Andrew Gwynne

The Equality Act 2010 defines a disability as a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person’s ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

People with mental health conditions that fall within this definition are already protected from discrimination and are entitled to reasonable adjustments.

However, we are aware that people with certain mental health conditions, such as those with fluctuating or moderate symptoms, can have difficulty proving that they meet the Equality Act’s definition of disability, creating an extra barrier to challenging discrimination.

The Government is therefore exploring a number of options to extend or clarify protections from discrimination for people with certain mental health conditions, including through the Equality Act 2010.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by Hon. Friend the Minister for the Constitution on 21 March 2017 to PQ68036.

Levels of radioactivity in the environment, including residual radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl disaster, are monitored jointly by the environmental and food standards agencies for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Results are reported annually in the Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE) series which is available on the www.gov.uk website. The latest RIFE report confirmed that levels of residual contamination from Chernobyl are negligible even in the areas of the UK that received the largest fallout, namely upland areas where heavy rain fell in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

I met elected leaders, ministers and representatives of all of the twelve inhabited British Overseas Territories at Downing Street in December 2012. I met the leaders of Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar and Montserrat at Downing Street in June 2013, and the Gibraltar Chief Minister in August 2013.

The Minister for the Overseas Territories, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochford and Southend East (Mr Duddridge), met the Overseas Territories’ elected leaders and representatives at the most recent Joint Ministerial Council in December 2015.

In addition other members of the Foreign Office Ministerial team and Ministers from across Whitehall Departments regularly meet leaders of the Overseas Territories at the annual Joint Ministerial Council.

The UK has one of the strongest and most productive life sciences industries in the world, generating turnover of over £56 billion per annum and ranking top in major European economies for health life sciences foreign direct investment projects.

Since the launch of the Governments Life Science Strategy in 2011, the Government has invested almost £1billion in health and life sciences and has attracted over £3.5 billion of private sector investment to the UK, making us the leading European destination for life science fundraising.

Our ambition is to maximise the UK’s strengths in science and research to accelerate the development and adoption of 21^st Century health science technology, delivering the best health outcomes and increasing wider growth and prosperity.

Information in the form requested is not held centrally and could be estimated only at disproportionate cost.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) does not make estimates on the amount of lost or stolen stationery so unfortunately there is no data available that would answer this question. However all BIS staff are aware of Departmental regulations on stationery usage and there is no evidence that these regulations are not being adhered to by BIS staff.

The Department has made no estimate on the value of any stationery (a) lost or (b) stolen in any of the last five fiscal years.

Non-consolidated performance related pay is paid to reward excellence, for example to recognise and incentivise those responsible for delivering high quality public services and savings to the taxpayer. These one-off payments are not pensionable. Since 2010-11 the Government has restricted awards for senior civil servants to the top 25% of performers (from 65% in previous years), saving around £15 million overall.

An element of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills overall pay award for staff below the Senior Civil Service (SCS) is allocated to non-consolidated, non-pensionable pay related to performance. There are two types of award: in-year awards and annual performance awards.

Performance awards for the SCS are part of the pay system across the whole Senior Civil Service, and are used to reward high performance sustained throughout the year.

Information in the table shows the cost of each of these type of awards in each of the last three years.

* A few end year payments still to be made so this figure is the latest and may increase

The Department uses performance related pay to help drive high performance and to recognise exceptional contributions and achievements over and above what is expected of people in fulfilling their employment contracts.

These payments, which are in-line with HMT Pay Guidance, are cost effective as they are not consolidated into basic pay and have to be re-earned every year.

Since 2010-11 the Government has restricted awards for senior civil servants to the top 25% of performers.

In-year performance related awards are used to recognise and incentivise corporate behaviours and values which might not be fully reflected in annual performance appraisal reports. These are also used to reward staff for exceptional pieces of work or for taking on additional responsibilities.

End-year non-consolidated performance awards are used to reward the department’s highest performers as assessed in their end of year appraisal reports.

A breakdown of the In-Year and the End-Year awards is given in the table below:

Table 1

The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) has no office space which is not in regular use.

All of DECC’s property is leased aside from 55 Whitehall. This is a Crown Estate building. The Department cannot release real estate valuation as this is considered to be commercially sensitive.

The core Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS Core) does not own any freehold office space.

