Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will provide an update on their Gov.uk 'One Login' programme; and what is the programme’s plan of work over the next year.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the central Government administrative estate has installed smart meters.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many designated smoking and vaping areas are currently located within the central Government administrative estate.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government to provide an update on the principles or guidelines that are currently in place for the design and execution of public consultations by central Government; and whether the Government holds a cross-departmental register of all consultations across departments and their public bodies.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of progress on their Shared Services Strategy, and in particular whether this has delivered cost savings for the taxpayer; and what plans, if any, they have to provide an update on the current and future work of Government Shared Services.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Launched in March 2021, the Shared Services Strategy for Government aims to modernise the back office of government, enabling significant efficiency gains in critical business services such as HR, finance and commercial.
There are now nineteen departments working together in five clusters that will form the shared service centres. Cluster shared service centres are all expected to be live in the next eighteen months. All departments will join a shared service centre by 2028 as current contracts expire to ensure value for money.
Two of the five clusters are up and running, Overseas has realised over £120m in benefits so far and is now looking to expand and go further around automation to realise further efficiencies. The Minister of Defence is looking to move beyond the current civilian HR system to incorporate the military. The remaining three clusters all have initial approval and funding to go to the market. They are finalising procurements for technology and services and will bring business cases for approval in the coming months.
Clusters estimate that all departments using shared services centres will reduce annual running costs by 20 per cent. Overall they currently estimate that the Strategy will realise more than £3bn of benefits over fifteen years. Direct cost savings are only one element of these benefits. Faster, automated and standardised systems will enable significant timesavings for Civil Servants and general efficiency gains across departments. The clustering model will also make future procurement cheaper and give more buying power than departments have on their own.
During the next six months we expect clusters to submit business cases for approval, continue procurement and ultimately sign contracts.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they routinely publish the details of grants and programmes referred to the Complex Grants Advice Panel for expert advice, and if not, whether they will consider doing so.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to increase funding and resource to the Counter Fraud Profession and counter-fraud function to fight fraud (1) against His Majesty's Government, and (2) in the wider public sector.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they are making towards reaching their 'Places for Growth' target to relocate 50 per cent of UK-based senior civil service roles outside London by 2030.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they next plan to update their Magenta Book: Central government guidance on evaluation.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of the Government's Major Projects Portfolio are subject to a formal evaluation of their outcomes; and whether the proportion has increased since 2020.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
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.