Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if will make it his policy to apply a minimum liquidity threshold to companies applying to tender for Government contracts.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Sourcing Playbook includes a specific guidance note on “Assessing and monitoring the economic and financial standing of suppliers”, which provides advice on effective evaluation and monitoring both pre and post procurement and is relevant to all Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies.
Assessing and monitoring the economic and financial standing of suppliers is about understanding the financial capacity of suppliers to perform a contract in order to safeguard the delivery of public services.
The guidance states that all assessments of bidders’ economic and financial standing should be proportionate, flexible, contract specific and not overly risk averse while ensuring protection of taxpayer value and safety and compliance with relevant procurement law.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of public procurement contracts were issued by private enterprise companies with Government framework agreements to contract on behalf of the public bodies in the latest period for which data is available.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
All Government Departments and their individual Arm's Length Bodies and agencies are responsible for their own public procurement contracts and are required to follow the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 in awarding contracts. This information is not centrally held for all government departments.
Details of all Government contracts awarded from 2016 above £10,000 and £25,000 in the wider public sector are published on Contracts Finder. Each award notice provides information on the name of the supplier, value of the contract, its purpose and information on the type of awarding procedure used. Government departments, their individual agencies and Arms Length Bodies are required to publish all spend against individual suppliers above £25,000 on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what percentage of public procurement is contracted directly from suppliers by public bodies.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Cabinet Office does not hold this information centrally.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to remove conflicts of interest in the government procurement process.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
There are specific legal duties in the Public Contracts Regulations that require government departments to take appropriate measures to effectively prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest arising in the conduct of procurement procedures, so as to avoid any distortion of competition and to ensure equal treatment of all bidders and suppliers.
Companies may be excluded from bidding for government contracts where a conflict cannot be effectively remedied.
An updated Procurement Policy Note was published in May 2021 on the management of actual and perceived conflicts of interest in order to provide commercial teams across government with further information on the roles and responsibilities of those involved in decision making, risk management and how provisions may be applied to suppliers.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the National Risk Register.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The National Risk Register (NRR) is the public-facing version of the National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA), a classified assessment of the national security risks facing the UK. The NRR is published by the Cabinet Office.
Every risk in the NRR is owned and assessed by lead government departments working with a wide range of partners to coordinate, enact and test plans. The NRR is informed by the expertise of government departments, academia, private sector and the wider scientific community via a scientifically rigorous process.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of the impact of its plans to pause civil service fast-stream recruitment on (a) organisational effectiveness and (b) diversity in recruitment.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Fast Stream is a talent pipeline for government departments and professions. It is only right we pause bringing in candidates as departments set out how they might achieve the Prime Minister’s commitment to return the Civil Service to the size it was in 2016.
Whilst we pause the Fast Stream for the 2023 intake, we will take the opportunity to further improve the Fast Stream offer. This reform will ensure that when the scheme reopens, it is focused on driving up specialist skills in the Civil Service, as well as improving the regional representation of the Fast Stream. In this sense, both organisational effectiveness and diversity recruitment can be enhanced.
We will also seek to maintain other approaches towards diversity and inclusion in recruitment - such as continuous improvement of our assessment and selection approaches. The Declaration on Government Reform set out our commitment to a skilled and capable Civil Service, our united Campus for government training and Curriculum framework will enable all Civil Servants to access quality, relevant training.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether all staff members employed by Number 10 who were asked to complete questionnaires by the Metropolitan Police as part of its investigation into breaches of covid-19 regulations completed them.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Details of the Metropolitan Police Service's investigation are rightly an operational matter for the police, not the Government.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of recent civil service pay freezes on employee recruitment and retention.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Recruitment and retention data covering the period of the public sector pay pause is not currently held. In 2020/21, Civil Service turnover (includes all moves out of the Civil Service) was 5.9%.
In light of the pay pause, which was necessary in order to help protect public sector jobs and protect investment in public services, the Government ensured that the lowest paid across all of the public sector were protected. Anyone below a full time equivalent salary of £24,000 received an uplift of £250 or the new National Living Wage rate, whichever was greater. This was c.128,000 civil servants around the time the pay pause was announced in November 2020.
As the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced on October 27th 2021, the temporary public sector pay pause will be lifted. Pay awards will be made to public sector workers over the next three years as we return to a normal pay-setting process. It is for departments to monitor and consider their recruitment and retention challenges when determining future pay awards.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish any covid-19 risk assessment undertaken before any parties that took place on Government premises in November and December 2020.
Answered by Michael Ellis
In relation to government policy on risk assessments, I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to PQ89703.
In relation to alleged gatherings, I refer the Hon. Member to the update from the Second Permanent Secretary, which is in the Library of the House and on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether (a) the Cabinet Secretary and (b) any officials working on the Cabinet Secretary's Inquiry into government staff parties were in attendance at any of the gatherings under investigation.
Answered by Michael Ellis
I refer the Hon. Member to the Cabinet Office update from the Second Permanent Secretary which has been published on GOV.UK and placed in the Library of the House.