Speeches made during Parliamentary debates are recorded in Hansard. For ease of browsing we have grouped debates into individual, departmental and legislative categories.
These initiatives were driven by Lord Kempsell, and are more likely to reflect personal policy preferences.
Lord Kempsell has not introduced any legislation before Parliament
Lord Kempsell has not co-sponsored any Bills in the current parliamentary sitting
The GOV.UK One Login system is fully operational providing a simple and secure way for people to access government services online.
Users can create an account, login and prove (and then reuse) their identity - through either a web-based journey, smartphone app or in-person route - to access an initial set of 30 government services. This includes important services such as ‘Request a Disclosure and Barring Service Basic Check’ and ‘Apply for an HM Armed Forces Veteran Card’. More than 3.8 million people have so far proven their identity through GOV.UK One Login, while its app has been downloaded more than 5 million times. GOV.UK One Login’s customer contact centre and technical service desk are now live.
Further government services - from HMRC to DWP and DVLA - are due to come on board over the next year. GDS will also continue to optimise GOV.UK One Login’s user journeys, for example by broadening the range of documents and evidence that people can use to prove who they are online.
Within the Government Property Agency managed estate of 65 sites, 100% of these are confirmed to have smart meters installed. Data for other sites would need to be provided by the utility provider or by Departments managing those sites.
The transition to a more flexible energy system plays a vital role in decarbonising the Government office portfolio. Smart meters are one simple step on this journey and that is why one of the work streams identified for investment by Government Property Agency is the adoption of programmes to install smart meters and ensure automatic meter readings across their portfolios.
Within the Government Property Agency managed estate there are 6 designated smoking and vaping areas. These are at the following GPA locations:
10 South Colonnade
Whitechapel Building
70 Whitehall
Leicester
Stoke on Trent
Mold
These are either legacy arrangements or provided by the superior landlord for all tenants.
The UK Government has a set of consultation principles which give guidance to government departments and other public bodies on the principles they should adopt for engaging with stakeholders on developing policy and legislation.
These principles encourage policy makers to consider what they are seeking to achieve through any consultation when determining when, with whom and how to consult. The guidance directs policy teams to design consultations on a case-by-case basis to best engage the cohorts of relevance to the subject of the consultation and gather the best possible information to assist with policy development. The consultation principles were last updated in 2018 and are published on gov.uk at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-principles-guidance
A list of policy papers and consultations is also published on gov.uk at the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/search/policy-papers-and-consultations
The details of the grant schemes referred to the Complex Grants Advice Panel are not routinely published and there are no plans to publish them. Many of the grant schemes that the Panel reviews are in the early stages of design and development. Some do not go ahead.
As part of the transparency agenda, the Government grants management function collates and publishes data on grant schemes and awards from all government departments annually to show how public funds are spent through the grants funding mechanism. This data is published on gov.uk in March each year (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-grants-data-and-statistics). The data for 22/23 will be published on 21 March 2024.
The government launched the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) in 2022, and a key principle was that it should be expert-led. The PSFA is developing the capability of public servants in dealing with fraud through the Government Counter Fraud Profession. The standards and guidance that the Function creates, led from the PSFA, must be used in central government, and can be used more widely in the public sector and beyond. Since its inception in 2018, GCFP membership has expanded to over 7000 members beyond central government, including policing and local government.
The government is proactively seeking to find and prevent more fraud in the system and has invested an extra £1bn in tackling fraud and error since Autumn 2021 across government. This included £24.7m funding over three years to support the creation of the PSFA, building on lessons learned in the management of fraud risk and loss in the pandemic.
The PSFA regularly engages with Cabinet Office and HMT Ministers and Parliament, via the Public Accounts Committee, on its work and progress against its published mandate. In addition, the PSFA further engages with, and reports to, the National Audit Office.
In order to maintain its commitment to transparency, the PSFA publishes annual plans and annual reports. Last year the PSFA updated Parliament through a Written Ministerial Statement and by depositing a copy of the 2022-2023 Annual Report in the Library of both Houses.
The Evaluation Task Force (ETF) is responsible for the Magenta Book: Central Government guidance on evaluation.
The ETF plans to update the Magenta Book by the end of the 2025/26 financial year.
The Places for Growth Programme has relocated 30.9% of the UK-based Senior Civil Service outside of London since March 2020. The programme continues to engage closely with departments to accelerate SCS role relocations outside London in order to meet the 2030 50% commitment.
