Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the quashing of the convictions of 39 sub-postmasters at the Court of Appeal on 23 April, what assessment they have made of the possibility of repayment of any severance payment made to Paula Vennells on her departure from Post Office Ltd.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. I will correspond directly with the noble Lord.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many businesses have declared bankruptcy in each parliamentary constituency in South Yorkshire in the current financial year to date.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Insolvency Service publishes National Statistics on insolvency cases for England and Wales combined. It is not possible to identify accurately companies that trade in South Yorkshire specifically, or companies that operated within specific parliamentary constituencies before entering insolvency. The data used for insolvency statistics is compiled from information at Companies House. The registered office address for a company may not be representative of its trading location, and often it is changed upon insolvency to the address of the appointed Insolvency Practitioner dealing with the case.
Subject to these caveats, the table below sets out the data on all registered company insolvencies from April 2020 to January 2021 (inclusive):
Estimated number of registered company insolvencies in South Yorkshire by parliamentary constituency of company registered office
1 April 2020 to 31 January 2021
Constituency | Registered Company Insolvencies |
Barnsley Central | 5 |
Barnsley East | 0 |
Don Valley | 5 |
Doncaster Central | 54 |
Doncaster North | 1 |
Penistone and Stocksbridge | 1 |
Rother Valley | 3 |
Rotherham | 1 |
Sheffield Central | 97 |
Sheffield South East | 14 |
Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough | 10 |
Sheffield, Hallam | 182 |
Sheffield, Heeley | 0 |
Wentworth and Dearne | 4 |
Total | 377 |
Sources: Insolvency Service (compulsory liquidations); Companies House (all other company insolvencies)
The Insolvency Service also holds data on personal bankruptcies in South Yorkshire during 2020 where the individual concerned ran a business as a sole trader or partnership. This information will be available later this year following the summer release of the official statistics covering the location, age and gender of individuals that entered insolvency in 2020 (provisionally due to be released in August 2021). The latest published statistics covering the period 2000 to 2019 can be found on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many COVID-19 vaccines have been delivered (1) to mass-vaccination hubs, (2) to GP surgeries, and (3) to community pharmacies.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The UK COVID-19 Vaccines Delivery Plan sets out how the Government will work with the NHS, devolved administrations, local councils, and the Armed Forces to deliver the largest vaccination programme in British history.
As of 3 February, over ten million people across the UK have been vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine. We continue to work to meet our target of vaccinating all four priority groups, as advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, by 15 February 2021.
Vaccines are a precious resource in very high demand across the world; therefore, for security reasons it is not possible to provide detail about the size of our supplies and exact detail about deliveries.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government who was ultimately responsible for approving the contract that was secured with Admiral Associates by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Vaccine Taskforce.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Specialist communications support was brought onboard as contingent labour using the Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) framework rather than a contract being signed with Admiral as a company. This was approved by the Senior Responsible Owner for the Vaccines Taskforce, who is a Director-General in the civil service.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government where was the notification of the tender for the contract secured between Admiral Associates and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’s Vaccine Taskforce placed.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Specialist communications support was brought onboard as contingent labour using the Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) framework rather than a contract being signed with Admiral as a company. The support was obtained in line with existing public sector recruitment practices and frameworks.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the number of days between the initial contract notification and the date when Admiral Associates secured the contract for work on the Vaccine Taskforce.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Specialist communications support was brought onboard as contingent labour using the Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) framework rather than a contract being signed with Admiral as a company. The support was obtained in line with existing public sector recruitment practices and frameworks.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what work Admiral Associates undertook and provided for the Vaccine Taskforce that civil servants within the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy did not have the skills or knowledge to provide.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We know that vaccines are of huge interest to the public and ensuring clear, accurate and timely communication is an important part of our public health response. Specialist communications support was therefore brought on board by the Vaccine Taskforce for a time-limited period, in line with existing public sector recruitment practices and frameworks.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many companies were offered the opportunity to bid for the contract, that was secured with Admiral Associates, for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's Vaccine Taskforce.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Specialist communications support was brought onboard as contingent labour using the Public Sector Resourcing (PSR) framework rather than a contract being signed with Admiral as a company. The support was obtained in line with existing public sector recruitment practices and frameworks.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what due diligence was performed to assess potential conflicts of interests between the directors of Admiral Associates, and ministers, officials and advisers in (1) the Vaccines Task force, (2) the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (3) the Cabinet Office, and (4) the Prime Minister's Office; and what were the findings of any such due diligence performed.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Officials in the Vaccine Taskforce ensure the standard civil service procedures in relation to conflicts of interest are followed for all Taskforce members. Actions are agreed to mitigate any actual or perceived conflicts of interest, and these are signed off by both the Department’s HR function and by the Permanent Secretary.
Asked by: Lord Scriven (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assurances they have received from companies about how many vaccinations for COVID-19 it will be possible to manufacture and produce in the UK by December.
Answered by Lord Callanan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
Owing to commercial sensitivities the Government is not able to reveal such information concerning vaccine developers at this time. The Vaccines Taskforce has taken action to scale up UK vaccine manufacturing capabilities, so that if and when a vaccine is found it can be produced at pace. This includes funding to accelerate and expand the new Vaccine Manufacturing and Innovation Centre, bring online a Rapid Deployment Facility, and a new state-of-the-art centre to scale up COVID-19 vaccine and gene therapy manufacturing. Government has also partnered with Wockhardt to provide fill and finish services.