Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of banning the use of the DeepSeek artificial intelligence model (a) on government devices, (b) in government buildings and (c) by government employees.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Everyone who works with government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they process, access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards.
Government has a robust set of security policies in place to oversee how information is handled, within our buildings, on our IT and by our staff. We keep these policies under constant review to ensure they are applicable to new technologies.
In conjunction, the Government's Generative AI framework outlines that only corporately assured Generative AI tools should be used to process HMG information.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people worked in the No. 10 foreign policy team on (a) 31 October 2024 and (b) 11 December 2024.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
For management and staffing purposes the Prime Minister’s Office is part of the Cabinet Office. All staff in the Prime Minister’s Office support the work of the Prime Minister to ensure the effective running of government.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many National Security Council meetings at Ministerial level there have been since 1 September 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Hikvision CCTV or other surveillance software or equipment from Hikvision, is used on any property owned or administered by his Department.
Answered by Michael Ellis
As has been the case under successive administrations, it is not government policy to comment on the security arrangements of government buildings. Specific details regarding the make and model of security systems are withheld on national security grounds.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what criteria are being used to evaluate value for money of possible relocations of Government offices under the Places for Growth programme.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The Government has committed to ensuring that the administration of Government is less London-centric through the relocation of 22,000 civil service roles to locations across the United Kingdom.
Departments are taking into account a range of factors including their operating model, workforce and location analysis to assess possible locations for roles. The department will select places that they judge to have the skills, transport links and capacity to meet their needs and flourish in their chosen locations as well as ensuring locations are suitable for the long term success and sustainability of the civil service.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans he has to identify rural areas with strong transport connections to urban centres as suitable locations for the Places for Growth programme.
Answered by Julia Lopez
Places for Growth was established to contribute towards the government’s levelling up aims and commits to relocating 22,000 civil service roles from central London to the regions and nations of the UK by the end of the decade.
Departments will decide on their locations taking into account a range of factors including their specific operating models, workforce and location analysis. Departments will select places that they judge to have the skills, transport links and capacity to meet their needs and flourish in their chosen locations as well as ensuring locations are suitable for the long term success and sustainability of the civil service.
Asked by: Alicia Kearns (Conservative - Rutland and Stamford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of firms that have been successful in bidding for Government contracts between 2015 and 2020 are (a) headquartered and (b) registered with Companies House at an address in a predominantly rural area as defined by the Office of National Statistics' Rural/urban classification 2011.
Answered by Chloe Smith
This information is not held centrally.
Records of central government contracts above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search