Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using distributed ledger technology across the public sector.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The Government Digital Service undertook a landscape review of technology innovation, including distributed ledger technology across government in August 2018. Additionally the recently launched Government Technology Innovation Strategy provides recent examples of distributed ledger technology within government and will provide a building block for departments to harness the opportunity presented by emerging technologies.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 in ensuring that the public sector treats economic operators equally and without discrimination.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The EU Public Procurement Directives contain detailed procedural rules to facilitate the Single Market, including an obligation to treat economic operators equally and without discrimination. This is transposed at Article 18 of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and there are penalties contained in a separate scheme of remedies directives for non-compliance. The UK has transposed all directives fully.
The European Commission publishes studies that evaluate and assess various aspects of the impact of the directives, and can be viewed at the following link:
https://ec.europa.eu/growth/single-market/public-procurement/studies-networks_en
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an estimate of the efficiency savings that better use of technology has enabled for departmental spending since 2010.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
In total, benefits of £3.56 billion were achieved in the last spending review period as a result of digital and technology transformation across government (April 2012 - March 2015). GDS delivered over £339 million benefits in 2015/16, improving the quality of services through assuring digital and technology projects.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential benefits of using blockchain in the public sector.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
Government is researching potential use cases, and engaging with suppliers about the best use of blockchain technologies with a view of how it might drive efficiencies and support transformation. This research is led by individual departments in line with their specific needs.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent steps his Department has taken to improve transparency in government.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Since 2010 the Government has been at the forefront of opening up data to allow the public and Parliament to hold public bodies to account. The Government remains committed to continuing to look at how the range of information it publishes can be expanded and made as useful as possible to the public, business, the voluntary sector and government itself.
We recently launched a new webpage that clarifies the core transparency data published by Government and provides guidance on ensuring this data is accessible, timely and easy to find: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/how-to-publish-central-government-transparency-data
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to ensure robust cyber security in the public sector.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The Government takes public sector cyber security very seriously. We support the sector in improving their resilience to cyber attacks and encourage all organisations to implement the advice developed by National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and published on their website (www.ncsc.gov.uk).
In addition, the NCSC’s Active Cyber Defence (ACD) programme continues to be rolled out alongside the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government led Think Cyber Think Resilience initiative which helps councils improve their security and wider cyber resilience awareness.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to make improve the use of digital technology in the public sector.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
The United Kingdom is a recognised world leader in public sector digital innovation. The Government Digital Service (GDS) leads on the digital transformation in government, providing common solutions to problems that government service teams have to tackle repeatedly.
GDS provides standards, guidance and best practice to help government to build services that work for everyone. GDS works with departments to provide the right technology to help the public sector deliver great services, through technology that meets user needs; makes cross-government collaboration easier; costs less; and will help civil servants to work more flexibly and efficiently.
The Government Transformation Strategy was published in February 2017. It sets out a vision for transforming the way government operates and delivers services in the digital age and GDS’ role in driving this change. It was developed in conjunction with other government departments and its objectives include business transformation; increasing skills and capability across government; developing better tools, processes and governance; data; and developing more shared platforms such as GOV.UK Notify.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of using blockchain and distributed ledger technologies in the public sector.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) and blockchain are exciting new developments. The Government is open minded about their potential, along with other emerging technologies, to help better meet user needs. At this stage more research is needed in order to determine their potential uses and whether the technologies are appropriate as a vehicle for public service delivery. The Government will be guided by the Chief Scientific Adviser’s 2016 report on the topic available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/distributed-ledger-technology-beyond-block-chain
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will estimate the amount lost to cyber fraud in the public sector in each year since 2010.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We are unable to provide an estimate of the loss to cyber fraud in the public sector each year since 2010. We have considered the information available to us and do not have any data available to help inform such an estimate.
Asked by: Adam Afriyie (Conservative - Windsor)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many new technology businesses have been registered in (a) Windsor constituency, (b) Berkshire and (c) the UK since 2010.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.