrictions and ensuring that essential travel remains possible.
The UK has one of the toughest border regimes in the world. We are taking a cautious approach to open up international travel to protect the UK from variants of concern and new infections while the vaccine roll-out is ongoing.
Given the challenge we see with the spread of new variants and the situation in many countries around the world, we must make sure that the countries we reconnect with are safe.
The recently introduced traffic light framework aims to protect public health whilst facilitating international travel, allowing families and friends to reunite and our businesses to start thriving again.
This analysis of border measures is one of many policies that are continuously inspected as an international comparison, alongside an array of other non-pharmaceutical interventions that are taken by countries in their response to COVID-19.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage data sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The National Data Strategy published in September 2020 sets out the Government's commitment to transform the way data is collected, managed, used and shared in government. Current initiatives to improve data sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic include:
Tackling legal barriers through promoting the data sharing provisions in the Digital Economy Act 2017 to speed up and simplify data sharing across government and supporting public bodies who would like to introduce new data sharing regulations in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Setting and driving the adoption of data standards to improve the consistency, integrity and interoperability of government data.
Improving the quality of government data through the work of the Data Quality Hub, such as the recently published Data Quality Framework.
Working with ONS to identify data sets to be shared across government to enable a better understanding of COVID-19 in the UK.
Improving data leadership in government to drive strategy by establishing a Chief Digital and Data Office.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they gave to including Zoroastrianism as a religion in the 2021 census.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
Everyone who wishes to identify as being Jain or Zoroastrian in the 2021 Census will be able to do so, using the write-in option in the religion question, supported online by the new search-as-you-type function. Both the Government and Office for National Statistics recognise the importance of ensuring that everyone who wishes to identify as Jain or Zoroastrian will be able to do so.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they gave to including Jainism as a religion in the 2021 census.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
Everyone who wishes to identify as being Jain or Zoroastrian in the 2021 Census will be able to do so, using the write-in option in the religion question, supported online by the new search-as-you-type function. Both the Government and Office for National Statistics recognise the importance of ensuring that everyone who wishes to identify as Jain or Zoroastrian will be able to do so.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they are seeking to encourage remote working in the public sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Government has been clear that people should work from home wherever possible. This applies to all workers, including those in the public sector, whilst recognising that many public sector workers continue to risk their lives in the service of their communities.
In the Civil Service, departments have been issued with working from home guidance as well as a practical working from home toolkit. This includes information on the safe and secure use of technology and data as well as advice on wellbeing, mental health and staying connected. Departments are creating their own guidance packages specific to their employees and are encouraging employees, their line managers and teams to have regular conversations during this period.
NHS England wrote to Chief Executives of all NHS trusts and providers of health services in March and April, asking that they continue to make adjustments, including allowing remote working where appropriate. All NHS secondary care providers now have access to video consultation technology to deliver some clinical care without the need for in-person contact. General practice has moved from carrying out around 90% of consultations as face-to-face appointments to managing more than 85% of consultations remotely.
To support the hard work of schools in delivering remote education, the Oak National Academy launched on 20 April - a brand-new enterprise created by 40 teachers from some of the leading schools across England, backed by government grant funding.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 6 March (HL1720), what specific actions they are taking in relation to (1) health, and (2) education, as a result of the data and analysis published by the Race Disparity Unit.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Race Disparity Unit (RDU) publishes data and analysis on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website about variances in treatment or outcome affecting people of different ethnicities in relation to health and education.
Changes to Government policy will be announced by departments in the usual way.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Earl Howe on 13 February (HL1307), what action they propose to take in relation to the data collated for, and published by, the Race Disparity Unit.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The Race Disparity Unit publishes data and analysis on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website (https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/). This is consistent with our commitment to improve the quality of evidence and data on the barriers faced by different groups.
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how they are carrying forward work on the Race Disparity Audit.
Answered by Earl Howe - Deputy Leader of the House of Lords
The Race Disparity Unit (RDU) continues to collate and publish data about ethnicity in the UK. The RDU also continues to publish reports on ethnicity, the most recent being on the Black Caribbean, Indian and Chinese ethnic groups. In addition to this, the RDU published 9 updates (https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/dashboards/whats-new) to existing data in January 2020 across a range of topics including school teacher workforce, pupil exclusions, judges and non-legal members of the judiciary, Prison officer workforce, and NHS workforce
Asked by: Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they plan to take to tackle election malpractices.
Answered by Lord Wallace of Saltaire - Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson (Cabinet Office)
The integrity of elections is crucial to our democracy. The Government is introducing measures to strengthen the electoral system through the introduction of Individual Electoral Registration which will make the register more accurate and secure.
The Government will carefully consider any findings by the Electoral Commission in relation to the 22 May 2014 elections to determine whether any further measures may be needed to support electoral integrity.