Asked by: Jo Churchill (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 19 October 2017 to Question 7458, on public sector: pay, if he will make it his policy to publish details of all public sector pay, excluding the Civil Service, above the £100,000 threshold.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Government has demonstrated its commitment to transparency with a number of senior pay disclosures for the Civil Service since 2010 as set out in my previous answer. Transparency policy in wider public sector workforces is the responsibility of relevant departments.
Asked by: Jo Churchill (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of publishing details of all public sector pay above the £100,000 threshold for which it holds the relevant information.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Civil Service aims to be as transparent as possible, and already discloses a significant amount of senior pay data. The Office for National Statistics publishes a range of detailed pay information in its annual release of Civil Service Statistics, including the number of staff earning over £100,000 and other pay information. The latest release is available at:
https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/civilservicestatistics
In addition, since 2010 the Government has published an annual list of individuals in departments, agencies and Non-departmental Public Bodies earning £150,000 and above. Departments also publish organograms every six months that include individualised salary information for their most senior staff
Relevant departments are responsible for transparency policy in wider public sector workforces.
Asked by: Jo Churchill (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure people can vote only once in an election.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
Voting more than once at a General Election or at other national polls such as a referendum is a crime which carries a financial penalty.
We take this matter very seriously. I have raised this issue as a priority with the Electoral Commission, and will consider carefully the findings of their report on electoral registration at the 2017 General Election, as well as their upcoming report on the administration of that poll.
It is possible to determine whether an individual has voted twice at a General Election by checking the marked register of those who have voted. If anyone has evidence of someone voting twice, then they should report this to their local returning officer and to the police.
I have also written to the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC) to reiterate the Government's support for the police to make every effort to investigate reports of criminal behaviour in relation to elections.
The Government will continue to consider if further steps should be taken to ensure the integrity of the electoral system and where opportunities could exist to reiterate that voting more than once at the General Election or other national polls is illegal.
Asked by: Jo Churchill (Conservative - Bury St Edmunds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the performance of the One Public Estate programme.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Last year, One Public Estate expanded to over a third of councils in England. Together, they expect to deliver £56million in running cost savings, £138million in capital receipts, 36,000 jobs and 16,500 homes by 2020. But there are many more excellent proposals and that is why, at Autumn Statement 2015, we announced £31million of funding to expand One Public Estate. Now covering 50% of councils in England, we will continue to support more councils and deliver more benefits over the Parliament.