Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total value of service credits applied to the contracts awarded for consultancy spend across all Government Departments since 1 March 2020.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Shadow Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This Government recognises that outsourcing is an important component in a “mixed economy” of public service provision and that the private sector has played a crucial role in the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including in relation to the development and procurement of the Government’s world-leading vaccine programme. Under the terms of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, departments and other public authorities are able to use various applicable procedures. Public authorities across the United Kingdom including the devolved administrations and local authorities have made use of direct awards - this includes Leeds City Council. Similar approaches were adopted by many other countries, including Japan, Finland and New Zealand. It is unrealistic to suggest that the government ought to have run a full public procurement competition for PPE and other critical contracts at the height of the pandemic. The minimum number of days a competitive award could take place under the current rules is 25 days. This would have hugely slowed down the buying of vital PPE supplies.
Further to the Outsourcing Playbook, available on gov.uk, and as has been the case under successive administrations, public sector contracting authorities are responsible for their own commercial decisions, such as the award and monitoring of contracts. Regarding cyber security, details of the Cyber Essentials scheme is available on gov.uk. The requested information on service credits is not held centrally.
I note that the Hon Member has not yet replied to the letter by my Rt Hon Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster of 20 November 2020. As a courtesy, I will ensure that a further copy of the letter is sent to her office to ensure she has a chance to reply to the points raised.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many occasions Ministers of devolved Governments have been invited to meetings of the EU Exit Operations Cabinet Committee to discuss preparedness for the end of the transition period (a) from 1 February to 31 August 2020 and (b) since 1 September 2020.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
The letter from the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster to Michael Russell MSP on 27 October, available on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/letters-from-the-chancellor-of-the-duchy-of-lancaster-to-jeremy-miles-ms-and-michael-russell-msp includes detail of the extensive joint working with the devolved administrations.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many times the EU Exit Operations Cabinet Committee met to discuss preparedness for the end of the transition period (a) from 1 February and 31 August 2020 and (b) since 1 September 2020.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt
In line with the practice of successive administrations, details of the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many fatalities have been recorded in hospitals in England for injuries related to firework displays in each year since 2010.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.