Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of the civil service are currently working from home.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
This information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to promote public morale during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
Coronavirus is the biggest challenge the UK has faced in decades – and we are not alone. All over the world we are seeing the devastating impact of this disease.
As the Prime Minister said in his recent address to the nation:
“This is a struggle that humanity will win, and we in this country will win… I know that we can succeed because we have succeeded before. When the sickness took hold in this country in March, we pulled together in a spirit of national sacrifice and community. We followed the guidance to the letter. We stayed at home, protected the NHS, and saved thousands of lives… There are unquestionably difficult months to come. And the fight against covid is by no means over. I have no doubt, however, that there are great days ahead. But now is the time for us all to summon the discipline, and the resolve, and the spirit of togetherness that will carry us through.”
Details of UK Government support and guidance available to the public are published on https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament Russia, published on 21 July, what assessment they made of the open source studies which found evidence to suggest that Russia was attempting to influence the outcome of the EU referendum and which “pointed to the preponderance of pro-Brexit or anti-EU stories and the use of ‘bots’ and ‘trolls’”.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
We have seen no evidence of successful interference in the EU Referendum. The Government has published its response to the Intelligence and Security Committee report.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament Russia, published on 21 July, what assessment they have made of why Russia may have attempted to influence the outcome of the EU referendum.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
We have seen no evidence of successful interference in the EU Referendum. The Government has published its response to the Intelligence and Security Committee report.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the reasons why the report by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament Russia, sent to the Prime Minister on 17 October 2019, was not published until 21 July.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
As the Government has set out previously, the report is the property of the independent committee. It is for the Intelligence and Security Committee to lay their reports before Parliament and the reconstituted Committee did so on 21 July.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether decision-making civil servants and local authority officials are currently required to disclose all interests to prevent any conflict of interest; and if so, whether those records are made public.
Answered by Earl of Courtown - Captain of the Queen's Bodyguard of the Yeomen of the Guard (HM Household) (Deputy Chief Whip, House of Lords)
Civil Servants serve the government of the day and can only exercise power for and on behalf of the Secretary of State.
The Civil Service Management Code sets out regulations and instructions related to civil servants’ terms and conditions of service, including the declaration and management of private interests. HR in each Department will provide advice about the appropriate procedures to follow.
Local authorities are responsible for the management of their own officials. Local government officers must act in conformity with the Nolan Principles.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, what is the percentage breakdown of public sector employees by (1) gender, and (2) ethnicity, for each region of the United Kingdom.
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.
Dear Viscount Waverley,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the percentage breakdown of public sector employees is by (1) gender, and (2) ethnicity for each region of the United Kingdom (HL164444).
Estimates of employees by sector of employment are available from the Annual Population Survey (APS), a household survey of people in the UK. In the APS, the distinction between public and private sector is based on respondents’ views about the organisation for which they work. This may differ from how we would classify them for the headline measure of public sector employment. The APS also collects information regarding respondents’ sex and ethnicity.
Table 1 contains estimates of the percentage of public sector employees broken down by sex within each region. Table 2 contains estimates of the percentage of public sector employees broken down by ethnicity within each region. Both breakdowns use APS data for April 2018 to March 2019, the latest period for which data are available.
As the data are quite extensive, copy of both tables have been placed in the House of Commons Library.
Yours sincerely,
John Pullinger
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what role private sector organisations will have in the Government’s cyber security work.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The National Cyber Security Strategy (NCSS) seeks to ensure that the UK is the safest place to live and work online. As such, the Strategy sets out action aimed at all sectors of society. Partnership with private sector organisations of all sizes is critical to HM Government’s ability to deliver on the ambition of the NCSS.
HM Government provides support through the NCSS to stimulate the sector of specialist cyber security companies, working to create a domestic pipeline of development and investment in products and services that will make systems and infrastructure more resilient. Together with private sector manufacturers, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has recently published the Code of Practice for Consumer Internet of Things (IoT) Security to ensure that this emerging technology is secure by design. The private sector also contributes to the Government’s ambition of creating a sustainable pipeline of home grown cyber security professionals, playing a partnership role in programmes such as Cyber First and wider skills based initiatives.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) works directly with the private sector on the cyber threat and how to counter it, and companies act on advice from the NCSC to help them prepare for - and to respond and recover from – cyber incidents.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their definition of what constitutes a cyber attack.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021 defines a cyber attack as the deliberate exploitation of computer systems, digitally dependent enterprises and networks to cause harm.
Asked by: Viscount Waverley (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they have taken to ensure there are consistent responses to cyber attacks across government departments.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
The Cabinet Office published the HMG Minimum Cyber Security Standard in 2017, providing Departments with clear guidance on how they should plan for, and respond to, cyber incidents in a consistent manner. The Cabinet Office requires an annual update from Departments on how they meet the expectations as set out in the standard including a defined response plan to cyber security incidents.