James Wild

Security of Members away from the parliamentary estate is a top priority for the Parliamentary Security Department (PSD). Contracts for Members’ security services are managed by PSD, who work with PPCS (Parliamentary Procurement & Commercial Service) to closely monitor performance. The key performance indicators and service level agreements are commercially sensitive with the companies that provide these services under contract, and cannot be published.

The House of Commons Commission has high level oversight of financial management and procurement but delegates the procurement and management of individual contracts to the relevant House officials.

The contract for Members Security Services was awarded in September 2021 following a robust procurement process managed in strict accordance with Public Contracts Regulations 2015. MPs’ interests were represented during the evaluation process by members of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) and the Director of the Member Services Team.

The contract is currently managed by the Members’ Security Support Service (MSSS) in the Parliamentary Security Department. MSSS monitors the contract through regular review meetings with the contractor company, at which colleagues from IPSA and PPCS (Parliamentary Procurement & Commercial Service) are in attendance.

Under the ULS scheme, the Law Officers may apply to the Court of Appeal to refer to it a sentence which appears unduly lenient. The decision to make such an application is kept under continual review.

Where an application to the Court has been made and further information changes their analysis as to whether the sentence should be referred, the application is withdrawn.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of cases dropped/discontinued at the Crown Court due to the lack of a prosecuting barrister. This information could only be obtained by an examination of CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.

Fujitsu has not brought a legal claim against the Cabinet Office since 2016.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is an independent public inquiry.

In line with the UK Covid-19 Management Statement, the Inquiry’s Accounting Officer must conform to value for money and good financial management requirements and must provide financial updates to the Cabinet Office as its sponsor department.

The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary costs in the Inquiry’s work and she has been clear that she intends to complete her work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The Inquiry publishes regular financial updates, the latest from November 2023 can be found at the link here: https://covid19.public-inquiry.uk/documents/uk-covid-19-inquiry-financial-report-for-quarter-2-2023-24/. The total expenditure for the financial year to 31 March 2023 was £22.4m.

Sue Gray resigned from the Civil Service with effect from 2 March 2023. She was paid for the salary and untaken annual leave she had accrued up to this date. She did not receive any severance payment.

The approval of consultancy and professional services spend of over £500k or 9 months duration by Cabinet Office is subject to central government spending control since October 2021. Prior to this, approval of consultancy and professional services spending of up to £10m was delegated to departments and other central government bodies. As a result, the data requested is not available.

The approval of contingent labour spend for engagements with day rates of £1,000 or over, excluding recoverable VAT and (b) durations of 18 months or over by Cabinet Office is subject to central government spend control since November 2021. Prior to this, spend decisions were fully delegated to departments and therefore no central dataset was collected on this specific spend.

The approval of consultancy and professional services spend of over £500k or 9 months duration by Cabinet Office is subject to central government spending control since October 2021. Prior to this, approval of consultancy and professional services spending of up to £10m was delegated to departments and other central government bodies. As a result, the data requested is not available.

The approval of contingent labour spend for engagements with day rates of £1,000 or over, excluding recoverable VAT and (b) durations of 18 months or over by Cabinet Office is subject to central government spend control since November 2021. Prior to this, spend decisions were fully delegated to departments and therefore no central dataset was collected on this specific spend.

In ‘Reforming competition and consumer policy’ Government consulted on options to address consumer harm from unwanted subscription contracts https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/reforming-competition-and-consumer-policy.

There were 188 responses, including 94 from businesses, business representatives, and trade associations. Alongside the consultation, and since, the department also held regular meetings and roundtables with business representatives. Government analysed the consultation responses, gathering further evidence from businesses where needed, and is implementing the measures which best balance the benefits to consumers and the associated costs to business. The cost to business and benefits to consumers is detailed in our impact assessment "Digital Competition and Consumers Bill: Subscription measures”: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/58-03/0294/ImpactAssessmentAnnex2.pdf.

Government is aware of concerns around the impact removing Mailworks could have on individual post office branches and understands Post Office Limited has raised these concerns directly with Royal Mail.

Mailworks contracts are commercial matters for both companies and Government has no involvement in these matters. There would be a six-month notice period if Royal Mail were to decide to remove a Mailworks contract. Post Office would continue to work closely with an affected postmaster if notice were given.

The Government-set Access Criteria ensures that 99% of the population will continue to live within three miles of a post office.

We plan to replace the current better regulation framework, which is underpinned by the statutory Business Impact Target, with a reformed better regulation framework. This will be aligned with our principles for regulation as set out in “The Benefits of Brexit”.

We are finalising the details of these reforms, which we intend to implement following the repeal of the Business Impact Target via the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill.

Since it came into effect, the growth duty requires regulators to have regard to the desirability of promoting economic growth, alongside the delivery of protections set out in relevant legislation. Guidance has been produced to assist regulators in fulfilling this responsibility, both at a strategic and operational level, including the proper consideration that must be made before allocating resources, setting enforcement policies, and making sanctioning decisions.

