Lord Tyler

These costs will be covered by Central Government under the New Burdens doctrine, until such time as they can be mainstreamed into the grants provided to Local Authorities in accordance with usual practice.

The Government in its manifesto committed to protecting the integrity of our democracy by introducing identification to vote at polling stations. Stealing someone’s vote is stealing their voice. Voter fraud is a crime that we cannot allow room for and we must stamp out any potential for it to take place in elections.

Everyone who is eligible to vote will have the opportunity to do so. Any eligible voter who does not have one of the required forms of photographic identification, can apply for a free, local Voter Card from their local authority. The Electoral Commission will provide a comprehensive, targeted communications campaign and guidance, raising awareness throughout the electorate of the new voter identification requirements.

As set out in the Elections Bill, Electoral Registration Officers in England and Wales and Returning Officers in Scotland will be required to keep a record of those people for whom a ballot paper was refused and the reasons for this refusal.

The Government in its manifesto committed to protecting the integrity of our democracy by introducing identification to vote at polling stations. Stealing someone’s vote is stealing their voice. Voter fraud is a crime that we cannot allow room for and we must stamp out any potential for it to take place in elections.

Everyone who is eligible to vote will have the opportunity to do so. Any eligible voter who does not have one of the required forms of photographic identification, can apply for a free, local Voter Card from their local authority. The Electoral Commission will provide a comprehensive, targeted communications campaign and guidance, raising awareness throughout the electorate of the new voter identification requirements.

As set out in the Elections Bill, Electoral Registration Officers in England and Wales and Returning Officers in Scotland will be required to keep a record of those people for whom a ballot paper was refused and the reasons for this refusal.

The Government in its manifesto committed to protecting the integrity of our democracy by introducing identification to vote at polling stations. Stealing someone’s vote is stealing their voice. Voter fraud is a crime that we cannot allow room for and we must stamp out any potential for it to take place in elections.

Everyone who is eligible to vote will have the opportunity to do so. Any eligible voter who does not have one of the required forms of photographic identification, can apply for a free, local Voter Card from their local authority. The Electoral Commission will provide a comprehensive, targeted communications campaign and guidance, raising awareness throughout the electorate of the new voter identification requirements.

As set out in the Elections Bill, Electoral Registration Officers in England and Wales and Returning Officers in Scotland will be required to keep a record of those people for whom a ballot paper was refused and the reasons for this refusal.

An Impact Assessment, which includes information on the cost and resource requirements for voter identification, was published (attached) alongside the Elections Bill: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3020/publications.

HMG will cover the costs for local authorities and will continue the detailed planning ahead of implementation nationally, working closely with those who will be responsible for delivery including Local Authorities, the Electoral Commission, the Association of Electoral Administrators and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives.

It is the Government’s ambition to see more disabled people in public office.

The Government has been clear that the responsibility for supporting disabled candidates sits with political parties and that the EnAble Fund was an interim measure to give parties time to put their own support in place.

Ministers wrote to the main Parties twice in 2019 to ask them how they intend to support their candidates on a long-term basis.

Campaigning is an essential part of democracy. Voters deserve to be well informed before going to the polls and there must be a level playing field for candidates.

Many forms of campaigning can be carried out without increased face-to-face contact, including online campaigning, and delivery of leaflets by post or other commercial delivery services. The Government has already uprated election expenses for council candidates, which will provide greater opportunity for such candidates to campaign in this way.

Individual Government departments are responsible for their own staffing decisions.

The May local elections were postponed until 2021 due to Covid-19.

In that context, the UK Government can confirm that resident EU citizens will remain able to vote and stand in the rescheduled May 2021 local elections in England (including London Assembly elections) and the May 2021 Police and Crime Commissioner elections in England and Wales. Those elected to office will be able to serve their full term and this will also apply to those elected before 2021.

The franchise for local elections are devolved in Scotland and Wales.

The UK Government has been clear that the issue of local voting rights of EU citizens living in the UK needs to be considered alongside the rights and interests of British expats living abroad. The Government has signed bilateral voting rights agreements with Spain, Portugal and Luxembourg in 2019, and with Poland in May 2020. We continue to work on further bilateral voting rights agreements with other EU member states.

Section 3.5 of the Ministerial code sets out the requirements for departmental Boards. The appointment of these members met those requirements.

Non-Executive Board members are not civil servants. Non-Executive Board members for departments are not subject to the requirements set out in the Governance Code for Public Appointments for regulated positions. However, in line with best practice, the appointment process of these Non Executives was open and transparent, and met the principles set out in the Governance Code for Public Appointments.

As outlined in our manifesto, the Government is committed to giving the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) enhanced powers to tackle consumer rip-offs and bad business practices.

The Department and the CMA have been working closely together to develop the proposals made by the CMA in 2019. For example, following a commitment made in June 2019 by the previous Secretary of State, we are looking into the possibility of putting the CMA’s powers on an administrative basis. This would allow the CMA to decide itself if a breach of consumer law has happened, rather than going to court.

Furthermore, we have announced that we will introduce a new power to impose fines of up to a maximum of 10% global turnover on businesses who have breached consumer law.

The Government is committed to tackling consumer rip-offs and bad business practices, including profiteering.

My Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has spoken with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), business and consumer organisations and retailers to review the impact of profiteering and action taken to address it.

The Government are working with the CMA, Which?, and other organisations to monitor the extent of profiteering, and will update the law if it is proportionate to do so.

The Government issued a public call to action to support the increased requirements of personal protective equipment (PPE). The aim was to reach these suppliers ie who had experience of supplying PPE and also those who had no prior experience but who had access to sources of PPE through their business contacts. This has resulted in 15,000 suppliers offering their help and support. All offers were prioritised based on volume, price, clinical acceptability and lead time – this is the time from an offer being accepted by the Department to the supplier delivering those items. These were often established private businesses whose net asset position is only one factor in evaluating their offer.

Guidance on how contracting authorities should respond to COVID-19 was published on 18 March 2020. Authorities are allowed to procure goods, services and works with extreme urgency in exceptional circumstances using regulation 32(2)(c) under the Public Contract Regulations 2015. These include a direct award due to extreme urgency or the absence of competition. Under the regulation contracting authorities may enter into contracts without competing or advertising the requirement.

Suppliers will be evaluated by Departmental officials on their financial standing, compliance with minimum product specifications and ability to perform the contract. Contracts are awarded by the appropriate Departmental accounting officer in line with Departmental terms and conditions.

Several contracts have been awarded to Platform-14 for the supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) under the emergency regulations, with a total value of £276 million. Delivery is progressing for these PPE items. All items of PPE undergo a rigorous technical assurance process before they can be released for use.

We welcome this report and demonstrate our clear commitment to devolution through our ambitious programme of 9 devolution deals which include £7.49 billion worth of investment over 30-years. 37% of residents in England are now served by directly elected city region mayors - including almost 50% in the North (growing to 41% of England and 62% of the North following this Spring’s mayoral election in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority). We will set out our plans for further devolution in a white paper in due course.

We welcome this report and demonstrate our clear commitment to devolution through our ambitious programme of 9 devolution deals which include £7.49 billion worth of investment over 30-years. 37% of residents in England are now served by directly elected city region mayors - including almost 50% in the North (growing to 41% of England and 62% of the North following this Spring’s mayoral election in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority). We will set out our plans for further devolution in a white paper in due course.

We welcome this report and demonstrate our clear commitment to devolution through our ambitious programme of 9 devolution deals which include £7.49 billion worth of investment over 30-years. 37% of residents in England are now served by directly elected city region mayors - including almost 50% in the North (growing to 41% of England and 62% of the North following this Spring’s mayoral election in the West Yorkshire Combined Authority). Any recommendations relating to new government investment would be a matter for the Spending Review.

The government regularly engages with a wide range of stakeholders in the local government sector and external experts as part of ongoing work to support local economic growth and devolution as we recover from Covid-19.