Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many apprentices were employed in each Government department in the financial year 2021-22; and what proportion of the total workforce were apprentices in each Government department in 2021-2022.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Cabinet Office is currently collating and quality assuring data on apprenticeships for 2021/22; final figures are not yet available. Based on indicative figures, Cabinet Office employed 224 apprentices in 2021/22, which is equivalent to 2.34% of the 2021/22 target headcount.
As at 1 April 2022, the number of Cabinet Office apprentices actively completing a programme (regardless of which financial year they started) equates to 3.23% of the total workforce.
The Cabinet Office, on behalf of the Civil Service, will be publishing a full breakdown of departmental performance on apprenticeships in the Autumn in line with previous years.
Data for all departments between 2017 and 2021 is available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Public Sector Apprenticeships Target, how many apprentices were employed in each participating department in the financial year 2021-22; what proportion of the total workforce in each participating department in 2021-22 were apprentices; what the return to his Department was in respect of the target for each participating department; and for each department, whether the Public Sector Apprenticeships Target was met.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Cabinet Office is currently collating and quality assuring data on apprenticeships for 2021/22; final figures are not yet available. Based on indicative figures, Cabinet Office employed 224 apprentices in 2021/22, which is equivalent to 2.34% of the 2021/22 target headcount.
As at 1 April 2022, the number of Cabinet Office apprentices actively completing a programme (regardless of which financial year they started) equates to 3.23% of the total workforce.
The Cabinet Office, on behalf of the Civil Service, will be publishing a full breakdown of departmental performance on apprenticeships in the Autumn in line with previous years.
Data for all departments between 2017 and 2021 is available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has issued any guidance, internally or to other Departments on the risks or benefits of contracting companies to provide payroll finance solutions to staff delivering public services, in the last 10 years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
A joint communication from the Chief People Officer, Director General of Public Spending (HMT) and Government Chief Commercial Officer was issued in December 2020. This communication related to early payroll schemes, advising departments to ensure they were making full use of all options already available, including salary advances and loan schemes before considering proposals from third party finance providers. It further reminded departments that if they did want to introduce a new type of finance arrangement, they were required to seek internal sign off from their departmental Accounting Officer before approaching HM Treasury for final approval.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of providing further funding in port infrastructure following the Ports Infrastructure Fund.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Ports are commercial enterprises and would normally be expected to fund any infrastructure required to comply with legislation on border controls.
However, in recognition of the unique circumstances of EU Exit, the UK Government made £705 million of funding available to support border readiness.
This included the £200 million Port Infrastructure Fund which has been allocated; there are no plans to invite further applications.
Going forward, as commercial enterprises, it is for ports to make business decisions about which services they provide and how these are financed.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion in cost terms of the (a) furniture, including desks and chairs, (b) IT hardware and (c) programming for new visualizations and data outputs in respect of the operations room constructed in 70 Whitehall in the financial year 2020-21 is capable of being reused in other government buildings.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Total £3,710,000.00
Furniture £ 36,000.00
IT/AV costs £ 450,000.00
Visualisation & Programming £2,440,000.00
All furniture and systems are potentially capable of being reused in other Cabinet Office secure environments.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent (a) in total, (b) on furniture, including desks and chairs, (c) on IT hardware and (d) on programming for new visualizations and data outputs in respect of the operations room constructed in 70 Whitehall in the financial year 2020-21.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Total £3,710,000.00
Furniture £ 36,000.00
IT/AV costs £ 450,000.00
Visualisation & Programming £2,440,000.00
All furniture and systems are potentially capable of being reused in other Cabinet Office secure environments.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the eight successful Freeport bids, (a) how many and (b) which of those bids stated that they would benefit from the funding available through the Port Infrastructure Fund.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
All of the Freeport locations have received funding from the Port Infrastructure Fund. The Freeport process was designed to align with other government funding. One of the bidders out of the eight successful locations made specific reference to the Port Infrastructure Fund in its bid.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to make further funds available through the Ports Infrastructure Fund in the context of the completion of Freeport designation in England.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The allocation of the Port Infrastructure Fund was announced on 15 December 2020. This funding provides assistance to the building of infrastructure to better facilitate the flow of trade into the UK from the EU. It is separate funding from the new Freeports which will create new national hubs for trade, innovation and commerce.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Treasury's publication entitled Build Back Better: our plan for growth, dated March 2021, and the target set out on page 14 of that publication to relocate 22,000 civil servants out of London by 2030, whether that target is to relocate those civil servants out of (a) London or (b) London and the South East; and if he will confirm the exact boundaries of the areas he would denote by the terms (i) London, (ii) the South East and (iii) London and the South East.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
At Budget 2020, the Government committed to relocating a minimum of 22,000 civil service roles out of central London, the vast majority to the other regions and nations of the UK.
Asked by: Bridget Phillipson (Labour - Houghton and Sunderland South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much money from the public purse has been spent on digital advertising on (a) the transition period and (b) public health advice on Covid-19 in (i) February 2020 and (ii) since the beginning of March 2020.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Cabinet Office publishes expenditure, including on public information campaigns, on a rolling monthly basis on gov.uk as part of routine government transparency arrangements.