In the Spring Budget, the Chancellor announced that the government’s new Chief Scientific Adviser, Professor Dame Angela McLean, will oversee a review of the regulator growth duty.

The Secretary of State, after careful deliberation, concluded that the draft work of the Energy Efficiency Taskforce could be streamlined into ongoing government activity. The numerous ideas, discussions and draft recommendations will be instrumental in driving forward energy efficiency.

Local Authorities applied for funding under Phase 2 of the Home Upgrade Grant within the bid window of September 2022 to January 2023, and were able to begin delivering installs of energy efficiency measures from April 2023. The timeframe for the assessment of homes and installation of energy efficiency measures will depend on the relevant local authority, but all projects should be completed by March 2025.

The Government will respond to the Committee’s report by 31st October 2023.

The setting of standing charge is a commercial matter for suppliers. Standing charges are capped under the energy price cap which is set by Ofgem to protect customers on default tariffs.

There have been just over 500,000 calls to the helpline from people who were not identified through the data matching as eligible for an automatic rebate this scheme year.

The Government will publish statistics on eligibility in the summer, after the scheme year has ended.

Improvements from the Shared Rural Network (SRN) in North Norfolk will come from the industry-led element of the programme which is on track to complete by June 2024. This will see the four Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) tackle partial not-spots, or areas where there may be 4G coverage from one but not all four operators.

The exact site deployment plans will be managed by the MNOs themselves in order for them to best deliver the agreed coverage outcomes. Therefore we are unable to provide any specific details on the precise location or number of new or upgraded masts that may be delivered in North Norfolk as a result of the SRN. I would encourage you to get in contact with the operators directly to ascertain their plans for your constituency.

The Project Gigabit procurement for Norfolk launched in April 2022 and is currently in its final stages. Building Digital UK is assessing the bids put forward by suppliers and we aim to award a contract to the successful supplier shortly.

The Department has made no such estimates for North West Norfolk constituency and Norfolk. However, it is estimated that over 130,000 residents of park homes, houseboats and caravans, who can provide proof of address, in England, Scotland and Wales, will be eligible for the Energy Bills Support Scheme Alternative Funding (EBSS AF). Overall, EBSS AF will provide support of £400 for energy bills for around 900,000 households that do not have a direct relationship with a domestic energy supplier, for example households with landlords that have a commercial energy contract, or those that are off-grid.

The UK currently has approximately 14.6GW of operational onshore wind capacity. Individual projects under construction and with planning permission awaiting construction are listed in the Renewable Energy Planning Database at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/renewable-energy-planning-database-monthly-extract.

There are no published aggregated figures for these categories.

According to latest figures (BEIS Energy Trends 6.1), at the end of September 2021 there was 14.4GW of operational onshore wind capacity in the UK. BEIS’ Renewable Energy Planning Database shows there was 6.1GW of onshore wind capacity with planning permission by the end of Quarter 4 2021, of which 0.9GW is under construction.

As of 31 May 2021, 1,560,309 Bounce Back Loans had been approved by accredited lenders, to the value of £47.36bn.

Because many borrowers are using “Pay as You Grow” options, it is not possible to provide a definitive figure for on-schedule payments for the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS). However, latest figures show that £2.04bn, or 4% of total facilities, have been repaid in full.

The Government is not currently reviewing its shareholding in Urenco and has no current plans to pursue a sale of all or part of its one-third stake in URENCO.

We are working at pace with industry and all stakeholders in the sector, including the Ombudsman Association, to ensure customers have access to an ombudsman that is fully operationally independent in line with Ombudsman Association standards, and is fully credible in the eyes of customers. As set out in the white paper, it is important that the body adjudicates fairly and transparently all complaints regarding social responsibility or gambling harm issues where an operator is not able to resolve these.

We remain clear that if this approach does not deliver as we expect, or shortcomings emerge regarding the ombudsman’s remit, powers or relationship with industry, the government will actively explore the full range of options to legislate to create a statutory ombudsman.

UK Sport uses funding provided by the Government to support athletes with potential to achieve success in Olympic and Paralympic sports. As the Deaflympics falls outside of Olympic and Paralympic sport, UK Sport are therefore unable to fund athletes targeting this event.

This is in line with the Government’s approach to other Paralympic sports where competition is not offered in an athlete's particular classification or discipline.

Sport England has committed £1.2 million between 2022 and 2027 to UK Deaf Sport to boost deaf sport at the grassroots level and build wider participation. They have also agreed to explore a series of small-scale talent pilots for d/Deaf athletes. These pilots will see Sport England, National Governing Bodies, and UK Deaf Sport working together to explore these issues and suggest potential solutions.

We will publish a consultation this summer on the level at which the maximum stake limit for online slot games should be set, and on other details necessary for secondary legislation.