Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to reply to the correspondence of 10 September 2024 from the Hon. Member for East Londonderry on wider availability of Royal portraits.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The letter from Mr Campbell has been responded to. A letter was sent in reply to him on 10 October.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will review the criteria used for the awarding of the Elizabeth Emblem to include those severely injured whilst on emergency services duty.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government recognises the invaluable contribution of emergency service workers to the people of the United Kingdom, and that the nature of that role means those workers will often find themselves in situations that may present a danger to their personal safety.
The Elizabeth Emblem is awarded to the next-of-kin of public servants who have died as a result of their public service. Full details on how to apply for this award, and detailed eligibility criteria, are available on GOV.UK.
While there are no current plans to review the criteria for the Emblem along the lines suggested, the Government is happy to consider the case for any new medal or award, subject to comprehensive assessment across relevant departments.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will hold discussions with (a) the Chancellor of the Exchequer and (b) other Cabinet colleagues on duty-free shopping in Northern Ireland airports when travelling to and from destinations in the EU.
Answered by Steve Baker
The Government is committed to maintaining unfettered access for NI to the whole UK market, as well as full access to the EU market, along with our commitment to avoiding a hard border on the island of Ireland.
Enabling duty-free shopping between Northern Ireland and the EU (of which Ireland is a member) without also introducing border controls on the island of Ireland would lead to significant distortions of trade as well as a significant revenue loss for both UK and Ireland, as it would otherwise create a legal route for unlimited amounts of alcohol and tobacco to flow into the UK market duty-free.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will hold discussions with the Public Sector Fraud Authority on the setting of longer term targets for savings.
Answered by John Glen
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Minister Neville Rolfe, who leads on the counter fraud portfolio, regularly meet with the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) CEO and Senior Leadership Team to discuss their progress - target setting forms part of those discussions.
It is the government’s stated ambition to continue to increase the impact from counter fraud activity. The PSFA exceeded its target of achieving £180 million of savings in its first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million of audited savings.
The PSFA CEO works with the PSFA data and analytics delivery teams and Ministers to set the PSFA delivery target on an annual basis. The PSFA’s second year target is to deliver £185m of savings and will report performance against it when the independent audit of savings is complete. The PSFA is working with Ministers to set a financial target for its third year as part of routine business planning.
As the centre of the Government Counter Fraud Function (GCFF), the PSFA also requires, and supports departments to set financial impact targets for their counter fraud work and progress against this is published in the annual Fraud landscape Reports.
Government policy is that setting targets not only improves the transparency of counter fraud spending, but also ensures that we deliver a serious message to fraudsters that the government is making a concerted effort to tackle their ever-evolving crimes.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is taking steps to counter the potential use of (a) AI and (b) other means to influence the (i) operation and (ii) outcome of the next general election.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government is committed to safeguarding the UK’s elections and already has established systems and processes in place, to protect the democratic integrity of the UK.
The Government has established the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which has a mandate to safeguard our democratic institutions and processes from the full range of threats, including digitally manipulated content. The Taskforce ensures we have a robust system in place to rapidly respond to any threats during election periods, including novel threats from AI.
The Online Safety Act places new requirements on social media platforms to swiftly remove illegal misinformation and disinformation - including artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes - as soon as they become aware of it.
The new digital imprints regime, introduced by the Elections Act 2022, will also increase the transparency of digital political advertising (including artificial intelligence-generated material).
The threat to democracy from artificial intelligence was discussed at the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, reinforcing the Government’s commitment to international collaboration on this shared challenge.
Additionally, the Elections Act 2022 strengthened financial transparency and controls against foreign spending at elections. Since its introduction, the Government has restricted foreign campaign spending at elections and introduced a new requirement on political parties to declare their assets and liabilities when registering with the Electoral Commission. Foreign donations (and channelling foreign money) are already illegal.