A review by the Prime Minister’s Implementation Unit in 2019 found that only 8% of the spending on Major Projects had robust impact evaluation plans. The Evaluation Task Force is currently undertaking a new review of evaluation in the current Government Major Projects Portfolio, which now represents £805 billion of whole-life costs, compared with £432 billion in 2019. The findings from this new review, alongside an action plan that describes how improvements will be made, is planned to be published this year.
Evaluation is a Treasury requirement for all Government policies and programmes. All evaluations of Government policies and programmes must be carried out in line with the evaluation standards in the Magenta Book (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-magenta-book), which is Treasury guidance on how evaluations should be undertaken. Annex A of the Magenta Book details the analytical methods which can be used. All Ministerial Departments have published an evaluation strategy on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/evaluation-strategies-from-uk-government-departments), publicly setting out how they will meet the required standards.
The Evaluation Task Force (ETF) was established in 2021 with the aim of increasing the quality and quantity of evaluations conducted across Government. The ETF works closely with evaluation leads within Departments to advise on evaluation designs and application of evaluation methods and to ensure that Government evaluations are robust and are delivered to a high analytical standard. This involves identifying the most proportionate and robust method(s) suitable for each policy or programme in question.
The ETF does not have a routine set of requirements which Departments are held to, because the most appropriate method for each evaluation is specific to the policy and programme context. In some cases methods which score lower on the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale may represent the most robust and proportionate approaches for a Government policy or programme. While the ETF works with Departments to ensure that the most robust methods possible are applied to each policy or programme, this is done on a case-by-case basis rather than through the application of a scale or framework.
The Evaluation Task Force (ETF), set up in April 2021, has provided advice on 211 evaluations covering £115bn of Government spending. It has also launched the £15m Evaluation Accelerator Fund through which more than 20 evaluations have been funded in priority areas.
The ETF is currently updating the Government's major projects review with the hope that all new major programmes in Government will have a robust evaluation in place by 2023
By launching the Evaluation Registry the ETF will provide a single repository of evaluations of UK Government programmes, policies and projects. The Registry has been preloaded with over 2,000 existing Government evaluation reports, making it one of the largest sources of policy evidence in the world.
Finally, the ETF has set up and delivered the Evaluation Academy to 42 Civil Servants in 13 ministerial departments and the Scottish Government. These delegates have gone on to share this expertise by training over 1,100 civil servants in their respective Departments, creating free and sustainable evaluation training.
The Government Cyber Security Strategy sets out our plan significantly to harden the Government’s critical functions against cyber attacks by 2025, with all Government organisations across the public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities no later than 2030. We are working closely with publicly-funded institutions to enhance their overall cyber-resilience and to ensure that these targets are met.
The National Cyber Security Centre and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport have been working closely with the British Library since the cyber-attack it sustained in October 2023. The British Library is working hard to restore its services and began a phased return of key services on 15 January 2024.
The UK is committed to upholding the Falkland Islanders' right of self-determination: only they can decide their own future. As the Foreign Secretary made clear on his recent visit to the Falkland Islands, as long as the Islanders wish to remain part of the UK family, there can be no discussions on sovereignty. The UK looks forward to developing a strong and constructive relationship with Argentina where we can agree to disagree politely on the issue of the Falkland Islands, but restart mutually beneficial co-operation on areas of shared interest.
The Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary have called for Evan Gershkovich's immediate release. Senior UK officials regularly raise his case with Russian counterparts. The UK also remains in close contact with the US, which is providing consular support. The UK has condemned the Russian state's systematic repression of media freedom in various fora, including the UN Human Rights Council, General Assembly and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). As a co-founder of the Media Freedom Coalition, the UK is committed to media freedom and holding to account those who violate or restrict it. Fifty coalition countries work together to promote and protect media freedom globally.
The UK condemned the Iranian regime's attacks in Erbil on 15 January which killed civilians including UK-Iraqi national Karam Mikhael, and against targets in Pakistan on the 16 January. These actions were an unacceptable violation of both Iraq and Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity. We have long condemned Iran's destabilising activity in its neighbourhood and wider region. The Foreign Secretary made clear to the Iranian Foreign Minister on 17 January that Iran must stop using the regional situation as cover to act recklessly and violate the sovereignty of others.
