Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many civil servants his Department employs to work on public service innovation.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Department does not hold information centrally on the number of staff in innovation roles.
The Department is committed to enabling all parts of the organisation to embrace the innovative thinking that can deliver improvements in outcomes and value for money. Steps being taken to create the conditions for innovation to flourish in all parts of the MoJ include supporting the capability in our leadership team, ensuring that our structures and governance allow civil servants to approach problems in new ways and providing guidance and standards on how to pilot new ideas.
Examples of the types of innovation being implemented include construction of the new prison at Full Sutton which is due to open in 2025 and will use around 70% less energy than HMP Five Wells and Fosse Way, and is the UK’s first all-electric prison, and the significant increase in the use of technology across the Department’s services, from remote parole and court hearings, to virtual prison visits, and a significant increase in virtual and hybrid meetings.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many officials her Department employs to work directly on public service innovation.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Innovation is at the heart of our vision for a modern civil service, in particular finding new ways to solve problems and improve people’s lives, and seizing the full potential of data and technology.
All officials are expected to contribute to public service innovation, whether through the policy they develop or in the services they deliver. This work can range from supporting continuous improvement to leading more radical transformation.
The Home Office does not hold the data requested in a reportable format.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many officials his Department employs to work directly on public service innovation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not hold this information centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many officials his Department employs to work directly on public service innovation.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Innovation is at the heart of our vision for a modern civil service, in particular finding new ways to solve problems and improve people’s lives, and seizing the full potential of data and technology.
All officials are expected to contribute to public service innovation, whether through the policy they develop or in the services they deliver. This work can range from supporting continuous improvement to leading more radical transformation.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of the supply of (a) nuclear medications and (b) medical radioisotopes from EU member states.
Answered by Will Quince
We are not aware of any supply issues with nuclear medications or medical radioisotopes in the United Kingdom.
The Department’s medicine supply team works closely with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, the pharmaceutical industry, NHS England and others to help prevent shortages and to ensure that the risks to patients are minimised when supply issues do arise.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many staff his Department employs in the NHS Transformation Directorate; how many full time equivalent staff are employed to work on NHS innovation; and what proportion of these are employed centrally by NHS England.
Answered by Will Quince
There are 131 staff in the NHS Transformation Directorate in the Department for Health and Social Care. There are 4,108 staff in the NHS Transformation Directorate in NHS England. Numerous teams focus on NHS innovation as part of the ambition to digitise, connect and transform the NHS.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the budget allocated for public service innovation is in the (a) Department for Health and Social Care, (b) Department for Education, (c) Home Office, (d) Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, (e) Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, (f) Department for Work and Pensions and (g) Department for Justice.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There is no single budget specifically allocated to “public service innovation” across government as a whole or within individual departments. The Government has funded a range of initiatives that could be considered public service innovation, but ultimately budgets are not measured in this way.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what dates which Ministers visited Teesworks since the 2019 General Election.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The location of all Government Ministerial visits since 2019 is not centrally held.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment her Department has made of the potential risks of deepfake (a) audio, (b) photo and (c) video content to the conduct of future UK general elections.
Answered by Paul Scully
The Government is committed to ensuring that people have access to accurate information. We are taking steps to promote trusted news sources to tackle the spread of disinformation and combat attempts to artificially manipulate the information environment. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology Counter Disinformation Unit responds to periods of acute disinformation risk, including UK general elections.
The Government regularly meets with a range of social media platforms to aid our understanding of the spread of misinformation and disinformation on their services, including artificially manipulated media, and the range of steps they are taking to address this. This work includes encouraging platforms to ensure that their Terms of Service (ToS), policies and enforcement are fit for purpose, whilst still respecting freedom of expression.
The National Security Bill will give the UK more tools to tackle these threats, including a new offence of foreign interference. The foreign interference offence is a priority offence in the Online Safety Bill and as such will require digital platforms to proactively take action against a wide range of state-sponsored disinformation and state-linked online interference, including digitally manipulated content where this has the aim of interfering with UK elections.
Asked by: Darren Jones (Labour - Bristol North West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has made an impact assessment of the change to the National Clinical Impact Awards on academic medical doctors who are not employed under the NHS consultant contract.
Answered by Will Quince
The Government has not undertaken a specific impact assessment of the change to the National Clinical Impact Awards (NCIA) scheme on academic medical doctors who are not employed under the National Health Service consultant contract. Clinical academics and academic general practitioners remain eligible to apply for awards, providing they meet the minimum eligibility criteria set out in the NCIA guidance and are employed on the equivalent academic contracts.
An equality impact assessment was conducted ahead of the reforms in 2022, and is available at the following link: