Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
If he will bring forward proposals to abolish the Electoral Commission.
Answered by Julia Lopez
The Government is committed to keeping our elections secure and fit for the modern age. We keep electoral law, and the role and powers of the Electoral Commission, under review to ensure the effective operation of, and public confidence in, an electoral system that is secure, fair, modern and transparent.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many investigations were carried out by public bodies into (a) leave and (b) remain campaign organisations involved in the 2016 EU referendum; and what the (i) direct costs and (ii) costs paid to external organisations were of each investigation.
Answered by Chloe Smith
This information is not held by the Cabinet Office.
Investigations were carried out by a range of public bodies in relation to organisations campaigning on both sides in the 2016 EU referendum. These include the Electoral Commission, National Crime Agency, Metropolitan Police and Information Commissioner’s Office.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how the electoral commissioners are appointed; and what steps the Government takes to ensure those commissioners will be impartial and independent.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The Speaker’s Committee on the Electoral Commission is required to oversee the procedure for selecting candidates for appointment to the Electoral Commission in accordance with the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act (“PPERA”) 2000. Candidates that are put forward are subject to an Address in the House of Commons, and require approval by the Speaker of the House of Commons and Her Majesty the Queen. The Electoral Commission is independent of Government.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with whom he would plan to co-ordinate the delivery of Government objectives in the event that the Prime Minister was temporarily or permanently incapacitated.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Coordination of the delivery of government business occurs through the Cabinet Committee system as set out in the Cabinet Manual. In the event the Prime Minister is unable to attend Cabinet or any of its Committees the Committees may proceed in her absence chaired by the next most senior minister in the order of precedence. In the event of the permanent incapacity of the Prime Minister, the appointment of a new Prime Minister is a matter for Her Majesty The Queen acting under the Royal Prerogative.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of exports to (a) the USA and (b) the EU since 2011.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will use the Dun and Bradsheet human trafficking risk index when agreeing Government contracts.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Shadow Deputy Prime Minister
Each contract has its own risk profile and it is the responsibility of individual Contracting Authorities to assess and manage the risks associated with any given procurement using whichever tools they consider most appropriate.
Suppliers convicted of human trafficking offences must be excluded from public contracts under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans he has to reform postal voting to protect against voter fraud.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government believes that electoral fraud is unacceptable on any level. The Government’s response to Sir Eric Pickles’ review, Securing the ballot, sets out a comprehensive programme of reform for strengthening our electoral system. Sir Eric’s review identified a number of areas where the system could be tightened, and the Government’s response sets out a number of measures for tackling postal voting fraud.
For example, the Government intends to seek legislative opportunities to extend the provisions on ballot secrecy, and the offences already in place for voting in person, to postal voting. We will also carefully consider the practical implications of introducing a ban on the handling of postal ballot papers by campaigners. These and other measures outlined in the Government’s response are an important part of ensuring that we can build a democracy that works for everyone.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent steps he has taken to tackle voter fraud; what plans his Department has to tackle such fraud in the future; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government is committed to tackling fraud and making our electoral process more secure. We have introduced and developed Individual Electoral Registration over the past two years to tighten up the registration process and recently welcomed Sir Eric Pickles’ report on his review into electoral fraud to which we are giving careful attention as an important step in looking at improvements to the voting process. The Government will publish its report in due course.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, if she will introduce legislative proposals to allow the Leader of the House to be elected by the House; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Baroness May of Maidenhead
I have no plans to do so.
Asked by: Peter Bone (Independent - Wellingborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his policy is on preventing charities from putting undue pressure on vulnerable donors.
Answered by Rob Wilson
It is essential we put a stop to the immoral behaviour we have seen from some charities over the summer and rebuild people’s faith in giving to charity.
There will be a new, tougher fundraising regulator which will own and develop the fundraising code of conduct, have the power to stop fundraising campaigns if they are in breach of the rules, name and shame those who do not comply and refer cases to the Charity Commission. It will also establish a Fundraising Preference Service to enable people to reset their consent to receive charity fundraising requests.
We are also seeking reserve powers to mandate charities to register with the new fundraising regulator should this prove necessary.