Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker whether the Parliamentary Digital Service plans to replace the Polycom telephone system on the parliamentary estate and, if so, what is the budget for this project.

Answered by Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The Voice Programme has been set up to address service quality and user experience priorities regarding telephony in Parliament. The programme’s high-level benefits include increasing business resilience and value for money and improving customer experience across telephony services. The programme is upgrading and replacing the existing telephony infrastructure (a combination of on premise MS Teams and Skype for Business) and has completed procurement of a unified communications service, to be implemented later this year, that will deliver resilient telephony. Initially, the new service is expected- to re-utilise the existing Polycom telephone handsets, however, replacement telephone handsets will be introduced as part of product lifecycle replacement.

The House of Lords Services Committee, the House of Commons Administration Committee and the Business Resilience Board are being consulted on implementation plans for the new service.

The Investment Committee and Accounting Officers have approved a business case for the Voice Programme which has an approved whole life cost of £6.37m. These costs cover implementation, programme resources, licences, and support costs until FY28/29.

Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker on what date at what cost to public funds the Polycom telephone system was installed on the parliamentary estate, and whether Siemens was invited to tender for this contract.

Answered by Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. In 2016, a procurement process was completed adhering to EU procurement regulations (OJEU) for a unified communications solution to replace the previous telephone system which was end of life and could no longer be supported or maintained. This restricted OJEU process was open to all vendors. Siemens (Unify) made an initial application but were not taken through to stage two of the process to tender.

The cost of the Skype for Business Programme, which included key steps in Parliament’s transition from a copper wire telephone system to Voice over Internet Protocol, was £8.3 million and included the cost of the Polycom handsets currently in use. Implementation of the Polycom handsets began in November 2017.

Question

To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker on which dates and at what times the failure of the Polycom telephone system on the parliamentary estate started and ended, and why it took so long for the system to be restored.

Answered by Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall

The Senior Deputy Speaker has asked me, as Chair of the Services Committee, to respond on his behalf. The Parliamentary Digital Service (PDS) were made aware of a potential issue affecting Polycom telephone handsets, used with the Microsoft telephone service (MS Teams) on Friday 12th April 2024. Following a thorough investigation, a root cause was identified and resolved on Tuesday 16th April 2024. Restoration of service following a major telephony incident depends on third parties. The Voice Programme is upgrading and replacing the existing telephony infrastructure with a streamlined and less complex support arrangement. PDS are expecting to rollout the service over the summer 2024.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what arrangements are in place to ensure that individuals convicted of abuse of public office and given custodial sentences are not re-employed in central government departments or agencies of central government.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Cabinet Office)

All Civil Service recruitment is subject to the Baseline Personnel Security Standard. The Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard check is not a formal security clearance but is a recognised standard for pre-employment screening. These checks ensure departments comply with current legislation (e.g. Right to Work in the UK) and are essential to assure the integrity of our organisation and the safety of staff and individuals.

Once a job offer is made a Basic Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check is undertaken. The certificate will contain details of convictions and conditional cautions that are considered to be unspent under the terms of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974.

If the DBS check is returned with a positive marker (an unspent convention in a basic check, any conviction in a standard check), the vacancy holder/department undertakes a risk assessment to decide whether to make a final offer.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people employed by the Home Office have been convicted of abuse of public office and given custodial sentences in each of the past 20 years; and how many of those individuals have subsequently been re-employed in the Home Office or other departments or agencies in central government.

Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

In the last twenty years there have been 24 Home Office officials who have been convicted of Misconduct in Public Office. All received a custodial sentence, and all were convicted before 2015. Since then, the Crown Prosecution Service have moved towards using more specific charges such as theft, assisting unlawful immigration and bribery.

A breakdown for each year is provided below:

The Home Office conducts robust pre-appointment checks in accordance with the HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standards prior to employment being offered. The Home Office also carries out National Security Vetting on all its employees, which considers both spent and unspent convictions for this and all other offences.