The UK is concerned by the recent steps taken by Venezuela with respect to the Essequibo region of Guyana. We believe the unilateral actions of Venezuela are unjustified and should cease. We are clear that the border was settled in 1899 through international arbitration. The UK supports Guyana's territorial integrity. The Foreign Secretary has reassured President Ali of this. We continue to work with regional partners and international bodies to de-escalate tensions.
Minister Rutley visited Guyana on 18 December to show UK support for its territorial integrity.
The UK's foremost priority on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) is defending FoRB for all and promoting respect between different religious and non-religious communities.
We work through international bodies to strengthen coalitions of support and protect FoRB for all. We use our global diplomatic network to encourage States to uphold their human rights obligations, supporting this work with dedicated FoRB programme spend. And we continue to work to embed FoRB considerations across the work of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO).
The Prime Minister's Special Envoy for FoRB, Fiona Bruce MP, is currently serving as Chair of the 42-country International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA), which she is working to grow and strengthen. Alongside her counterparts from other countries, the Special Envoy works through IRFBA to champion FoRB, highlighting international best practice and raising awareness of, and challenging, FoRB violations and abuses across the world.
The Special Envoy works closely with civil society to highlight FoRB issues, and is leading a series of roundtables in the FCDO to strengthen collaboration on FoRB between FCDO officials and civil society.
The quality of HMRC's customer service is regularly assessed by various bodies, including the Treasury Select Committee, National Audit Office, independent Adjudicator's Office, and Public Accounts Committee. HMRC also has internal customer surveys and key performance metrics to monitor its customer service objectives as outlined in the HMRC Charter.
HMRC Performance is published on a monthly and quarterly basis on GOV.UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-quarterly-performance-updates
At Spring Budget 2024, the Chancellor announced the creation of a UK ISA. Alongside this, the Government published a consultation seeking responses on the policy design and implementation. The consultation closes on 6th June 2024, after which we will consider responses and next steps.
Details of Ministerial Directions can be found on the GOV.UK website[1].
As set out in Managing Public Money, where confidentiality is required, the accounting officer will share the direction request and the direction itself with the chairs of the Committee of Public Accounts and the relevant departmental select committee, along with an explanation of the reasons for requiring confidentiality, and when they expect the need for confidentiality to fall away and publication to take place.
[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministerial-directions
The Government maintains its commitment to ensuring that public sector exit payments are fair and proportionate to employers, employees and taxpayers. We continue to look at different options to tackle large exit payments and consulted on introducing additional controls in 2022. The Government is considering the responses to this consultation and will publish a response in due course.
The Government Property Agency manage access to all DEC campus buildings, and routinely provide data to departments through a combination of access pass data and space booking.
Cabinet Office publish data on attendance in the form of Headquarters Occupancy data, but this data is not broken down per-department on a building-by-building basis.
All Home Office (territorial) forces in England and Wales conduct their recruitment vetting internally.
This is also the case for all non-Home Office national police forces, aside from the Royal Military Police who are assisted by Warwickshire Police for vetting checks.
The Part 1 report of Angiolini’s Inquiry highlighted that in 2010, the Civil Nuclear Constabulary had outsourced its force vetting to Thames Valley Police. They now carry out their own recruitment vetting.
The Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 sets out the functions of the Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner. Broadly speaking they are to promote compliance by police with the rules on DNA and fingerprints, and to promote good practice by police and local authorities in the use of surveillance cameras respectively.
Overall, the responses to the public consultation on data reform in 2021 indicated that oversight in these areas was crowded and confusing and there was support for simplification. In response the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill abolishes both posts but transfers the Biometrics Commissioner’s casework functions to the Investigatory Powers Commissioner’s Office.
A number of other bodies already operate in this space and will continue to do so. This includes the Information Commissioner’s Office, which amongst other things regulates and promotes good practice by all organisations’ in their use of biometrics and surveillance cameras, including police and local authorities; the Forensic Science Regulator, which ensures that the provision of forensic science services across the criminal justice system is subject to an appropriate regime of scientific quality standards; the Forensic Information Database Strategy Board, which oversees use of the police DNA and fingerprint databases; the College of Policing, which sets requirements, accredits, quality assures and delivers learning and professional development for policing; His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, which independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces; the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates the most serious complaints and conduct matters involving the police, and sets the standards by which the police should handle complaints; the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which regulates compliance with equality and human rights law; and the British Standards Institute, which develops British Standards.