Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to encourage the Government Property Agency to develop plans to insource facilities management services when contracts expire.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government Property Agency’s current contracts, which cover nearly 90 Buildings across the current government estate, commenced on 1st November 2023 for a minimum period of 5 years.
The Government Property Agency will consider all options for delivery when planning for the next generation of government contracts, including insourcing.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had recent discussions with civil service trade unions on the procurement of facilities management services.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office holds frequent discussions with Civil Service trade unions on a number of topics. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster held introductory meetings with the General Secretaries of the FDA, Prospect and PCS unions recently where they discussed a range of issues.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what criteria will his Department use to measure social value when undertaking procurement rounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Public procurement is a key lever for enabling delivery of the Government’s missions by using procurement policy to drive economic growth, raise employment standards, and achieve additional social value through the life of a contract. The Government’s ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’ sets out an ambitious programme to value organisations that create local jobs, skills and wealth and treat their workers well and equally. Ministers are considering how to take these plans forward.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps her Department is taking to ensure the Export Control Joint Unit reviews urgent trade sanctions licence applications in a timely manner.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani
In making decisions on whether to grant a licence to permit something otherwise prohibited by sanctions legislation & regulations, the Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU), comprised of subject matter experts and officials in the Department for Business and Trade, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office and the Ministry of Defence, acts on behalf of the Secretary of State. ECJU is obligated to consider applications on a case-by-case basis, determining whether granting a licence would be consistent with the stated purposes of the sanctions regime, licensing grounds, and United Nations or international law obligations.
When assessing applications ECJU also consults and considers views from a range of other government departments.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the financial implications for her policies of trends in the level of debt acquired by water companies.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Shadow Minister (Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Water companies are allowed to raise debt to fund the delivery of their services.
Ofwat, as the independent economic regulator, assesses and monitors the financial resilience of each company, including levels of debt, on an individual and ongoing basis and challenges companies where they identify this is needed.
Over recent years, as investment requirements have risen, Ofwat has taken further steps to strengthen the financial resilience of companies. This includes increasing its financial monitoring and improving levels of reporting transparency. As part of this work, Ofwat produces an annual ‘Monitoring Financial Resilience Report’ to provide a publicly available assessment of the financial resilience of each water company.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that legal aid remains accessible.
Answered by Mike Freer
Access to justice is a fundamental right, and in 2022/23 we spent £1.86 billion on legal aid: £926 million on civil, £873 million on crime, and £56 million through central funds (central funds provide funding for, amongst other things, Defence Costs Orders, which are made in respect of non legally-aided defendants who are acquitted, and independent cross examination of vulnerable witnesses in criminal and civil proceedings).
The Ministry of Justice published the Government Response to the Means Test Review consultation exercise in May 2023, which sets out the detailed policy decisions underpinning the new means-test arrangements.
Our changes will increase the number of people eligible for civil legal aid in England and Wales by an additional 2.5 million, with 3.5 million more people eligible for criminal legal aid at the magistrates’ court.
We have also injected up to £10 million a year into housing legal aid through the Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS). HLPAS provides early legal advice on housing, debt, and welfare benefits problems for anyone facing the loss of their home.
In 2023, we broadened the evidence requirements for victims of domestic abuse applying for legal aid. Special Guardianship Orders in private law proceedings were also brought into the scope of legal aid. This represented an injection of £13 million a year.
We will shortly be consulting on expanding the provision of legal aid at inquests related to major incidents where the Independent Public Advocate is appointed or in the aftermath of terrorist incidents. If implemented, this would mean that no family involved in such cases in future would face an inquest without proper legal representation.
To support and strengthen the criminal legal aid sector, in responding to the Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review, we uplifted most criminal legal aid fee schemes by 15% in 2022. We are also consulting on reforms to the police station fee scheme and the Youth Court fee scheme, for which we have allocated an extra £21 million per year. These changes increase spend by up to £141 million a year - taking expected criminal legal aid spend to £1.2 billion per year. The additional funding into the system will help contribute towards the sustainability of the market and help ensure legal aid is accessible for the future.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to support the expanded remit of the Gangmaster Licensing and Abuse Authority.
Answered by Laura Farris
The Government allocates a yearly budget to the Gangmasters and Labour Abuse Authority (GLAA) to enable it to undertake its regulatory and enforcement activities. The GLAA’s remit was expanded in 2016. Since then, the Government has increased the annual funding it provides the GLAA from £1.97m in 2015/16 to £7.77m in 2023/24.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of trends in the level of profits made by oil and gas companies in the last 12 months.
Answered by Graham Stuart
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much their Department spent on hospitality in (a) 2021, (b) 2022 and (c) 2023.
Answered by Mark Spencer
We do not routinely publish this data, as has been the case under successive administrations. All Business Units within the Department have a responsibility to keep official hospitality costs as low as possible and demonstrate good value for money. Details of ministerial and senior official hospitality are published on a quarterly basis, and are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether (a) the Prime Minister and (b) officials in Downing Street have had recent discussions with representatives of Fleetwood Strategy on the NHS.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations on official government business are routinely published on the gov.uk website. Party political discussions are a matter for the Conservative Party.