Lord Colgrain

The Parliamentary Works Sponsor Body and Restoration and Renewal (R&R) Delivery Authority were established in April and May 2020 respectively. The Sponsor Body was abolished on 1 January 2023 and its functions transferred to the R&R Client Team in Parliament. Prior to this, work related to the restoration and renewal of the Palace was funded and managed by the House Administrations. Both the R&R Client Team and Delivery Authority routinely publish information on costs, for instance in quarterly reports, annual reports, and memoranda provided to the Parliamentary Works Estimates Commission, as did the Sponsor Body prior to its abolition.

Staff costs for the Sponsor Body for its full two years of operation (2020-21 and 2021-22) are set out in its Annual Reports and Accounts (available at https://www.restorationandrenewal.uk/sponsor-body-archive), and amount to approximately £8.4 million. In 2022-23 the Sponsor Body was abolished and its costs merged into the R&R Client Team, which is a joint department of both Houses.

It is not possible to disaggregate recruitment fees for the Sponsor Body as this falls within other elements of expenditure. Approximately £540,000, excluding employer’s pensions and national insurance contributions, was paid in settlement payments to senior staff of the Sponsor Body (three Executive Directors and the Accounting Officer) which they were entitled to under their contracts, rather than seeking to transfer to the new Client Team. These settlement payments were approved by the Sponsor Body Nominations and Renumerations Committee and audited by the National Audit Office.

Staff costs for the R&R Delivery Authority from 2020-21 to 2023-24 are set out in its Annual Report and Financial Statements (available at https://www.restorationandrenewal.uk/about-us/corporate-publications), and amount to approximately £59.1 million. Recruitment fees in the Delivery Authority over this period amount to approximately £710,000.

Under the R&R Programme, tens of thousands of hours of complex building surveys and investigations to develop ever more detailed records of the Palace of Westminster have been carried out. These records are being used to inform design and planning, and future decisions on the essential restoration work required. Since its establishment in 2020 up to the end of 2023-24, the R&R Delivery Authority has spent approximately £28 million on surveys to the Palace.

The estimated costs incurred by the R&R Delivery Authority in respect of developing and assessing the QEII Conference Centre as the preferred decant location of the House of Lords from 2020-21 to 2023-24 is £12m. These figures do not include Sponsor Body, R&R Client Team, or House of Lords staff costs and do cover some other work related to temporary accommodation, where it is not possible to disaggregate work carried out by contractors to cover multiple activities. The work to assess and prepare for House of Commons decant location options, including the expenditure for that work, is the responsibility of the governance bodies in the House of Commons.

There are no plans to issue legislation to impose legal duties on landowners to restrict the growth of ragwort. The Government’s ‘Code of Practice on How to Prevent the Spread of Ragwort’ (see attached) sets out guidance for landowners on when and how common ragwort should be removed, taking into account both animal welfare and environmental considerations.

The Code does not seek to eradicate common ragwort, but only seeks to control its spread where it poses a high risk of spreading to agricultural land, for example land used for grazing.

Accurate financial information for the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCAs) can be found in the published Consolidated Financial Statements in their Annual Reports and Accounts, the latest three of which were placed in the Library of the House on 22 October 2024. These documents extend to Financial Year (FY) 2022-23 and can be found as Deposited Papers at the following website: https://depositedpapers.parliament.uk/depositedpaper/2286623/details.

The RFCA’s Annual Report and Accounts for FY 2023-24 are not yet finalised but will be published in due course. The RFCA’s budget for FY 2024-25 is held across a number of different funding lines and will be published in due course through the Annual Report and Accounts process.

The estimated annual projected costs to the Ministry of Defence of the 145 volunteers who are members of an executive board, i.e. the Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Associations (RFCA) Executive Boards, the Council of Reserve Forces and Cadets Association (CRFCA) and the CRFCA Board, is a maximum of approximately £45,000.

This estimate is based on 100 per cent of the volunteers claiming 100 per cent of their travel and subsistence costs. In reality, the actual cost of expenditure claims associated with RFCA Executive Boards is likely to be far lower; a number of RFCAs report nil cost. The vast majority of active members make no claims, reflecting their sense of service and deep connection with the UK’s Reserve Forces and Cadets.

The Reserve Forces’ and Cadets’ Association (RFCA) is a centrally coordinated national body that delivers its outputs locally, by local people, to support the sustainment and generation of Reserve Forces. The RFCA and the 13 Regional RFCAs purposefully sit outside of the Chains of Command (as an Arm’s Length Body) in order to support better outcomes for the public.

The RFCA has an extensive volunteer membership (numbering around 8,000), bringing a wide breadth of expertise and community links. The RFCAs’ extensive network of volunteer members, based within communities across the UK, enable the RFCAs to better connect to society.

Volunteers assist in providing the RFCAs with the information and knowledge needed to discharge their duties. While the number of hours volunteered is not formally recorded either for the volunteer membership or non-executive board members, it is estimated that this figure is around 69,000 hours per year.

HM Prison and Probation Service continues to operate five working farms which provide employment, skills, and produce for the internal market. Over 70 prisons offer horticultural training opportunities, which assist prisoners with gaining sector-specific skills and experiences.

We also recognise the value of farms, horticultural and land-based activity for improving wellbeing and addressing poor mental health. We continue to develop a range of opportunities for accessing farms and gardens to learn new positive skills, including growing food and environmental improvement.