Core BIS has 212.34 square metres of vacant office space in Fleetbank House. This space is currently under negotiation to sub-let which will mean all BIS office space is in regular use. This vacant space represents 0.002% of core BIS total office space.

The Department of Energy & Climate Change (DECC) currently occupies, wholly or partly, four buildings in London and one in Aberdeen. These buildings form the Core Estate of the Department and are currently required in order for DECC to carry out its business.

In London, DECC fully occupies ‘3 Whitehall Place’ and ‘55 Whitehall’, whilst partly occupying space at ‘Kings Buildings’ (3.5 floors of 9 floor building) and ‘One Victoria St’ (approx. 500SqM).

• 3 Whitehall Place – DECC pay rent to the Department for the Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (DEFRA) who lease from a private landlord.
• 55 Whitehall – DECC pay rent to the Crown Estate (landlord).
• Kings Buildings – DECC pay rent to Transport for London (TFL) who lease from a private landlord.
• One Victoria St – DECC pay rent to the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) who lease from a private landlord.

In Aberdeen, DECC partly occupies space at Atholl House’ (2 floors of a 7 floor building) – DECC pay rent to BIS who lease from a private landlord.

In all cases above, the Department cannot release the value of these rental payments as this is considered commercially sensitive information.

As part of the Government’s Strategic Land & Property Review (SLPR), all Departments are working to reduce property costs either by exiting leasehold agreements or by selling/sub-letting freeholds. As part of this, DECC plan to amalgamate all of its London staff in 3 Whitehall Place and 55 Whitehall during this financial year, thereby exiting Kings Buildings and One Victoria St. This will be achieved by creating a ‘smarter’, more flexible way of working.

The Government Property Unit (GPU) has created a portal - Find Me Some Government Space (https://www.gov.uk/find-government-property) - for more efficient marketing of surplus land and buildings. This is searchable by developers, community groups and the general public.

Further information on the the efficiency and sustainability of property in the government's civil estate is published in our State of the Estate Report 2013 - 2014 available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-estate-2014.

The buildings occupied by the core Department for Business, Innovation and Skills are set out in the table below:

As was the practice under previous administrations and in accordance with the Ministerial Code (6.2), I have hosted a number of political events at Downing Street. The costs were met by the Conservative Party. Details of official and charity receptions held at Downing Street are published on a quarterly basis. Details can be accessed via the gov.uk website.

The Ofgem Review of 2010-11 recommended that the Social and Environmental Statutory Guidance to the Gas and Electricity Market Authority should be replaced with a new Strategy and Policy Statement, which the Government consulted on last year. The guidance will be repealed once the statement is designated by Parliament.

The Department does not hold information on how many families are in debt with their energy companies.

Ofgem closely monitors domestic energy suppliers’ performance and publishes information in relation to debt owed by domestic electricity and gas accounts holders in Great Britain, but they do not publish data relating to families with children or constituency areas. At the end of 2013, latest data available, 1.5 million domestic electricity account holders and 1.4 million domestic gas account holders were in debt to their energy supplier:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publications/92186/annualreport2013finalforpublication.pdf

Ofgem’s Domestic Suppliers’ Social Obligations: 2013 Annual Report

The Northern Futures project engaged with thousands of people across the north, with 2,000 people following the Northern Futures Twitter account and several events held across northern cities. We are making good progress on implementing the best ideas that came forward through this process, including:

• Confirmation at Autumn Statement of £7bn to improving road networks and replacing old fashioned pacer trains across the north
• The recruitment of the Head of TechNorth, a new arm of TechCity UK which will support the region's tech businesses, which is now underway.
• Finalising proposals for how to best use the £10m of funding made available to support the region's tourism industry, including through a DPM hosted roundtable meeting planned for later this month.
• Creation of a working group on the temporary use of vacant buildings and land to see how we can bring underused sites back into use to support businesses, artists and community groups in the north of England.

The main tenants at Cannon House in Birmingham are the Insolvency Service (an executive agency of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills) who pays rent to the landlord for space within the building. No income is derived from any occupation of this building.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) no longer occupy any space within the NTI Building in Birmingham. The estates team for BIS are actively marketing the vacant space in the NTI building, Birmingham and are in discussion with an interested party.

BIS are not the leaseholders for Queensway House in Billingham. The space is leased from Stockton-On-Tees Borough Council. Therefore, this department do not receive rent for this space, they pay for their occupation in this location.

BIS no longer occupy any space within Stella House, Newcastle or Westfield House, London.

