Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to tackle postal vote fraud.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Electoral fraud is unacceptable on any level. There are already measures in place designed to enhance the security of postal voting.
In response to (the then) Sir Eric Pickles report on electoral fraud, the Government accepted recommendations to strengthen the postal vote system and, in line with our manifesto commitment, we are working to reform postal voting to ensure our elections are secure.
The Government will look for opportunities to introduce measures that will restrict the handling of postal votes by people who may seek to abuse or subvert them. We will also look to introduce controls on the return of postal votes via polling stations, which has been a cause for concern in past elections.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to tackle bribery during elections.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Under section 113 of the Representation of the People Act (RPA) 1983 it is an offence for a person to give money or a gift to any other person in order to induce them to vote or to refrain from voting at an election. There is a similar offence at section 114 of the RPA 1983 in relation to the treating of voters.
Furthermore, the Bribery Act 2010 (the Act) replaced an old and outmoded mix of common and statutory law and was designed to provide the courts, prosecutors and investigators the tools they needed to tackle bribery in the UK and overseas in the 21st century. The Act reflects the UK's continued commitment to combat bribery and provides a modern, comprehensive scheme of bribery offences.
If anyone has evidence of abuse of the electoral system, this should be reported to the Returning Officer or the Police who have powers to investigate.
We will continue to keep electoral law under review to ensure the electoral system is safe and secure.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department is assessing measures to increase the efficiency of public sector procurement; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Oliver Dowden
Carillion’s insolvency has made it clear that government should think about whether there is a need to make changes which will safeguard against an event of this scale happening again. To that end, we are currently undertaking an internal lessons learned exercise and will be considering a range of inputs before deciding what changes, if any, need to be made to public outsourcing policies and procedures.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government plans to undertake a comprehensive investigation of intimidation of candidates and canvassers during the 2017 General Election.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
At the request of the Prime Minister, the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL) is currently carrying out a review of the intimidation of Parliamentary candidates, including those who stood at the 2017 General Election. The Committee will be publishing its report ‘Intimidation in Public Life: A Review by the Committee on Standards in Public Life’ on Wednesday 13 December. The Government will consider the report and its recommendations carefully.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the Government's policy is on the reform of surrogacy law being undertaken by the Law Commission in its 13th Programme of Law Reform.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government recognises the value of surrogacy as one of a number of options in helping people who can’t have children create a family.
Drafting work on the remedial order is ongoing. We currently estimate it will be laid in the autumn session of Parliament.
The Department of Health supports the proposal by the Law Commission of England and Wales to include a project about surrogacy in its work programme for 2017-20
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the (a) effect, (b) uptake and (c) observance of Government non-statutory guidance in the IT, technology and digital sector by industry, civil society and others.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government Digital Service has lead responsibility for digital and technology guidance and standards in central Government, through the Digital by Default Service Standard, Government Service Design Manual and Technology Code of Practice. All Government departments are required to follow the standards and guidance when developing new IT and digital solutions. All standards and guidance are fully open and other organisations are welcome to follow the good practice set out in these documents.
Although my department makes no formal assessment of the uptake of these standards and guidance beyond central government, we assure that central government meets these standards through spending controls and service assessments and via the monitoring of service performance on GOV.UK to assure that high quality services are delivered to users.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many defibrillators are provided in each building his Department manages.
Answered by Matt Hancock
One defibrillator has been provided in each of three buildings managed by the Cabinet Office. The buildings are: 10 Downing Street; Rosebery Court, Norwich; and Emergency Planning College, York.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many defibrillators are provided in 10 Downing Street.
Answered by Matt Hancock
One defibrillator has been provided in each of three buildings managed by the Cabinet Office. The buildings are: 10 Downing Street; Rosebery Court, Norwich; and Emergency Planning College, York.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress the Government has made on increasing the level of employment in (a) North Lincolnshire, (b) East Yorkshire and (c) England since 2010.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Andrew Percy (Conservative - Brigg and Goole)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of births, where one or both parents were born outside the UK, there were in (i) Brigg and Goole constituency and (ii) Yorkshire and the Humber in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.