Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what date applications for interim payments of £100,000 to the estates of deceased people whose deaths have not yet been recognised by a previous interim payment will open.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The process under which estates can apply for interim compensation payments opened on 24th October. These payments are to be made to the estates of deceased infected persons, where interim payments have not already been received, in those cases where the deceased infected person was registered with an existing or predecessor scheme on or before 17 April 2024. Details on how to make an application can be found on gov.uk here: https://www.gov.uk/infected-blood-compensation-estates
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme will be open.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government is committed to acting on the findings of the Infected Blood Inquiry’s Report and providing compensation to victims as quickly as possible. The Infected Blood Compensation Authority is established in law and work is progressing to put the operational systems in place with the expectation of beginning payments by the end of this year. To date, over £1 billion has been paid in interim compensation to infected people who were registered with the existing Infected Blood Support Schemes and their bereaved partners.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme will replace the Infected Blood Support Scheme.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There will be no immediate changes to the Infected Blood Support Schemes (IBSS). Under the current proposal published on 21 May by the previous Government, payments will continue to be made at the same level until 31 March 2025 and they will not be deducted from any compensation awards. From 1 April 2025, people who receive IBSS payments will continue to receive payments until such time that their case is assessed under the new Scheme by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority. Once assessed under the Scheme, the applicant will be able to choose how to receive their compensation, either as a lump sum or periodic payments. I gave a statement to the House on Friday 26th July to update on the progress made on responding to the Infected Blood Inquiry and committed to providing regular updates on this work going forward.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many registrations have been made with the Infected Blood Interim Compensation Payment Scheme since 21 May 2024.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
In June 2024 the Government paid £728.91m in interim compensation payments to 3,659 people who were infected and registered with the Infected Blood Support Schemes (IBSS).
As of 30 June 2024, 4,606 people who were infected, or their bereaved partners registered with the IBSS have received interim compensation payments totaling over £1 billion.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department is taking steps to prevent public contracts from being awarded to companies that blacklist workers.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 contain exclusion grounds which allow contracting authorities to exclude suppliers from procurements where their tender does not comply with labour law or where the supplier is guilty of grave professional misconduct.
For example, a breach of the The Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010, which prohibit the compilation, usage, sale or supply of blacklists of trade union members and activists, would render the supplier liable to potential exclusion.
In all cases, individual departments and other public sector bodies are responsible for their own decisions on these matters.
The Procurement Act, which is expected to go live in October 2024, builds on and clarifies the exclusions measures in the existing regime. This includes specific measures enabling the exclusion of suppliers for professional misconduct.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an estimate of the number of people in each parliamentary constituency in Norfolk that are paid the (a) national minimum wage and (b) national living wage.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the timetable is for the appointment of members of the Intelligence and Security Committee.
Answered by Damian Green
The Prime Minister is in the process of making nominations to the Intelligence and Security
Committee. Members will have an opportunity to approve the nominations when the
motion to appoint is brought before this House. I expect that motion to be brought before
this House shortly.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 24 March 2017 to Question 68738, when he plans to supply the answer referred to in the Answer.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the budget the Government has for advertising in newspapers for each government department in the 2017-18 financial year.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Cabinet Office does not hold information regarding government departments’ budgets for newspaper advertising in the 2017/18 financial year.
Departmental marketing communications teams, working with their media planning and buying agencies, take decisions about which kinds of media and specific channels will be used within their communications campaigns to best reach their target audiences, once their campaign strategies have been defined.
Asked by: Clive Lewis (Labour - Norwich South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government spent on advertising in the Evening Standard newspaper in the last financial year for which information is available.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
In the full 2015/16 financial year, government spending on advertising in the Evening Standard newspaper totalled £297,037 (spending on print advertising and digital advertising where it was bought directly). This equated to approximately 0.22% of all media buying for government advertising in that financial year.
I am aware of the comments that the Hon. Member has made in the media on the appointment of the new editor of the Evening Standard. I would note that any spending on advertising is in line with the Government Communication Service’s Propriety Guidance. In addition, departmental Accounting Officers have a particular responsibility for the propriety of using public resources for advertising, as well as for the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of their use. The resources employed should be proportional to the objectives or policy of the programme involved and justifiable on value-for-money grounds. I believe this provides an appropriate system of checks to avoid any conflict of interest and ensure taxpayers’ money is properly spent.