Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, from what budget (a) legal fees for defamation cases brought against ministers and (b) settlement in such cases will come.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
In line with the established practice under multiple administrations of all political colours, Ministers are provided with legal support and representation where matters relate to their conduct and responsibilities as a Minister.
Statistics relating to costs of settling claims, costs of legal support, and the number of times the provision of legal support has been authorised or declined are not maintained by the Cabinet Office. Funding for appropriate legal costs, including any out-of-court settlements, would be met by the relevant department's budget.
As set out in Chapter 6 of the Cabinet Manual, Ministers are indemnified by the Crown for any actions taken against them for things done or decisions made in the course of their ministerial duties. The indemnity covers the cost of defending the proceedings, as well as any costs or damages awarded against the minister. Decisions about whether to provide legal support are made by the relevant department’s Accounting Officer.
This reflects an important principle that Ministers should be able to carry out their official duties, supported by official advice, in a way which they see fit, without the risk of personal liability constraining their ability to take those official actions. Of course, Ministers remain accountable to Parliament and the wider public for their actions as a Minister.
It would have a chilling effect on public life if Ministers faced the prospect of personal financial harm from those seeking to pressure the Government through vexatious or hostile litigation (or the threat thereof).
More broadly, the principle of legal support from the public purse for official duties is not confined to government. I would observe that there is insurance available to MPs provided by the House at taxpayers’ expense, designed to protect hon. Members when carrying out parliamentary and constituency duties. This includes professional indemnity insurance that covers defamation. I also note that the House of Lords Commission is due this week to discuss the provision of professional indemnity insurance to peers.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of public sector procurement processes for digital goods and services.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government recognises how vital digital products and services are for delivering public services. The Digital, Data and Technology Playbook provides best practice guidance for the procurement of digital products and services. There are annual updates to ensure it is up to date. The most recent update was in June 2023, found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-digital-data-and-technology-playbook
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made with Cabinet colleagues of the potential impact of the GREAT Tech campaign on (a) overseas investors' perceptions of the UK’s technology ecosystem and (b) the propensity of overseas investors to invest in the UK.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Unicorn Kingdom campaign was launched by GREAT in March 2023. The campaign’s primary purpose is to improve perceptions of the UK tech ecosystem and drive inward investment.
To date the campaign has directly engaged US investors representing over $500 billion in assets under management and several of those investors are actively engaging with HMG in relation to establishing offices in the UK.
A comprehensive evaluation will be completed in 2024 to assess the campaign's impact on international perceptions of the UK's technology ecosystem, the number of overseas investors considering investing in the UK, and the amount of overseas investment attributed to the campaign. We will continue to monitor impact from the campaign beyond this initial evaluation period.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology's news story entitled Civil Service Fast Stream exceeds target to boost STEM expertise across Government published on 25 October 2023, what proportion of Fast Stream hires in the 2023 recruitment campaign had a STEM degree qualification; and of those, what proportion held degrees in (a) science, (b) technology, (c) engineering and (d) maths.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Over 50% of Fast Stream hires in the 2023 recruitment campaign had a STEM degree qualification.
Our STEM categorisation is based on subject groups provided by the Higher Education Statistics Authority (HESA). Therefore it is not possible to break hires down by (a) science, (b) technology, (c) engineering and (d) maths; as we do not collect or analyse the data in this way.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the data used by his Department's transaction explorer to analyse the cost of delivering Government services has been updated since the introduction of the explorer; and whether he plans to update this data in the next two years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Transactions Explorer was merged into the Performance Platform in 2015. The data on costs was collected quarterly from 2012 until 2018. The Performance Platform was decommissioned in 2021. Cost per transaction remains a mandatory performance indicator in the Digital Service Standard so digital services must publish data on it, typically via Data.gov.uk.
For the Top 75 government services identified in Transforming for a Digital Future, the cross-government digital and data strategy for 2022-2025 published in June 2022, we have developed the new performance framework for services. This also includes cost per transaction metrics and the framework will be published shortly following engagement with the departments involved.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 17 of the UK Science and Technology Framework, published on 6 March 2023, what steps the Government plans to take to meet the target of increasing the proportion of STEM graduates in the Fast Stream to 50 per cent.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Civil Service is committed to delivering the Prime Minister’s priorities, and recognises the need to build a strong internal STEM capability. To help build this capability, we are targeting an increase in the proportion of Fast Stream hires with a STEM subject degree qualification to 50%. To meet this target we have:
Developed a STEM-specific attraction strategy, in partnership with the Science and Engineering Profession, leveraging the Fast Stream brand to target a STEM audience.
Introduced a new Generalist-STEM recruitment option for the 2023 Fast Stream Campaign; which will enable us to attract and fairly select more graduates with STEM degree backgrounds to join the Fast Stream across a diverse range of roles in different government professions including Corporate Services, Operational Delivery, and Policy.
Used the Fast Stream target university list, to identify institutions that have a high representation of students with a STEM background.
Introduced a summer internship offer, with a specific focus on STEM graduates to act as a feeder for Fast Stream recruitment.
Re-introduced numerical reasoning tests within the Fast Stream selection process.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 25 January 2023 to Question 125341 on Government Departments: ICT, where cloud providers publish information on their investment activities in the UK.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
While there is no statutory requirement for cloud providers to publish information on their investment activities in the UK, they regularly publish a range of information in the public domain, for example on company websites and blogs.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much direct foreign investment from India was invested in the UK in each year since 1 January 2018.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 17 January is attached.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether providers of IT cloud infrastructure to Government bodies are required to report on their investment in R&D in the UK.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
There is not a contractual requirement for IT cloud infrastructure providers to report on R&D investment. This is mainly due to cloud providers operating outside of the classical, managed outsourcing model. The cloud providers do, however, publish information on their investment activities in the UK.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Prime Minister will (a) establish and (b) chair a Cabinet committee on science and technology; and which Minister is responsible for the Office for Investment.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
On 3 November, the Government announced the creation of the National Science and Technology Council as a Cabinet committee, chaired by the Prime Minister, to consider matters relating to strategic advantage through science and technology. The membership and terms of reference of the committee can be found on gov.uk.
Lord Johnson, Minister of State for the Department for International Trade, has responsibility for the Office for Investment.