Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that civil servants are well-trained and that performance management steps are taken when necessary.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Civil Service is committed to building the capability of all its employees and supporting their development. Our core learning offer provided via Civil Service Learning (CSL) incorporates 130 topics including leadership and management, customer service, finance and policy development. Learning is provided via free online modules, workshops and practical exercises. Job specific/technical learning is developed in partnership with professions and functions. To support easier access, a new Learning Platform for Government will begin rollout in 2018.
Civil servants discuss their development with their manager and can access an online self-assessment tool to help identify their learning needs. A key manager role is building capability in others and a ‘Management Fundamentals’ package linked to the Chartered Management Institute’s Level 3 (Team Leader) has been available since December 2017.
Our 4000 Senior Civil Servants now have access to the Civil Service Leadership Academy (CSLA), launched in October 2017. The CSLA offers a wide range of learning approaches tailored to SCS needs, including case study events, master-classes, newsletters, coaching, peer mentoring and 360 degree feedback.
All departments take Performance management (PM) seriously; it is a key element of development and building. The Civil Service PM policy, introduced in 2012, has helped identify different levels of performance and ensure people are able to continuously develop. Where performance and/or capability is below the required standard, departments have policies and measures in place to ensure individuals are given the support and learning they need to improve. Further action is taken where performance does not improve within acceptable timescales.
The new Performance Management Framework introduced in 2017 continues to identify different levels of performance and also places a greater focus on coaching and supporting civil servants to help them perform effectively.
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to amend the list of nationalities specified for public answer in the 2021 census; and which nationalities are being considered for inclusion as part of any such plans.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply, and will place a copy of their letter in the House library.
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they assess the risk of terrorist attacks in the UK.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre produces regular detailed assessments of the international terrorist threat to both the UK and its interests abroad, which inform the UK’s threat levels. Information on the UK’s threat levels is available online.
More generally, the Government assesses the most significant risks facing the UK over the next five years, including terrorism, through the National Risk Assessment (NRA). The National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies, the public version of the NRA (copy attached), is available online and has been placed in the House of Lords Library. This in turn helps Government and emergency responders to prepare for and respond to potential incidents.
In order to assess the risk of a terrorist attack, Government works with the intelligence community to gather information about the intent and capability of potential adversaries. Together with information about potential targets, this enables the Government to assess how plausible an attack might be and what effects it may have.
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what criteria they set in respect of the requirement for transparency and openness in the decision-making processes of all public and publicly-funded bodies.
Answered by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
As a matter of principle, members of the public should be able to routinely access information that is in the public interest and is safe to disclose. Access to information helps ensure accountability for public authorities and facilitates better informed and more productive public debate.
All public bodies have a publication scheme, which outlines what they will publish. The Information Commissioner’s Office provides guidance on the publication scheme for each body. This covers evidence of decision making, board meeting minutes, agendas, consultations and datasets, including those pertaining to public spending and to public service function, in an accessible format. Datasets are published on the data.gov.uk website, while other evidence is available on individual body websites.
All central government departments are required to publish information about key aspects of their management and operations, including details of senior staff salaries and departmental expenditure.
The Cabinet Office also publishes guidance for departments on transparency for their arm’s length bodies. This guidance states that they should:
Statements by Accounting Officers are published in arm’s length body annual reports. The publication of these statements demonstrates how Accounting Officers have fulfilled his or her personal responsibility to manage and control the resources in the organisation.
In its annual Public Bodies Reports the Cabinet Office sets out high-level information on arm’s length body transparency in areas including publication of annual reports and open board meetings.
The transparency data published by government does not disclose personal data. Where necessary, minutes and papers which detail decision-making are edited to remove data which could be used to identify individuals.
Transparency information published by the local government is governed by the transparency code. The principles that underpin the code are the same, and similarly, data pertaining to function and spend data must be disclosed. The code has just undergone consultation. Proposed changes include altering the way transparency data is published and presented to increase accessibility.
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to make any changes to freedom of information legislation, in particular on the use of false names when seeking disclosure; and if so, what changes they propose, and when will they be brought forward.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The Government established the Freedom of Information Commission to review the Freedom of Information Act and we will give careful consideration to its recommendations. Section 8(1)(b) of the FOI Act already requires applicants to provide their real name.
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government which public inquiries they set up between May 1997 and January 2004; and what was the purpose of each.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
This information was made available as part of the evidence provided by the Government to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Inquiries Act 2005:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldinquiries/143/14318.htm
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the financial year 2003–04, what was the total cost of each public inquiry conducted; and what was paid to each inquiry chairman, including expenses and VAT.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The information in relation to this time period is not held centrally and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, the total cost on completion of those inquiries which span this time period is available as part of the evidence provided by the Government to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Inquiries Act 2005:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201314/ldselect/ldinquiries/143/14318.htm
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will consider amending electoral law to provide for and require the amounts and details of parliamentary candidates' election expenses to be published online, and whether this could be implemented voluntarily in the meantime.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
Electoral legislation sets out the process for publicising the details and amounts of candidates’ election expenses; election expenses are made available for two years after they are submitted.
Current electoral law does not expressly require candidates’ election expenses to be published online, but nor is this expressly excluded.
The Law Commission has raised the matter of online publication of this information in their review of electoral law. This review is on-going and we are awaiting the recommendations of the Law Commission before consideration is given to further legislation in respect of this matter.
The Government is therefore not persuaded of the need to change legislation at this time.
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what non-disclosure agreements the Cabinet Office made in 2003–04, and on what date each agreement was made.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The information requested can only be provided at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Laird (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether all quasi-judicial decisions made by government departments or agencies should be made public.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
There are a wide variety of quasi-judicial decisions and each are subject to different statutory requirements. In many cases the reasons behind the decisions are published with the decisions, for instance where a Secretary of State decides to make, or not make, a Development Consent Order under the Planning Act 2008, the decision letter and associated order, if applicable, must be published.There are several reasons why decisions might not be published and those include national security, sensitive personal data or commercial sensitivity.