Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which (a) Departments, (b) agencies and (c) public bodies sponsor staff on skilled worker visas.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This information is not held centrally. However, the Civil Service Nationality Rules govern eligibility for employment in the Civil Service and must be followed by government departments in their recruitment and appointment procedures.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people have died from fentanyl overdose in each of the last five years, broken down by region.
Answered by John Glen
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 12 December is attached.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many times Government departments answered Named Day written parliamentary questions stating that it would not be possible to answer a question within the usual time period in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Written parliamentary questions allow MPs and Peers to ask Ministers for information on the work, policy and activities of Government departments. Parliament has a right to hold Ministers to account and it is a recognised right of Parliament that Members receive full and timely responses. Where it is not possible to provide a Named Day answer in full on the specified date, a holding response should be provided to the MP to explain this.
It is the responsibility of individual departments to provide timely answers to Parliamentary Questions from Members. The requested information is not centrally held by the Cabinet Office, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the Department.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will invite representatives from the National Union of Journalists to participate in his Department’s information user rights group.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
I refer the Member to the answer I gave on 20 July 2023 (UIN 194409).
Groups representing the media were invited to its inaugural meeting held on 4 July 2023.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what social value criteria the Government considers when awarding public contracts.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Social Value Model launched in January 2021 (PPN 06/20) by this Conservative Government, standardises the assessment of bidder’s proposals for delivering social value outcomes, including tackling economic inequality, creating new businesses, jobs and skills, as well as increasing supply chain resilience and fighting climate change. The Model takes into account factors such as the number of local jobs or apprenticeships a contractor will provide, or the number of SMEs involved in their wider supply chain.
At the same time, the Procurement Bill we are introducing also confirms that while value for money remains paramount during contracting, buyers should take into account other relevant wider social and environmental considerations the supplier may bring.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a list of (a) organisations and (b) individuals invited to participate in the Information Rights User Group.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
This Government is committed to transparency and we want to strengthen how the Freedom of Information Act works across the entire public sector. The Information Rights User Group is being established following a commitment made in the Open Government Partnership Network Action Plan 5. Further details of this commitment can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-national-action-plan-for-open-government-2021-2023/uk-national-action-plan-for-open-government-2021-2023#commitment-8-freedom-of-information
The final membership of the Group is yet to be finalised. Groups representing journalists, local authorities, campaign groups, think tanks, civil society, academics and the Information Commissioner’s Office were present at its inaugural meeting held on 4 July 2023.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what criteria his Department has in place for appointing personnel to Pay Review Bodies.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The pay review bodies are listed in the Schedule to the Public Appointments Order in Council. Appointments to these bodies are therefore regulated under the Order in Council and should be made in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments published by the Cabinet Office. This has been the case under successive administrations.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department is taking steps to prevent public contracts being awarded to companies that blacklist workers.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 prohibit the compilation, usage, sale or supply of blacklists. 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. A breach of the Blacklists Regulations on a particular tender would render the supplier liable to exclusion and a breach more widely may amount to grave professional misconduct.
In all cases, individual departments and other public sector bodies are responsible for their own decisions on these matters
The Procurement Bill introduced by the Government, currently in the final stages of debate in Parliament, builds on and clarifies the exclusions measures in the existing regime. This includes specific measures enabling the exclusion of suppliers for labour market misconduct and professional misconduct.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the grants awarded under the Reducing Veterans Homelessness programme in 2023-24, how much and what proportion of the funding allocated to the Launchpad Organisation will be spent on each of the four areas.
Answered by Johnny Mercer
As part of this Government’s drive to end veterans homelessness this year, Launchpad received over £800,000 through the Reducing Veteran Homelessness Programme to deliver addiction and mental health psychotherapy, intensive training and employment support to veterans.
Whilst a geographical breakdown of spend is not yet available, the Programme is expected to go live in September, and will report over the following months.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department has taken to assess the impact of the data breach of Capita systems in March 2023 on Government Departments; and whether any Government data was compromised by the data breach.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Cabinet Office, the Financial Conduct Authority and the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) have been working with Capita to understand any risks to government data following the incident in March. Capita has acknowledged that some data was exfiltrated from less than 0.1% of its server estate; our understanding to date is that this includes a very limited impact to public sector data.