Government passed the National Security Act in 2023 which creates a range of new tools and powers to tackle evolving state threats. Parts 1-3 of the Act came into force in December 2023. This includes a new foreign interference offence which will give our law enforcement and intelligence agencies significant new powers to detect, deter and prosecute those who seek to interfere in our democracy. Part 4 of the Act, containing the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, will come into force later in 2024. This will require the registration of political influence activity conducted at the direction of foreign powers.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Ministers (a) were entitled to participate and (b) took part in the programme of eight masterclasses for new Ministers in the last 12 months.
Answered by John Glen
Since 1 January 2023, three masterclasses have been delivered, all focused on legislating as a minister. All serving ministers have been eligible to participate in the sessions. Seven ministers have attended, representing six different departments.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what data his Department holds on (a) the progress of each Department in confirming the presence or absence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in public buildings and (b) which Departments have completed this work.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Substantial progress has been made across government Departments to identify any instance of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) across their public building portfolios.
Departments are progressing with their final identification surveys, and are implementing remediation action plans.
As per the guidance from the leading professional body, the Institution of Structural Engineers: following appropriate surveys, where RAAC is identified it is either monitored, reinforced, or replaced. Government Departments continue to follow this guidance.
Each Department owns and maintains the data relating to specific locations, identification and remediation plans within their estate.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost was of (a) establishing and (b) operating the covid fraud hotline in the period since October 2020.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government Counter Fraud Function COVID-19 Fraud Intelligence Team (now part of the Public Sector Fraud Authority Intelligence Hub) established the Covid Fraud Hotline in October 2020 in partnership with Crimestoppers. It ended on 30 June 2023.
Its creation led to 5,124 referrals of potential fraud being disseminated to public bodies.
The figures provided below do not include Intelligence Team staff costs.
The set up cost for the Covid Fraud Hotline with Crimestoppers was £105,000 excluding VAT.
Following this, the operating costs of the Hotline between October 2020 and on 30 June 2023 was £114,940 excluding VAT
In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180m of savings to the taxpayer. The PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. In its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what risks to (a) employees and (b) the wider population were identified following cyber crimes against Government departments in the last 12 months.
Answered by John Glen
This Government is committed to protecting citizens and public services from the ever-evolving cyber threat.
As set out in the 2023 National Risk Register, cyber attacks on the UK’s transport, health and social care, and telecommunications systems were identified amongst the most serious risks currently facing the UK. In addition, in this year’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Annual Review, data theft - either through ransomware or the exploitation of vulnerabilities in public-facing apps - and cyber-enabled fraud remain some of the most acute cyber threats facing UK businesses and citizens. For example, between September 2022 and August 2023, the NCSC received 297 reports of ransomware activity and 327 incidents involving the exfiltration of data.
The Government takes data protection very seriously and we understand that data breaches are a matter of great concern to those whose data may have been exposed in a cyber attack. It is the responsibility of organisations affected to meet their statutory obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding notifying the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the individuals affected of certain personal data breaches.
It would not be appropriate to comment on specific cyber incidents for national security reasons. However, the Government has already taken significant steps to reduce the risks identified and to strengthen our cyber defences.
The Government Cyber Security Strategy 2022 sets out our plans to significantly harden the Government’s critical functions against cyber attack by 2025, with all organisations across the public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities by 2030. Alongside this, the National Cyber Strategy 2022 sets out our approach to tackling cyber threats against the wider population, including by better detecting, disrupting and deterring malicious cyber actors and embedding good cyber security practices and protections at national, organisation and citizen level.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent staff are employed in (a) implementing and (b) monitoring the (i) Trader Support Service and (ii) Movement Assistance Schemes.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Trader Support Service (TSS) and Movement Assistance Schemes (MAS) are both important schemes that provide support to traders.
The Movement Assistance Scheme is operated by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). Across DEFRA and APHA a combined 24.75 FTE staff are employed in the implementation and monitoring of the scheme.
The TSS is overseen by HMRC and operated by a Fujitsu-led consortium. There are currently 378 FTE staff employed by the consortium. Additionally, there are 39.4 FTE staff within HMRC working on the implementation of the service.