Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, with reference to his oral contribution of 2 November 2022, Official Report ,column 861, what the evidential basis was for his statement that Labour was committed to abolishing the armed forces, scrapping the nuclear deterrent, withdrawing from NATO. and befriending Hamas and Hezbollah.
Answered by James Heappey
I have been asked to reply.
To assist the hon. Member, I have placed in the Library of the House documentation kindly provided by the Conservative Research Department, which outlines the evidential basis for this statement about the right hon. Member for Islington North’s (Jeremy Corbyn MP) security agenda.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, with reference to his oral contribution of 26 October 2022, Official Report, column 297, what the evidential basis was for his statement that a record number of new homes had been built in the previous year.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
I refer the hon. Member to my answer of 11 November 2022, Official Report, PQ77552. The latest figures show that 2.3 million more homes have been delivered across England since 2010.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many staff across Whitehall (a) were working on and (b) are working on the relocation of Afghan nationals (i) prior to and (b) after the fall of Kabul.
Answered by Michael Ellis
A significant cross Government effort is underway to ensure the thousands of Afghans who were evacuated to the UK receive the support they need to rebuild their lives, find work, pursue education, and integrate into local communities. Hundreds of staff across Government have been working tirelessly to bring as many British nationals and eligible Afghans as possible back to the UK.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many times the National Space Council has met; and which Secretaries of State have attended each meeting.
Answered by Michael Ellis
It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, and how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.
GOV.UK is updated regularly with the terms of reference and membership of Cabinet Committees, including the National Space Council.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, in pursuant to the Answer of 17 December to Written Question 128992, what number of meetings occurred; and which Cabinet members attended at each such meeting.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
As stated in the answer to PQ 105615, in line with the practice of successive administrations, details of the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its Committees, how often they have met, and who attended is not normally disclosed.
Membership of the National Security Council is publicly available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many times the National Security Council has met to discuss the covid-19 pandemic; and which Cabinet members were in attendance at each such meeting.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ105615 on 22 October.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many death certificates has covid-19 been recorded as (a) the primary cause and (b) a contributory factor since the start of the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 29 May 2020 to Question 45531 on Mortuaries: Coronavirus, how many of the of the procured temporary mortuary spaces have (a) been built and (b) are in use.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Further to the answer given to PQ 45531 on 29 May 2020, additional mortuary capacity has been procured by a range of organisations in the private and public sectors, including central government, to ensure that the deceased are treated with dignity and respect. Cabinet Office does not hold complete data on specific utilisation of additional storage units.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many temporary mortuaries (a) have been built and (b) are in use as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and what the capacity is of each of those facilities.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Additional mortuary capacity has been procured by a range of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, including central government departments, NHS trusts, local authorities and funeral directors, to ensure that the deceased are treated with dignity and respect. We do not hold detailed information on the capacity or utilisation rate of unlicensed private sector sites maintained by the estimated 5,000 or so funeral directors in England.
The Cabinet Office has procured units to provide up to 30,000 additional temporary mortuary spaces across the UK, as part of the government’s responsible contingency planning for a reasonable worst case scenario.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government is working closely with local partners to support them in their preparations. The Ministry of Justice are working to support the sector, and are working with DWP to ensure the bereaved are supported, including speeding up the processing time for Funeral Expense Payments.
Asked by: Emma Lewell-Buck (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff in her Department reported experiencing bullying or harassment at work in the most recent Civil Service People Survey.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The most recent Civil Service People Survey took place 1-31 October 2018. High level results by organisation were published last December on gov.uk.
Each spring the Cabinet Office conducts and publishes a range of further analysis on the People Survey responses, including the results by gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation and health status. Similar analysis will be conducted again this year and made available on gov.uk.
A copy of the 2017 People Survey table has been placed in the House Library.