Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2024 to Question 16157 on Railways: Nationalisation, whether her Department plans to maintain regional livery as railway franchises are brought into public ownership.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department has not assessed the potential merits of maintaining regional livery as railway franchises are brought back into public ownership.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 November 2024 to Question 12938 on Research Finance, what proportion of the £500m allocated to his Department for spend on research and development in 2024-25 was classified as official development assistance.
Answered by Anneliese Dodds - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
We are still in the financial year 2024-25 so the FCDO will not have final full year numbers until April 2025. However, at the start of the year, £500 million of ODA was allocated to research & development in FCDO.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what training civil servants in his Department receive on the public sector equality duty.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In June 2024, the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology published updated guidance on the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), available to all staff via the intranet. The guidance provides a clear framework on the principles of the duty, compliance expectations, and conducting equality impact assessments. Staff were encouraged to use this resource to support their work.
In addition, a PSED training video was included in the Policy Foundation Programme, run on DSIT's behalf by the Integrated Shared Services. The first cohort took place on 18th November 2024.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Strategic Partnership Arrangement 2024 between Microsoft and the Crown Commercial Service, what guidance is available to civil servants on the use of Microsoft Co-pilot.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Generative AI Framework provides general guidance for civil servants using AI tools. The government is, in addition, currently evaluating Microsoft 365 Copilot via a formal experiment, the findings of which will feed into future guidance for civil servants. Training has been supplied centrally to increase the efficacy of Microsoft 365 Copilot alongside material on Civil service Learn on generative AI to raise awareness of benefits, limitations and risks of Generative AI tools, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot. Microsoft's agreement with its Public Sector customers ensures enhanced privacy assurance on Microsoft 365 Copilot, including a commitment that end-user prompts are not used to train external large language models.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central and West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, with reference to the Government’s response to the Independent Review of the UK’s Research, Development and Innovation Organisational Landscape, what steps he has taken to explore a sustainable source of funding for Public Sector Research Establishments to support them to undertake grant-based research funded at less than full economic cost.
Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
There is a commitment in the response to the landscape review to investigate a sustainable source of funding for PSREs who undertake UKRI research funded at less than full economic cost.
Work is in the scoping phase and we are continuing to explore ways to improve the landscape and ease of collaboration across the sector, including for PSREs.