The Electoral Commission informs me that the confirmation dry run involved matching all entries on the electoral registers against the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Customer Information System database. Entries would be marked as green if they matched with DWP, amber if they were a partial match or red if there was no match.

The ward results for Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council were as follows:

The ward results for Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council were as follows:

The ward results for the Denton and Reddish constituencywere as follows:

Results for all wards are available on the Commission's website here: http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/excel_doc/0003/163146/Confirmation-dry-run-2013-Results-Wards.xls

Non-consolidated performance related awards are only paid to reward excellence, for example to recognise and incentivise those responsible for delivering high quality public services and savings to the taxpayer. Those one-off payments are not pensionable. Furthermore, since 2010/11 the Government has restricted awards for senior civil servants to the top 25% of performers (from 65% in previous years), saving around £15 million overall.

A table showing information on performance related awards made by the Law Officers’ Departments during the past three financial years is presented below.

* The year-end figures for the 2014/15 performance year are not yet finalised.

** The increase in the sums for GLD reflects the fact that the department has significantly increased in size each year since 2011, as a result of consolidation of government legal teams into a single department. The GLD data also covers the Attorney General’s Office and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate.

*** The only bonus scheme operated within the CPS is for SCS grades or the equivalent Senior Legal Manager (SLM) grades.

Further details on staff numbers and costs, including performance related pay are published in the respective departmental Annual Report and Accounts.

It would not be in the public interest to disclose any specific retail or real estate valuation information, as this information is commercially sensitive and any disclosure could adversely affect the Government’s future ability to negotiate efficiencies and achieve value for money to the taxpayer.

The Crown Prosecution Service has a total owned and leased estate of 81,085 sq metres. Of that estate 9.3% is currently not in regular use. The total rental cost of those sites not in regular use is £961,235 (ex VAT).

The proportion of the office space owned or leased by The Government Legal Department (GLD) which is not in regular use comprises 9% of the total estate. The rental value of all unused office space is £248,680.69.

Both departments keep their estates under regular review and expect to have significantly reduced the proportion of office space which is not in regular use by December 2016.

The remaining Law Officers’ Departments do not own or lease any property which is not in regular use.

The information requested in respect of the Attorney General’s Office, HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate and the Government Legal Department (formally TSol) remains unchanged from that given in the former Solicitor General’s answer to question 183631 on 22 January 2014 (Official Report, Col 192W). Information relating to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is detailed below.

The SFO is a tenant in 2-4 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5BS which is owned by the Crown Estate. The Canadian High Commission (CHC) has taken out a 101 year lease from the Crown Estate for the building and the SFO makes rental payments to the CHC for the space it occupies. The rent paid by the SFO for 2014-15 financial year amounted to £1,733,619 (including non-recoverable VAT).

In March 2015 the SFO rented additional temporary office space as part of one of its blockbuster investigations. Following discussions with the Government Property Unit (GPU) a short term lease for temporary accommodation was agreed with Regus Management. This lease is due to run from 16 March to 30 June 2015 and rental payments for the 2014-15 financial year amounted to £15,690 (including non-recoverable VAT).

According to records held by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) property managing agent (DTZ), the CPS leases the following buildings that are owned or part-owned privately. The rent figures exclude VAT.

The Attorney General and I meet regularly with the Director of Service Prosecutions and discuss casework issues at these meetings. This includes the prosecution of rape and other sexual offences.

The Cabinet Office does not routinely comment on internal assessments, whether they have happened or not.

The Cabinet Office does not routinely comment on leaks of government information, but further information on the rules relating to access to government papers by former ministers for the purposes of publishing a memoir are set out in the Ministerial Code at 2.9 and 8.10.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Questions of 4 July is attached.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Questions of 4 July is attached.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Questions of 4 July is attached.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Questions of 4 July is attached.

As outlined in my answer of 23 May 2022 to PQ 7958, Sir Lynton Crosby is not a Government Adviser; any assistance he may provide is in a party political capacity to the Conservative Party.

In relation to Government policy on tobacco control, I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement of 9 June 2022, Official Report, HCWS87. In developing the new Tobacco Control Plan, I can confirm the Government will continue to follow WHO principles.

The Crown Prince and I discussed a wide range of matters. We regularly raise human rights issues with the Government of Bahrain and continue to engage with the Government of Bahrain to support its reform agenda.