Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Selous Excerpts

Thursday 22nd June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Scott Benton (Blackpool South) (Ind)]

10. What recent steps he has taken with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure value for money in public spending.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

14. What recent steps he has taken with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure value for money in public spending.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

The Government continue to deliver on our commitment to get maximum value for taxpayers’ money in public spending. The Cabinet Office is one of the engines of efficiency in government. In the most recent financial year for which we have the data, the Cabinet Office, working with colleagues across Whitehall and the cross-Government functions, saved the British taxpayer £3.4 billion, a record we are proud of.

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[Alex Burghart]

The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point about the need for us to ensure every pound of taxpayers’ money is spent appropriately, and he will have heard or read the Health Secretary’s comments in March, when he wrote to the health community saying:

“I would ask that you, as a member of the wider health family, now review whether your organisation is getting value for money from your diversity and inclusion memberships and, if not, consider any steps that you could take to address that”.

[Andrew Selous]

Central London is a very expensive place in which to employ civil servants, and it is expensive for them to live in central London, so what are we doing to allow all parts of the United Kingdom to have the civil service based in their areas, particularly smaller towns, not just large ones, and across the UK—not just in the north, but across the whole of the UK?

[Alex Burghart]

My hon. Friend makes a good point. We are the Government who committed to relocating 22,000 civil servants from London to the regions by 2030, and we are making excellent progress on that. We have already achieved half that number, and the other day I was pleased to be in Sheffield opening our new policy unit, which brings people together, and not just entry-level civil servants, but the senior managers and decision makers who are going to inform the decisions that drive government in the future.

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[Oliver Dowden]

I do not recall a time during the covid crisis when the Labour party said we should not be purchasing PPE but, on wider procurement, that is precisely why we are taking the Procurement Bill through this House, which seizes the opportunities of Brexit to ensure we have an efficient procurement system.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T3. The Cabinet Office does a really good job, thanks in part to my right hon. Friend the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and others, in looking after veterans’ affairs across the whole of government. However, I would like another group in the armed forces community, armed forces families, to have parity of esteem with veterans. We still have spouses and partners whose careers and jobs are trashed as they move around, with employers not doing enough; we have children who have studied the Romans six times and never get on to the Egyptians; and we have health appointments that do not catch up on moves. We need the Cabinet Office to chivvy this cross-departmentally. Will he do that?

[The Minister for Veterans' Affairs (Johnny Mercer)]

That is a good question, and I pay huge tribute to my hon. Friend for his work over the years; he did the “Living in our Shoes” report when I was in a previous role. Veterans’ affairs are outside the Ministry of Defence because veterans are civilians, not serving personnel, and they require all those aspects of government to work for veterans as civilians. He is talking about armed forces families, and responsibility for them remains with the MOD and the Minister for Defence People, Veterans and Service Families. I am sure he will have heard those remarks and I stand ready to assist in any way I can.