Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to changing the names of the Order of the British Empire and the British Empire Medal to remove references to the British Empire.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
There are no such plans.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to reform the ombudsman system.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The government published a draft Public Service Ombudsman Bill in December 2016, setting out plans to introduce a new Public Service Ombudsman.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they exercised penalty clauses in respect of Eaga contracts after its acquisition by Carillion Plc.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
This information can only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government on how many occasions in the past year they have placed contracts for goods or services with suppliers in countries in which British companies are not allowed to tender for similar purposes.
Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott
The requested information is not held centrally. UK public procurement policy is to award contracts on the basis of value for money, which means the optimum combination of cost and quality over the lifetime of the project, through fair and open competition and in line with our current international obligations.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the incidence of breast cancer in men; and whether it has changed over the last 20 years.
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 I will place a copy of their letter in the House Library.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the ranking of the UK for life expectancy of (1) men, (2) women, and (3) both groups, aged 65, amongst EU member states.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The information is not held in the Government. I refer the noble Lord to the Euro Stat website below which might be of some help.
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Mortality_and_life_expectancy_statistics
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many civil service employees are paid the minimum wage; and what the implementation of the National Living Wage for civil servants will cost.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Government is committed to helping the lowest paid. We are the first government to introduce a compulsory Living Wage. From 1st April 2016, the new National Living Wage was introduced for workers aged 25 and above, initially set at £7.20 per hour.
The Chancellor announced a further increase to the National Living Wage in the Autumn Statement. As of 1st April 2017, the National Living Wage will be set at £7.50 per hour.
The Low Pay Commission advises the Government on the rate of annual increases required to achieve a National Living Wage that will represent 60% of median earnings by 2020. The Low Pay Commission amended its recommendations this year to meet this target, based on the latest market forecasts. In light of these changes, government departments are currently reviewing the cost and number of civil servants that will benefit from future National Living Wage increases.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the ratio between the salary of a civil servant on the lowest grade to the Permanent Secretary in each of the Government departments represented in the Cabinet.
Answered by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
Government departments do not publish details of the salary ratio of their highest to lowest paid employees. The Office for National Statistics do publish the salary ratio of highest to median earners for each Civil Service organisation. These ratios are published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics and can be found attached.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how they use responses to questions about gender identity in some civil service job applications to determine the best-qualified candidate, and if such a question is not answered how detrimental this would be to the application.
Answered by Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen
The Civil Service recruits on the basis of merit and assesses on the basis of evidence supplied by the candidate. This is in line with fair and open competition rules as laid out in the recruitment principles upheld by the Civil Service Commission.
Gender identity is not used as part of the sifting process of job applications within the Civil Service. Candidates are asked this information for diversity monitoring purposes only.
The Civil Service aims to become the most inclusive employer in the UK, with the Talent Action Plan focussing on removing barriers for those from underrepresented groups.
Asked by: Lord Moonie (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many live births there were in 2015 at 23 and 24 weeks gestation.
Answered by Lord Bridges of Headley
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.