Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of fraud in his Department in the last three financial years.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
We are committed to tackling fraud which is why in May 2022 the Department launched a robust plan to drive down fraud and error from the benefits system, alongside investment of £900 million that will deliver £2.4 billion of savings by the end of 2024/25. This plan includes proposed powers to require the transfer of data from third-parties, which has been introduced as part of the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (No.2). This legislation is forecast to save up to an additional £600m over the Treasury scorecard period. The Department has set out a target to deliver £1.3bn in savings from our dedicated counter-fraud and error resource in 2023/24 as set out in the department’s Annual Reports and Accounts.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps his Department has taken to reduce the costs of fraud in his Department in the last three financial years.
Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)
The Government is determined to uncover fraud in the public sector and is proud of its record.
As part of this, the Government established the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA). In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180 million of savings to the taxpayer. In fact the PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. As it enters its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.
The Government has also announced an additional £34 million to deploy cutting edge tools and Artificial Intelligence tools to help combat fraud across the public sector, saving £100 million for the public purse. This is in addition to existing partnerships between PSFA and the tech sector.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, when his Department first assessed each of the red-rated legacy IT systems in (a) his Department and (b) HM Courts and Tribunals Service to be red-rated.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We completed an assessment of our critical systems against the CDDO’s legacy technology measures in July 2023, identifying the red rated system during that process.
HMCTS first assessed the red-rated legacy IT systems in October 2022 as part of their Decommissioning and Legacy Risk Mitigation (DLRM) programme.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, when his Department first assessed each of the red-rated legacy IT systems in HM Revenue and Customs to be red-rated.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, has established a programme to support departments managing legacy IT. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding certain assets within the IT estate. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by next year (2025).
It is not appropriate to release sensitive information held about specific, red-rated systems or more detailed plans for remediation within HMRC’s IT estate, as this information could indicate which systems are at risk and may highlight potential security vulnerabilities.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, what steps (a) her Department and (b) the Student Loans Company have taken to mitigate the risks of red-rated legacy IT systems.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, has established a programme to support departments managing legacy IT. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding certain assets within the IT estate. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by next year (2025).
It is not appropriate to release sensitive information held about specific red-rated systems or more detailed plans for remediation within the department’s IT estate, as this information could indicate which systems are at risk, and may highlight potential security vulnerabilities.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, what steps his Department has taken to mitigate the risks of red-rated legacy IT systems.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the hon Member to the answer given on 29 November 23 to PQ UIN 3658.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 February 2024, what steps his Department has taken to mitigate the risks of red-rated legacy IT systems used in (a) his Department and (b) HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
We continue to assess our most critical services using the CDDO legacy IT framework. Now that funding has been secured, we are designing phased plans to mitigate risks for the red-rated services identified in the previous assessment. One of the red-rated services has had technical risks mitigated by being migrated to the MoJ's modernisation platform. Additionally, we are continually improving our overall risk management and mitigation approaches.
Within HMCTS, services have also been assessed against the framework, and we are continuing with the delivery of the Decommissioning and Legacy Risk Mitigation (DLRM) programme that is addressing these risks. DLRM is a SR21-funded, Government Major Project Portfolio programme specifically focussed on legacy system risks and is decommissioning, replacing, or moving them onto secure, modern, cloud-based environments.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 November 2023, what progress his Department has made on the development of a common mobile app strategy, framework and technical standards.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) has convened discussions with Chief Digital and Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers from across government to identify key principles and guardrails for the mobile app strategy. The strategy will be finalised next year, as set out in the 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data.
Alongside this, the Government Digital Service (GDS) is developing a GOV.UK App that builds upon the success of the existing GOV.UK One Login identity checking app, which has been downloaded over 5.7 million times.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data, updated on 29 November 2023, whether he will publish the Government Digital and Data Pay Framework.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Digital and Data Pay Framework is being revalorised to meet market trends for Digital and Data roles, ensuring the Government can attract the right talent for critical roles. It is an internal framework for government use that is not intended to be published externally to protect market sensitivities. 35 organisations have adopted the framework. This is shared directly with their Pay and Reward teams.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the rate of cloud adoption for each Government Department as of 27 March 2024.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) in the Cabinet Office continues to work with departments to promote the best practice adoption of public cloud services, in accordance with Government Cloud First policy that has been extant since 2013. This was refreshed by CDDO in 2023.
The requested information relating to specific departmental adoption rates of public cloud is not currently centrally held.