Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of reinstating former civil servants on public finances.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
Individual departments are responsible for the recruitment of their staff and are able to set their own policies accordingly, subject to the framework of instructions set out in the Civil Service Management Code and the Civil Service Recruitment Principles. This includes the reinstatement of former civil servants under exception five of the Recruitment Principles.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) male and (b) female former civil servants have applied for reinstatement after taking time off for caring responsibilities in the last five years.
Answered by John Glen - Shadow Paymaster General
The information requested is not held by the Government Recruitment Service (GRS). Reinstatements are managed by each individual Department who will hold their own data rather than centrally by GRS.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that AI generated misinformation and disinformation does not impact elections in the UK.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government works continuously to understand, assess and address the risks presented by emerging and critical technologies. To date, the Cabinet Office has drawn on a significant range of analysis to inform Government understanding of the risks associated with Artificial Intelligence and the UK elections; we continue to coordinate with other Lead Government Departments.
We keep our assessments of these issues under constant review. For example, in the lead up to the AI Safety Summit, a suite of products was published by the Government to help inform the public and Summit participants of our assessment of the risks and opportunities associated with the use of AI. The risk to the information environment was included within this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frontier-ai-capabilities-and-risks-discussion-paper.
More broadly, the security of elections is considered a priority task across HMG and touches on work being undertaken by the Defending Democracy Task Force, DSIT and within the National Security Secretariat in Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of AI generated misinformation and disinformation on elections in the UK.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government works continuously to understand, assess and address the risks presented by emerging and critical technologies. To date, the Cabinet Office has drawn on a significant range of analysis to inform Government understanding of the risks associated with Artificial Intelligence and the UK elections; we continue to coordinate with other Lead Government Departments.
We keep our assessments of these issues under constant review. For example, in the lead up to the AI Safety Summit, a suite of products was published by the Government to help inform the public and Summit participants of our assessment of the risks and opportunities associated with the use of AI. The risk to the information environment was included within this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frontier-ai-capabilities-and-risks-discussion-paper.
More broadly, the security of elections is considered a priority task across HMG and touches on work being undertaken by the Defending Democracy Task Force, DSIT and within the National Security Secretariat in Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that AI generated deepfakes do not impact elections in the UK.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government works continuously to understand, assess and address the risks presented by emerging and critical technologies. To date, the Cabinet Office has drawn on a significant range of analysis to inform Government understanding of the risks associated with Artificial Intelligence and the UK elections; we continue to coordinate with other Lead Government Departments.
We keep our assessments of these issues under constant review. For example, in the lead up to the AI Safety Summit, a suite of products was published by the Government to help inform the public and Summit participants of our assessment of the risks and opportunities associated with the use of AI. The risk to the information environment was included within this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frontier-ai-capabilities-and-risks-discussion-paper.
More broadly, the security of elections is considered a priority task across HMG and touches on work being undertaken by the Defending Democracy Task Force, DSIT and within the National Security Secretariat in Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of AI generated deepfakes on elections in the UK.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government works continuously to understand, assess and address the risks presented by emerging and critical technologies. To date, the Cabinet Office has drawn on a significant range of analysis to inform Government understanding of the risks associated with Artificial Intelligence and the UK elections; we continue to coordinate with other Lead Government Departments.
We keep our assessments of these issues under constant review. For example, in the lead up to the AI Safety Summit, a suite of products was published by the Government to help inform the public and Summit participants of our assessment of the risks and opportunities associated with the use of AI. The risk to the information environment was included within this: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/frontier-ai-capabilities-and-risks-discussion-paper.
More broadly, the security of elections is considered a priority task across HMG and touches on work being undertaken by the Defending Democracy Task Force, DSIT and within the National Security Secretariat in Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Prime Minister plans to respond to the letter of 27 November 2023 from the hon. Member for Linlithgow and East Falkirk and Lord Scriven on Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
As stated in the answer of 7 December 2023, Official Report, House of Lords, PQ HL571, this is a matter for the Conservative Party, rather than the Government.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to ensure that all Government contracts include a requirement to pay staff (a) the Living Wage Foundation’s real Living Wage and (b) occupational sick pay.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
This government is committed to paying properly, which is being addressed through the statutory National Living Wage. This is based on the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. In April 2023, the National Living Wage increased to £10.42 per hour, an increase of 9.7%. By 2024, the Government has committed that the National Living Wage will reach 66% of median UK earnings.
Departments are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of employment for their civil servants, in accordance with the rules of the Civil Service Management Code. This includes matters related to sickness absence.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to reduce paper usage in Government departments in light of the climate emergency.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Government is proud to lead the world in ending our own contribution to climate change and we have achieved a lot on our road to net zero already.
Under the new Greening Government Commitments Framework for the 2021-25 period, the government committed to reducing paper use by at least 50% against the 2017-18 financial year baseline. The first Annual Report against the new Framework, covering the 2021-22 financial year, is due to be published later this year.
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) and Government Digital Service (GDS) in the Cabinet Office lead a ‘digital by default’ approach to government services. As a result, thousands of government services are now mostly used online and most service users are no longer using a paper-version of a service.
Last year, CDDO added a new mandatory standard to the existing Technology Code of Practice on ‘Make your technology sustainable’, which implements the published Greening Government ICT and Digital Services Strategy (2020).
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 25 February 2022 to Question 125579 on Infected Blood Compensation Framework Study, if the Government will expedite any recommendation that is made on interim payments to mitigate further hardship to the victims.
Answered by Michael Ellis
I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave on 24 February to PQ 125060.