Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on (a) opinion polling and (b) focus groups in (i) March, (ii) April, (iii) May and (iv) June 2020.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
I refer the Hon. member to the answer given to PQs 62462, 62526 and 62463 on 25 June 2020.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the office of the Prime Minister spent on (a) opinion polling and (b) focus groups in each month since January 2019.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The office of the Prime Minister is an integral part of the Cabinet Office. Complete information on opinion poll and focus group spending is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate costs. However, the Government routinely publishes details of all contracts over £10,000 on Contracts Finder.
As has been the case under successive administrations, any Government research, polling or analysis would be for official use.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on (a) opinion polling and (b) focus groups in each month since January 2019.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The office of the Prime Minister is an integral part of the Cabinet Office. Complete information on opinion poll and focus group spending is not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate costs. However, the Government routinely publishes details of all contracts over £10,000 on Contracts Finder.
As has been the case under successive administrations, any Government research, polling or analysis would be for official use.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will include dentists and dental workers as key workers on the gov.uk website.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
Guidance on the provision of education for the children of certain critical workers can be found here:
This guidance has been updated to reflect the decision to move forward with the wider opening of education and childcare settings. It is already the case that dentists and dental workers would be eligible for the support if the role they are undertaking is required to maintain the UK’s health and social care sector.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that modern slavery does not take place within the Government's supply chains.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government is committed to tackling modern slavery in both private and public sector supply chains. Since 1 October 2015, commercial organisations which have an annual turnover of £36 million or more have been required, under Section 54 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, to prepare a slavery and human trafficking statement for each financial year. The statement must set out the steps taken to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place within its own business or supply chains.
The Government has published a Supplier Code of Conduct to make clear the standards and behaviours that are expected of our suppliers when they work with government and we will now develop proposals for the government’s biggest suppliers to publish data and provide action plans for how they plan to address key social issues, including the scourge of modern slavery.
In addition, the Government’s Standard Selection Questionnaire includes Mandatory Exclusion Grounds if an organisation or an associated individual has been convicted of child labour and other forms of trafficking in human beings, within the last 5 years
The Home Office and the Crown Commercial Service will be developing further guidance to support contracting authorities to identify, and mitigate against, modern slavery risks in supply chains.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to improve the transparency of the trade-related aspects of the Prosperity Fund.
Answered by David Lidington
I am replying as Chair of the National Security Council Sub Committee on the Cross Government Funds, which provides Ministerial oversight of the Prosperity Fund. We are committed to achieving an Aid Transparency Index (IATI) rating of “good” for the Prosperity Fund by 2020, as outlined in the 2015 UK Aid Strategy available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/cross-government-prosperity-fund-programmes
The Fund can be accessed on GOV.UK since January 2016, and is kept updated along with quarterly core data and fully approved business cases. We published the Fund’s first annual report in December 2017 and will publish the second before the end of the year.
Asked by: Judith Cummins (Labour - Bradford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Prosperity Fund in meeting its primary purpose.
Answered by David Lidington
I am replying as Chair of the National Security Council Sub Committee on the Cross Government Funds, which provides Ministerial oversight of the Prosperity Fund. The Prosperity Fund is delivering on its primary purpose of promoting economic development in developing countries, including through improving financial resilience and creating the right conditions for sustainable growth. All overseas development assistance provided by the Prosperity Fund must meet the OECD Development Assistance Committee’s eligibility criteria and comply with the International Development Act 2002. The Prosperity Fund has appointed suppliers to provide robust Monitoring & Evaluation across the programme. They will provide rigorous evidence and assessment on the Fund’s primary development objectives. Early examples of outcomes and impacts can be found in the Fund’s Annual Reports, the first one of which was published in December 2017.