Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to sub-target two of the Greening Government Commitments reporting requirements for 2021 to 2025 last updated on 15 December 2022, whether his Department follows the encouragement in that guidance to (a) monitor and (b) report on the number of domestic flights for which his Department is responsible each year.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Cabinet Office’s reporting on the Greening Government Commitments are set out in the cross-government annual reports, published on gov.uk (most recently in April 2023).
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many domestic flights for the purposes of government business were taken by the Prime Minister in the (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21, (c) 2021-22 and (d) 2022-23 financial years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Cabinet Office ministers’ transparency data, including details of flights taken by the Prime Minister, is published on GOV.UK on a quarterly basis.
I would also refer the Rt Hon Member to the answers of Official Report, 24 February 2023, PQ 143904 and of Official Report, 12 June 2023, PQ 188221
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to Table 2 of the Greening Government Commitments Annual Report 2020-21, published in April 2023, how many of the 90 domestic flights for which his Department was responsible were undertaken by helicopter.in financial year 2020-21.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department. Comprehensive details of Senior Officials’ Business Expenses, encompassing domestic flights are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many domestic flights were undertaken by his Department in financial years (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23; and how many of those flights were by helicopter in each of those years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department. Comprehensive details of Senior Officials’ Business Expenses, encompassing domestic flights are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on (a) IT and communications equipment, (b) chairs, desks and other furniture and (c) electronic fans, heaters and other equipment used for temperature control, to enable staff in his core Department to work from home during the financial years (i) 2020-21, (ii) 2021-22 and (iii) 2022-23.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Provision of equipment is a health and safety requirement for all employers, including Government, business and political parties, to enable employees to work safely and comfortably.
The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department. As we do not differentiate between home and office purchases in our accounting systems so the information is not readily available.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 18 October 2022 to Question 59556, to which Ministers has the Prime Minister assigned use of the official residences at (a) 1 Carlton Gardens, (b) the three flats in Admiralty House, (c) the Dorneywood estate and (d) the Chevening estate.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
As has been the case under successive administrations, the Prime Minister allocates official residences to ministers, either on the grounds of security or to allow them to better perform their official duties. The following official residences are formally allocated to Ministers:
Flats above 10 and 11 Downing Street, which are allocated to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer respectively;
Hillsborough Castle and Stormont which are available for Ministers in the Northern Ireland Office while on duty in Northern Ireland;
1 Carlton Gardens, which is allocated to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities;
The Chequers and Dorneywood estates are owned and managed by trustees and are available to Ministers for both official and private use and are allocated to the Prime Minister and Chancellor respectively; and
The Chevening estate is allocated to the Foreign Secretary; the Chevening Trust is however currently undertaking works to the building.
Admiralty House is part of the Government estate and has rooms that are used as residential accommodation as required.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 3 May 2023 to Question 183041 on Minister without Portfolio, whether the Minister without Portfolio has purchased a decommissioned ministerial red box for his own personal use from (a) her Department, (b) the former Department for International Trade, and (c) the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, since 1 January 2018.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
No.
I would also refer the Rt Hon Member to the report in The Times of 1 April 2013 ("ex-Ministers buy last grip on power") which indicated over 40 Ministers purchased Ministerial boxes after the 2010 general election.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many ministerial red boxes belonging to his Department have (a) been reported missing or lost or (b) had their security features removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers from 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The following table includes the recorded number of missing or lost ministerial red boxes by the Cabinet Office and the recorded number of red boxes which have had their security features removed between 1 May 2018 to 30 April 2023.
| 1 May 2018 - 30 April 2023 |
Reported missing or lost | 0 |
Had security features removed for personal use | 0 |
I would also refer the Rt Hon Lady to my previous answer to her (UIN 183041) and reiterate that purchasing and repairing red boxes and folders is a routine Government practice under successive administrations, including the last Labour Government.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, (a) when, (b) for what purpose and (c) at what cost to the public purse the Minister without Portfolio was provided with a ministerial red box.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Minister without Portfolio has not been provided with a ministerial red box in respect of his current ministerial role. There is therefore no cost to the public purse.
More widely however, purchasing and repairing red boxes and folders is a routine Government practice under successive administrations, including the last Labour Government.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March to Question 169228 on Cabinet Office: Aviation, on how many occasions (a) the Prime Minister and (b) his predecessors travelled overseas on non-scheduled flights with members of (i) the media and (ii) business delegations in the travelling party since 1 January 2021.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Details on overseas flights by the Prime Minister are published in the Government’s quarterly transparency data, which can be found on gov.uk.
There have been no business delegations travelling with the Prime Minister since 2018. Notwithstanding, the Prime Minister over this period (subject to restrictions during the covid pandemic) will have undertaken a number of business engagements and receptions with business whilst on overseas visits, to help secure investment into the UK and support UK businesses in exporting abroad. For example, during the UK-France Summit last month, the Prime Minister and President Macron met with businesses from both sides of the Channel.
There were 21 overseas visits where representatives of the media accompanied the delegation.