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Written Question
Dual Nationality
Thursday 4th January 2024

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is their current estimate of the number of UK dual nationals; whether those estimates include a breakdown of the countries in which they are currently resident; and how many are resident in the other state in which they also hold citizenship.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Wallace of Saltaire

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

20 December 2023

Dear Lord Wallace,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking for the current estimate of the number of UK dual nationals; whether those estimates include a breakdown of the countries in which they are currently resident; and how many are resident in the other state in which they also hold citizenship (HL1310).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) conducted the 2021 Census in England and Wales.

In order to answer your question, the ONS examined census ‘passports held’ data. Table 1 shows the number of dual passport holders resident in England and Wales.

Table 1: Number of dual passport holders resident in England and Wales

Dual passport (UK + another passport)

E92000001 England

1,209,980

W92000004 Wales

26,343

Source: Census 2021 (21 March 2021)

For similar data for Northern Ireland and Scotland, please contact the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency [1] (NISRA) and National Records of Scotland [2] (NRS) respectively.

As the Census collected data only from people currently resident in England and Wales at the time of collection, the ONS have no data identifying dual passport holding citizens residing outside England and Wales. This means we are unable to answer the second and third aspects of your question.

As the ONS continues its programme of transforming population and migration statistics, we will explore how to provide additional detail to meet user needs. This will include the possibility of obtaining an estimate of dual citizenship using administrative data as part of that programme.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1] https://www.nisra.gov.uk/

[2] https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/


Written Question
Government Departments: Social Media
Thursday 18th May 2023

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many times in the past year outside speakers invited to Civil Service events have had their invitations withdrawn after having their social media accounts vetted; and what criteria were used for such vetting.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

We do not centrally collate information on the number of people who are identified as unsuitable for speaking at Government events.

Civil Service Human Resources who sit within the Cabinet Office developed guidance for all Cross-Government Diversity networks. This requires the networks to carry out checks on external speakers prior to inviting them to participate in Civil Service events.

We are aware that some departments (including Cabinet Office) and agencies have adapted this guidance to apply to departmental Diversity Networks and learning events. We do not have a record of how many departments have adapted the guidance or whether they record information on speakers.


Written Question
Senior Civil Servants
Monday 26th September 2022

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made as to whether Freedom of Information principles require the release of the responsibilities and names of all senior civil servants.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The guidance for departments to publish their SCS transparency data remains in place, and all departments have published at least once since 1st April 2022.

Each department publishes its departmental organograms on data.gov.uk as part of the Government’s commitment to transparency. In order to do so, departments individually collect and present data including names, grades, job titles, and annual pay ranges from Permanent Secretary through to SCS2. Information for those at SCS1 is anonymised.

The decision to only publish names for SCS2 and above dates back to 2010, and was made on the grounds of proportionality and reasonable expectations of privacy. The guidance for publication of SCS transparency data was reconfirmed in 2017, and has been reviewed regularly to ensure that it is still appropriate and provides the information that the public might reasonably need.


Written Question
Senior Civil Servants
Monday 26th September 2022

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why they have ceased publishing the responsibilities and names of all senior civil servants, including those at the SCS1 grade, in all departments of central government.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The guidance for departments to publish their SCS transparency data remains in place, and all departments have published at least once since 1st April 2022.

Each department publishes its departmental organograms on data.gov.uk as part of the Government’s commitment to transparency. In order to do so, departments individually collect and present data including names, grades, job titles, and annual pay ranges from Permanent Secretary through to SCS2. Information for those at SCS1 is anonymised.

The decision to only publish names for SCS2 and above dates back to 2010, and was made on the grounds of proportionality and reasonable expectations of privacy. The guidance for publication of SCS transparency data was reconfirmed in 2017, and has been reviewed regularly to ensure that it is still appropriate and provides the information that the public might reasonably need.


Written Question
Government Departments: Plagiarism
Tuesday 8th March 2022

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plagiarism detection software government employees have access to; whether this software is used to review government publications before release; and what penalties are applied to staff found to have submitted plagiarised work for publication.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

Individual departments are responsible for their own software procurements. As such, a list of plagiarism software available to government employees is not held centrally by Cabinet Office.


Written Question
Lord Chancellor
Monday 13th December 2021

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to replace the role of the Lord Chancellor in the instance of absence and incapacity of the Sovereign with the Lord Speaker in the next revision of the Cabinet Manual.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

The Government has no plans to make changes with respect to the roles outlined in Section 2 of the Regency Act.


Written Question
Procurement
Wednesday 3rd November 2021

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what conditions are written into contracts between (1) government departments, (2) agencies, and outside contractors, regarding contributions by such contractors to (a) political parties, and (b) partisan think tanks.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

This information is not held centrally.

Procurement Policy Note 04/21 sets out guidance for all central government departments and their agencies to prevent, identify, record and remedy conflicts of interest. The framework includes the relevant processes, procedures, and appropriate checks and balances to effectively manage conflicts of interest in a commercial context.


Written Question
Voting Rights: British Nationals Abroad
Thursday 17th June 2021

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have, if any, to finance the cost of extending overseas voting rights (1) directly, or (2) from fees attached to registration, or (3) by any other means.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

The new burdens doctrine will cover any additional registration costs for the registration of newly enfranchised overseas electors. UK Parliamentary election costs are paid from the Consolidated Fund. Overseas electors are only eligible to vote in UK general elections.


In Budget 2021, for the coming year, the Government has provided an additional £2.5 million towards removing the arbitrary limit preventing British citizens who live overseas from voting after 15 years.


Written Question
Government Departments: Contracts
Monday 22nd March 2021

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether it is their policy for contracts with private companies to prohibit those companies from making contributions to (1) political parties, and (2) think tanks by (a) those companies, and (b) their subcontractors; and if so, in what circumstances such a policy is altered.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 require contracting authorities to take appropriate measures to effectively prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest arising in the conduct of procurement procedures so as to avoid any distortion of competition and to ensure equal treatment of all economic operators.


Written Question
Electoral Register
Tuesday 12th May 2020

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of Electoral Registration Officers in (1) England, (2) Scotland, (3) Wales, and (4) Northern Ireland, retain complete constituency electoral registers for all periods since (a) 1945, (b) 1970, and (c) 1990.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

The Government does not hold data on the number of overseas voters, or their distribution by constituency or current country of residence. Electoral Registration Officers (ERO) maintain a register for their own local area, including the number of overseas electors registered in their area.

In its report on the 2019 UK Parliamentary General Election, published on 21 April 2020, the Electoral Commission noted that just over 230,000 people were registered as overseas electors at the time of the general election. The Office for National Statistics also publishes electoral statistics bulletins with some information on overseas electors.

The Government does not hold information on the proportion of EROs that retain complete constituency electoral registers. There is no statutory requirement for EROs to retain previous electoral registers. EROs do however currently keep registers for 15 years to enable them to check the eligibility of those applying to be overseas electors.

The Government is committed to removing the 15 year limit on overseas electors and we will do so in a way that is workable for both voters and electoral administrators.