Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the letter of 30 September 2024 from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster letter to the Senior Salaries Review Body, when the Office for Pay Review Bodies was set up.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Office of Manpower Economics was set up in 1971. Its name was changed to the Office for the Pay Review Bodies on 1 October 2024, to reflect better the role of the organisation.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Office for Statistics's press release entitled New partnership between statistical authorities of the UK and the EU, published on 9 October 2024, what role Ministers had in approving this arrangement; and if he will publish the text of the agreement and any associated documentation.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Article 730 of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) negotiated between the UK and EU in 2021 provides that ‘Eurostat and the United Kingdom Statistics Authority may establish an arrangement that enables cooperation on relevant statistical matters’.
The 2024 Lievesley Review of the UK Statistics Authority included a recommendation to prioritise the establishment and signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Eurostat in line with Article 730 of the TCA. The Government’s response, led by then Minister Baroness Neville Rolfe, was to agree and stated that: ‘The Cabinet Office supports these recommendations. Given the UKSA’s international standing there should be a continued emphasis on their role as a thought leader among our international peers.’
Following the July election Cabinet Office Ministers have received progress reports on activity to deliver against this recommendation and welcome the new arrangements that are now in place.
The publication of the text is a matter for the Office for National Statistics, which operates independently as a Non Ministerial Department.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to enact reforms to the House of Lords other than those set out in the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government’s manifesto set out a number of commitments to reform of the House of Lords. The manifesto was clear that, as an immediate reform, it would introduce legislation to remove the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill has now completed its passage through the House of Commons and had its first reading in the House of Lords on 13 November 2024.
This is the first step in reform of the House of Lords and it is right that the Government focuses on completing the passage of this Bill.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government response of January 2024 to the17th Report of the House of Lords Constitution Select Committee of Session 2022/23 on Permanent Secretaries: their appointments and removal, HL 258, published on 20 October 2023, what progress he has made on updating the Senior Appointments Protocol; and if he will publish the updated Protocol.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Senior Appointment Protocol is being updated and will be published in due course.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a list of the Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals' sub-committees.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals (known as the HD Committee) has one sub-committee, the Advisory Military Sub-Committee. The terms of reference for this committee can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether non-executive director appointments to HM Revenue and Customs are classified as regulated public appointments.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The bodies and offices that are classified as regulated appointments are listed, by department, in Schedules 1 and 2 of the Public Appointments (No. 2) Order in Council 2023. Appointments to the Board of HM Revenue and Customs, as a non-ministerial department, are not classified as regulated public appointments.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether senior representatives of Tiktok are classified as as senior media executives for the purposes of gov.uk transparency returns by Ministers, special advisers and senior officials.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Guidance on ministers’, special advisers’, and senior officials’ transparency returns is published on GOV.UK and includes details of who would be considered senior media figures for these purposes.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question
To ask the hon. Member for Blaenau Gwent and Rhymney, representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2024 to Question 8129 on Ministers: Workplace Pensions, what the percentage employer contribution to the Parliamentary Contribution Pension Fund for the Ministerial Pension Scheme is in the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Nick Smith
The exchequer contribution to the Ministerial Pension Scheme in the financial year 2024–25 is 10.5% of pay per annum.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the answer of 6 November 2024, to Question 12294, on Employer’s Contributions: Ministry of Defence, and with reference to Item 26 on page 118, Table 5.1, of the Autumn Budget 2024, HC295, on the allowance for impact of the National Insurance Contributions on public sector organisations, whether this will include funding to mitigate the NI insurance rise for (a) GPs, (b) NHS dentists, (c) NHS-funded hospices, (d) privately-funded hospices, (e) universities, (f) further education colleges, (g) children’s care homes, (h) care homes for the elderly which have residents funded by local authorities.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Treasury routinely uses the Office for National Statistics (ONS) classification of the public sector boundary, for example in relation to public sector spending, public sector borrowing and public sector debt.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, when he plans to publish the terms of reference for Intertrade UK.
Answered by Hilary Benn - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
I confirmed the appointment of Baroness Foster as the chair of Intertrade UK on 19 September and work is continuing on other necessary preparatory activity. We will announce further details - including the Terms of Reference - in due course.