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Written Question
Cabinet Office: Social Media
Thursday 28th April 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department is enrolled on any trusted flagger programmes with social media companies.

Answered by Nigel Adams

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport lead on social media companies and related trusted flagger programmes. Therefore, the Cabinet Office does not hold any information on this subject.


Written Question
National Security Adviser: Afghanistan
Monday 28th March 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the National Security Advisor was empowered to direct FCDO officials in determining evacuation priorities during the pull-out from Afghanistan in August 2021 (b) in respect of Nowzad and (b) more widely.

Answered by Michael Ellis

Following an NSC decision on 15 April 2021, the coordination of the Afghanistan evacuation was led by a small group of officials from relevant departments across Government, chaired by the relevant Deputy National Security Advisor, reporting to the National Security Advisor. The role of this group was to ensure the evacuation proceeded in line with policies and priorities agreed by the NSC. Staff for Nowzad were processed in line with this policy.


Written Question
Forced Labour: Xinjiang
Tuesday 15th February 2022

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to ensure that due diligence procedures for government procurement are adequate to prevent goods made from forced labour in Xinjiang from entering the UK supply chain.

Answered by Michael Ellis

This government is committed to preventing modern slavery occurring in public sector supply chains.


The Cabinet Office has published commercial policy and guidance setting out the steps that all Government departments must take to identify and mitigate modern slavery and labour abuse risks throughout the commercial life cycle - focussing on the areas of highest risk. This policy is mandatory for all Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non-Departmental Public Bodies. The policy can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/procurement-policy-note-0519-tackling-modern-slavery-in-government-supply-chains.


Written Question
Cabinet Office: Correspondence
Thursday 21st October 2021

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to improve his Department's response times to correspondence from members of the public.

Answered by Michael Ellis

The Government recognises the importance of responding to members of the public in an effective and timely manner. To that end, the Cabinet Office published an updated Guide to Handling Correspondence for Government Departments and Agencies in July 2021.

The guidance reasserts the standards for handling correspondence including: a 20 working day deadline for departments to respond to members of the public, criteria outlining when a response to a member of the public is required, and; when a piece of correspondence from a member of the public should be transferred to another department. Following publication of the updated guidance, all departments have been reminded that they must follow the processes outlined in the guidance.

In the Cabinet Office, we continue to prioritise timely responses to correspondence from members of the public - despite a significant increase in case volumes. We also keep our processes under continuous review to further improve the time taken to respond.


Written Question
Local Government: Elections
Thursday 6th February 2020

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2019 to Question 175803, on Local Government: Elections, whether EU citizens will be eligible to (a) stand as candidates, (b) serve a full-term if elected and (c) vote in local government elections in England and Wales in 2020 during the transition period of the UK leaving the EU.

Answered by Chloe Smith

I refer the Hon member to the answer which I gave to PQ 1802 on 29 January 2020.


Written Question
Local Government: Elections
Wednesday 5th February 2020

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 1 November 2019 to Question 175803 on Local Government: Elections, whether EU citizens will be eligible in the transition period to (a) stand as candidates, (b) serve a full-term if elected and (c) vote in local elections in England and Wales in 2020.

Answered by Chloe Smith

I refer the Rt Hon member to the answer which I gave to PQ 1802 on 29 January 2020.


Written Question
Investigatory Powers Commissioner: Annual Reports
Thursday 24th January 2019

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the 2017 Annual Report of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner has been submitted to the Prime Minister.

Answered by David Lidington

The Prime Minister has seen the 2017 Annual Report of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, and has agreed that it will be published in due course.


Written Question
Investigatory Powers Commissioner: Annual Reports
Thursday 24th January 2019

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Prime Minister plans to publish the 2017 Annual Report of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner.

Answered by David Lidington

The Prime Minister has seen the 2017 Annual Report of the Investigatory Powers Commissioner, and has agreed that it will be published in due course.


Written Question
Immigrants: Commonwealth
Thursday 19th April 2018

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people in the UK were born in Commonwealth countries and arrived in the UK before 1971.

Answered by Chloe Smith

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.


Written Question
Elections: Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group
Tuesday 27th March 2018

Asked by: Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat - Orkney and Shetland)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the work of (a) Cambridge Analytica, (b) Strategic Communications Laboratories and (c) Global Science Research on elections conducted in the UK.

Answered by Chloe Smith

Parliament is responsible for setting the rules in relation to campaigning, funding and spending at elections and referendums. It is for the Electoral Commission to regulate actively against these rules.

The Electoral Commission is an independent body and the detail of any investigations undertaken by the Electoral Commission is a matter for them.