Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse is of the 2024-25 Civil Service pay award broken down by (a) gross pay and (b) employer pension contributions.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Pay Remit Guidance is a framework within which all organisations under its scope set pay. The 2024/2025 Pay Remit Guidance was published in July 2024 and departments are able to make average pay awards up to 5%.
Under pay delegation, individual departments set their own wage scales and are responsible for publishing their own figures on pay and employer pension contributions as part of either their annual accounts, and / or the monthly workforce management information transparency figures.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 14946 on Government departments: communications and consultations, if he will publish the £449 million spending from Government Communications Service data, including any departmental breakdown, that provided the estimates for the £85 million of savings at Autumn Budget 2024.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer to the Rt Hon member to the answer given to PQ25685 on 30 January 2025.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 14946 on Government departments: communications and consultations, if he will list each of the programmes that have been cancelled or reduced to deliver £85 million of savings from the £449 million baseline.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer to the Rt Hon member to the answer given to PQ25685 on 30 January 2025.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to provide a substantive response to the Freedom of Information Act of 26 September 2024 from the Rt Hon Member for Salisbury, reference RFOI2024/13851.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
A response to FOI2024/13851 was sent on 31 January.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 28 November 2024 to Question HL1343 on Prime Minister's Chief of Staff: Pay, what the annual salary amount that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury approved in the senior approvals pay process was.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Salaries of special advisers of equivalent standing to the Senior Civil Service are published in the relevant year’s Annual Report on Special Advisers.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which Department is responsible for (a) leading on and (b) delivering blockchain technology.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The primary existing use-case for blockchain technology is in cryptoassets. The Treasury has confirmed government’s intention to proceed with a financial services regulatory regime for cryptoassets, which will provide valuable protections for consumers and give firms regulatory certainty along with the flexibility to innovate. Blockchain technology has broader use-cases, which are addressed by responsible departments.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, What guidance his Department issues on ministerial (a) authorisation and (b) approval of a decision to appoint a civil servant under one of the Recruitment Principles exceptions.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Ministerial approval is not required to appoint a civil servant using an exception to the Recruitment Principles.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the three entries totalling £189,870 for Fujitsu Services Ltd under the GPG - Interoperability One Data Programme, in his Department's transparency data entitled Cabinet Office: spend data over £25,000 - July 2024, published on 29 August 2024, what other suppliers were considered for those software services.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
In January 2024, Fujitsu said it would withdraw from bidding for contracts with new Government customers until the Post Office Horizon inquiry concludes – it would only bid for work with existing Government customers where it already has a contract with them, or where there is an agreed need for Fujitsu’s skills and capabilities. Fujitsu's bid approach is detailed in this letter, deposited in Parliament.
The spend published on 29 August 2024 relates to work done on an existing contract awarded to Fujitsu in March 2023 under the previous administration.
In selecting the supplier in March 2023, the Tech Services 3 framework was employed. This was chosen as other frameworks did not have the quantity of suppliers needed to attract adequately competitive bids or would lead to direct awards. 125 companies were invited to bid, of which 3 did, including Fujitsu. Following an evaluation, which assessed technical ability to meet the requirements, how well they understood these by developing a proof of concept, social value and costs, Fujitsu were successful.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 17 September 2024 to Question 4655 on Public Sector: Directors, which Non-Executive Board Members have left which Departments since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The list of Non-Executive Board Members who have left government departments since 4 July 2024 was provided in my previous answer of 13th November, PQ 9162.
Asked by: John Glen (Conservative - Salisbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answers of 27 September 2024 to Questions 4998 and 4988 on Prime Minister: Communication, on which page of the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts 2022-23 is the information on (a) spending and (b) staff working on digital communications in Downing Street listed.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Information about overall departmental resourcing is set out in relevant annual reports (or published elsewhere in the relevant document). Annual reports do not include a breakdown by individual teams. This remains unchanged in size since the election.