Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the amount of money lost to fraud and error by her Department in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Fraud and error losses in the Department for each of the last three financial years are shown in the table:
Period | Detected fraud (£m) | Detected error (£m) |
2020/21 | £3.01 | £1.51 |
2021/22 | £10.43 | £77.35 |
2022/23 | £46.07 | £1.59 |
Notes:
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the total cost to the public purse was of legal (a) support and (b) representation to Ministers in her Department in relation to their official conduct in each of the last three years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not held centrally or collated in the format requested. More generally, I would refer the hon. Member to the long-standing policies on legal expenditure, as set out recently by Cabinet Office Ministers on 12 March 2024, Official Report, Question 17709 and 12 March 2024, Official Report, House of Lords, Cols. 1901-1904.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the destinations were of domestic overnight visits undertaken by Ministers within their Department in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government publishes the details of the cost of overseas ministerial travel, including costs of travel, and other costs like accommodation and meals, on the GOV.UK website. But as has been the case under successive administrations, the Government does not publish granular detail on ministers’ travel at home or abroad.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many domestic overnight visits Ministers within their Department have taken in each of the last three financial years; and what the cost to the public purse was of those visits.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government publishes the cost of overseas ministerial travel, including the travel ticket costs and other costs like accommodation and meals, on the GOV.UK website. However, as has been the case under successive administrations, the Government does not publish granular detail on ministers’ travel at home or abroad.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding her Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on advertising in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Based on the latest figures, the total cost of advertising incurred by the Department for the last three financial years are as follows:
- £7,865,577 in 2020/21;
- £28,985,080 in 2021/22; and
- £14,957,885 in 2022/23.
Advertising budgets are set as part of the campaign planning process, and media is booked to meet these budgets.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what guidance her Department issues on the use of WhatsApp.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
All departments in the Government, including arms lengths bodies, apply the published guidance, Using non-corporate communication channels (e.g. WhatsApp, private email, SMS) for government business, published by the Cabinet Office in March 2023. It applies to all individuals in the Government, including ministers, special advisers, officials, contractors, non-executive board members and independent experts advising ministers. The Department uses this central guidance, and has applied it since March 2023.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what reports and guidance their Department has produced in the last three financial years; and how much was spent on their (a) printing and (b) distribution.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The information is not available in the format requested, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The Department is digital by default, and the primary channel for issuing reports and guidance is the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding their Department has (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the estimated amount budgeted and spent by the Department in each of the past three financial years, to replace legacy systems:
Financial year | Budget | Actual |
2021/22 | £350,000 | £500,000 |
2022/23 | £0 | £0 |
2023/24 | £0 | £0 |
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of digital roles within her Department were vacant as of 26 February 2024.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
As of 26 February 2024, we estimate that we currently have a vacancy rate of 22.76% in digital roles within the Department.
Asked by: Nick Thomas-Symonds (Labour - Torfaen)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding their Department (a) allocated for (b) spent on magazine subscriptions in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department has paid for subscriptions to the following publications in the last three financial years:
- print editions of all national daily newspapers together with online editions of the Telegraph, Times and Financial Times;
- The New Statesman;
- The Spectator;
- Economist Nursing Times;
- Private Eye;
- The Voice;
- Health Service Journal;
- GP Online;
- Pulse;
- Health Policy Insight;
- New England Journal of Medicine;
- Journal of American Medicine;
- Nature;
- Bloomberg;
- PR Week; and
- I News.
The cost of the subscriptions totalled approximately £7,700 per year in financial years 2020/21 and 2021/22, and precisely £7718.08 in 2022/23.