Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, how many discussions he has had with how many officials on the takeover of (a) Newcastle United and (b) any other English football club in the last 12 months.
Answered by Boris Johnson
These are commercial matters for the parties concerned. The Government was not involved at any point in the takeover talks on the sale of Newcastle United.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the oral contribution of the Minister for Digital and Culture of 9 March 2021, Official Report, column 116WH, what role the Electoral Commission will have in tackling electoral disinformation.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The role of the Electoral Commission is to ensure that elections and referendums are run effectively and in accordance with the law, to register political parties, and to regulate donations and loans to political parties and other campaigners and their spending. The Commission has recently launched a public awareness campaign about online political advertising.
The Government is committed to introducing a digital imprints regime. It will inform voters about the source of digital campaign material. The Electoral Commission will play a central role in ensuring compliance with the regime. This will be a big step forward in making UK politics more transparent and will empower voters to make informed decisions.
Tackling disinformation in all its forms remains a key priority for the Government. As set out in the Full Government Response, the Online Safety Bill will introduce a duty of care requiring companies to address harms on their online platforms, such as misinformation and disinformation. The new laws will have robust and proportionate measures to deal with misinformation and disinformation that could cause significant physical or psychological harm to an individual. Ofcom will be the independent online harms regulator and the Bill will give Ofcom the tools it needs to understand how effectively disinformation is being addressed so that it can take action as required.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans he has to centralise digital identification verification processes for Government Departments.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government committed funding at last year’s Spending Review to develop the first stage of an ambitious cross-government single sign-on and digital identity solution. Our vision is for members of the public to be able to access any online central government service simply, safely and securely using a single sign-on.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Budget 2021, which departmental budget the £475,000 in funding for the development of a digital and data strategy for armed forces charities will be allocated from.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
This £10million fund will help deliver charitable projects and initiatives across the UK that support veterans with mental health needs. The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust, in addition to disbursing their regular funding of £10million per annum, will design and run an open grant competition to award the additional funding to organisations delivering in-scope programmes in support of veterans' mental health.
The £475,000 is new funding representing an opportunity to improve the ability of charities to work together and with government, enhancing the provision of support for veterans and the broader Armed Forces Community. Therefore the additional funds have been allocated to the Office for Veterans’ Affairs, within the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2021 to Question 153241 on Amazon Web Services: Contracts, whether it is his policy that the denial of (a) labour rights and (b) human rights is a form of Modern Day Slavery.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to working with its suppliers to tackle modern slavery in supply chains, as part of wider government action to tackle business compliance with the Modern Slavery Act.
The Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT) helps public sector organisations work in partnership with suppliers to improve the policies, processes and systems they have in place to identify and tackle the risk of modern slavery in supply chains. The MSAT records a broad range of information including risk assessments, due diligence and any training the supplier has undertaken to mitigate modern slavery risks. The government continues to work with its Strategic Suppliers in areas the MSAT has identified can be improved.
AWS’s publicly available ‘Amazon Supply Chain Standards’ policy sets out commitment to both labour and human rights.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2021 to Question 153241 on Amazon Web Services: Contracts, whether the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool records Amazon's denial of access to toilets for its Alabama workers.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to working with its suppliers to tackle modern slavery in supply chains, as part of wider government action to tackle business compliance with the Modern Slavery Act.
The Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT) helps public sector organisations work in partnership with suppliers to improve the policies, processes and systems they have in place to identify and tackle the risk of modern slavery in supply chains. The MSAT records a broad range of information including risk assessments, due diligence and any training the supplier has undertaken to mitigate modern slavery risks. The government continues to work with its Strategic Suppliers in areas the MSAT has identified can be improved.
AWS’s publicly available ‘Amazon Supply Chain Standards’ policy sets out commitment to both labour and human rights.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 22 February 2021 to Question 153241 on Amazon Web Services: Contracts, whether the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool records Amazon's support or otherwise for (a) labour rights and (b) human rights.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to working with its suppliers to tackle modern slavery in supply chains, as part of wider government action to tackle business compliance with the Modern Slavery Act.
The Modern Slavery Assessment Tool (MSAT) helps public sector organisations work in partnership with suppliers to improve the policies, processes and systems they have in place to identify and tackle the risk of modern slavery in supply chains. The MSAT records a broad range of information including risk assessments, due diligence and any training the supplier has undertaken to mitigate modern slavery risks. The government continues to work with its Strategic Suppliers in areas the MSAT has identified can be improved.
AWS’s publicly available ‘Amazon Supply Chain Standards’ policy sets out commitment to both labour and human rights.
Asked by: Chi Onwurah (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne Central)
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 effect of Amazon's policies on labour rights in the US on Amazon Web Services's suitability as a supplier to Government.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a strategic supplier to the Government. As a strategic supplier, AWS is asked to complete the Modern Slavery Assessment Tool annually.