Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the level of UK investment generated by the GREAT campaign since its re-launch in 2021.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland campaign is the UK’s international brand marketing campaign, which works closely with UK businesses, not-for-profit organisations and high-profile figures to promote the best of the UK abroad. Since 2021/22, the GREAT campaign has had an annual overall budget of circa £60m (2021/22: £60m; 2022/23: £57.12m; and 2023/24: £57.12m). The results of individual GREAT campaigns vary but, on average, externally verified analysis shows £1 of GREAT spend on marketing generates £15 for the UK by encouraging people to visit, study, trade, invest, live and work in the UK.
Encouraging prospective international students to choose to study in UK higher education institutions brings strong return on investment. For example, the GREAT Study UK campaign generated £407m in 2021/22 and £548m in 2022/23 (specifically from international students studying for up to three years in the UK). The 2023/24 results are currently being verified and are expected by June 2024.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his latest estimate is of the amount of investment that will be generated by the GREAT Study UK campaign.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland campaign is the UK’s international brand marketing campaign, which works closely with UK businesses, not-for-profit organisations and high-profile figures to promote the best of the UK abroad. Since 2021/22, the GREAT campaign has had an annual overall budget of circa £60m (2021/22: £60m; 2022/23: £57.12m; and 2023/24: £57.12m). The results of individual GREAT campaigns vary but, on average, externally verified analysis shows £1 of GREAT spend on marketing generates £15 for the UK by encouraging people to visit, study, trade, invest, live and work in the UK.
Encouraging prospective international students to choose to study in UK higher education institutions brings strong return on investment. For example, the GREAT Study UK campaign generated £407m in 2021/22 and £548m in 2022/23 (specifically from international students studying for up to three years in the UK). The 2023/24 results are currently being verified and are expected by June 2024.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse has been of the GREAT campaign since its re-launch in 2021.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland campaign is the UK’s international brand marketing campaign, which works closely with UK businesses, not-for-profit organisations and high-profile figures to promote the best of the UK abroad. Since 2021/22, the GREAT campaign has had an annual overall budget of circa £60m (2021/22: £60m; 2022/23: £57.12m; and 2023/24: £57.12m). The results of individual GREAT campaigns vary but, on average, externally verified analysis shows £1 of GREAT spend on marketing generates £15 for the UK by encouraging people to visit, study, trade, invest, live and work in the UK.
Encouraging prospective international students to choose to study in UK higher education institutions brings strong return on investment. For example, the GREAT Study UK campaign generated £407m in 2021/22 and £548m in 2022/23 (specifically from international students studying for up to three years in the UK). The 2023/24 results are currently being verified and are expected by June 2024.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the report entitled Cross-Government Fraud Landscape: Annual Report 2022, published on 21 March 2023, what the basis is of the increase in detected error in his Department from £13.4m in 2019-20 to £17.1m in 2020-21.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
In reference to your question, the Fraud Landscape Report figures were reported to the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA, formerly the Counter Fraud Centre of Expertise) as part of established reporting cycles. The government defines error as losses arising from unintentional events, processing errors and official government errors - such losses are judged as without fraudulent intent. Since 2014, Fraud Landscape Reports show an increase in both detected fraud and error across government. This is in line with the government's explicit objective to find more fraud in the system. By detecting more, we can understand fraud better - and deal with it better.
The Home Office detected error in 2019/20 was published in the Fraud Landscape Bulletin and in 2020/21 was published in the Fraud Landscape Report. The reasons for any increase are set out in these documents.
The PSFA assists ministerial departments and public bodies in their delivery of specialist fraud activity. In its first year it delivered £311 million in audited counter fraud benefits.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the report entitled Cross-Government Fraud Landscape: Annual Report 2022, published on 21 March 2023, what the basis is of the increase in detected error in her Department from £0.5m in 2019/20 to £43.2m in 2020/21.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The increase in reported error in 2020/21 was due to the NHS Business Services Authority commencing the reporting of errors identified as part of their NHS Provider Assurance activity.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the report entitled Cross-Government Fraud Landscape: Annual Report 2022, published on 21 March 2023, what the basis is of the increase in detected error in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from £13.4m in 2019/20 to £160.7m in 2020/21.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The Cross-Government Fraud Landscape: Annual Report 2022, published on 21 March 2023 does not mention Department for Business and Trade.
The Fraud Landscape Report figures were reported to the Public Sector Fraud Authority (formerly the Counter Fraud Centre of Expertise) as part of established reporting cycles.
The government defines error as losses arising from unintentional events, processing errors and official government errors - such losses are judged as without fraudulent intent.
Since 2014, Fraud Landscape Reports show an increase in both detected fraud and error across government. This is in line with the government's explicit objective to find more fraud in the system. By detecting more, we can understand fraud better - and deal with it better.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy detected error was £13.4m in 2019/20 as published in the Fraud Landscape Bulletin and increased to £160.7m in 2020/21 as published in the Fraud Landscape Report.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of civil service recruitment campaigns failed to fill the post advertised in each financial year from 2019/20.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government Recruitment Service collaborates with departments, functions and professions to develop and deliver high quality, customer-focused recruitment that identifies and attracts the best people for roles whilst offering a wide range of services. It offers core low-cost solutions to meet routine recruitment needs and handles more complex or specialist campaigns by tailoring its approach to attract and recruit the highest quality candidates.
The following table presents civil service recruitment campaigns with successful and unsuccessful vacancy outcomes for campaigns managed by the Government Recruitment Service.
Year | Vacancy Outcome Successful | Vacancy Outcome Unsuccessful | Total number of vacancies |
2020 | 10080 | 5146 | 15226 |
2021 | 15871 | 9511 | 25382 |
2022 | 16047 | 9851 | 25898 |
2023 | 13909 | 9576 | 23485 |
Total | 55907 | 34084 | 89991 |
The Government Recruitment Service does not hold any data on why candidates are not successful. However, there could be a range of reasons for non-appointment. All candidates will have been sifted or interviewed out of the recruiting process.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many fraudulent payments of what total value were recovered by the Taxpayer Protection Taskforce.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
In December 2023, HMRC wrote a letter to the chair of the Committee of Public Accounts with the latest information on HMRC’s compliance activity on the COVID-19 support schemes up to the end of September 2023, when the Taxpayer’s Protection Taskforce transitioned into business-as-usual.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants in ministerial departments worked in the Government Communication Service profession in each financial year from 2010/11.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not held centrally from 2010 to date.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many government services have onboarded to One Login.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The GOV.UK One Login system is fully operational, providing a simple and secure way for people to access government services online. Users can create an account, login and prove (and then reuse) their identity - through either a web-based journey, smartphone app or in-person route - to access an initial set of 30 government services. This includes important services such as ‘Request a Disclosure and Barring Service Basic Check’, ‘Apply for an HM Armed Forces Veteran Card’ and ‘Sign Your Mortgage Deed’.
We are on track to onboard additional services - including in HMRC, DWP and DVLA - over the next year, bringing the total number to at least 145.