Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what ethical advice his Department sought on provision of legal support to the Rt Hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip in relation to the Privileges Committee inquiry into that Member's conduct.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
As set out by Alex Chisholm, the Permanent Secretary and Accounting Officer of the Cabinet Office at the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee meeting on 26 January 2023, the contract award followed the proper procurement process and received full scrutiny from all relevant officials.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many convictions of voter personation in general elections there have been in the 21st Century.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The forthcoming Elections Bill will have a package of measures to tackle different types of electoral fraud – including personation in polling stations, postal voting personation and interference, proxy voting fraud, intimidation and undue influence.
Voter fraud is a crime that we cannot allow room for, so the Government is stamping out any potential for it to take place in elections, in line with our manifesto pledge.
The Electoral Commission publishes electoral fraud data on its website: https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/who-we-are-and-what-we-do/our-views-and-research/our-research/electoral-fraud-data.
Personation in polling stations is very difficult to identify and prove: by definition, it is a crime of deception. The 2015 Tower Hamlets election court judgment found that personation was one of the interlinked types of corrupt and illegal practices that took place.
By contrast, as the Electoral Commission has previously noted: ‘Since the introduction of photo ID in Northern Ireland there have been no reported cases of personation. Voters’ confidence that elections are well-run in Northern Ireland is consistently higher than in Great Britain, and there are virtually no allegations of electoral fraud at polling stations’ (December 2015).
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate his Department has made of the number of workers who are ineligible for Statutory Sick Pay in (a) Leeds East constituency, (b) Leeds (c) Yorkshire and the Humber and (d) nationwide.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the estimates provided to the Government of the number of new covid-19 infections on each day since 1 May 2020.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much money has been allocated from the public purse by the Legal Aid Agency for legal teams of the survivors and bereaved families in the Grenfell Inquiry as of the start of the opening statements to that inquiry.
Answered by David Lidington
The Prime Minister has made clear that survivors, families of victims and local residents affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy will have government funding for legal representation. This was confirmed by the Prime Minister’s notice of determination to the Inquiry, published on 22 August.
The independent Inquiry will publish details of its expenditure, including legal costs, on its website in due course.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the date on which phase 1 of the Grenfell Inquiry will be published.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Inquiry timetable and the working hours of the team are matters for the Chairman of the independent Inquiry.
At the Inquiry's procedural hearing on 11 and 12 December the Inquiry Counsel gave an update on the work of the Inquiry so far. He confirmed that the Inquiry has to date received 231,000 documents from 33 document providers. They expect to receive a further 40,000 documents. They are reviewing these documents at a rate of 12,000 per week, which the Inquiry expects to rise to 20,000 in January as the reviewing team expands. They have received 554 applications for core participant (CP) status, of which it has granted 424.
The Inquiry also confirmed that it was their aim to complete its report on phase 1 of its work by autumn 2018. A more detailed timetable of the Inquiry's work would be published in January 2018, with a further procedural hearing at the end of January.
Transcripts and videos of each hearing are available on the Inquiry's website at https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on how many days the Grenfell Inquiry has sat as at 11 December 2017.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Inquiry timetable and the working hours of the team are matters for the Chairman of the independent Inquiry.
At the Inquiry's procedural hearing on 11 and 12 December the Inquiry Counsel gave an update on the work of the Inquiry so far. He confirmed that the Inquiry has to date received 231,000 documents from 33 document providers. They expect to receive a further 40,000 documents. They are reviewing these documents at a rate of 12,000 per week, which the Inquiry expects to rise to 20,000 in January as the reviewing team expands. They have received 554 applications for core participant (CP) status, of which it has granted 424.
The Inquiry also confirmed that it was their aim to complete its report on phase 1 of its work by autumn 2018. A more detailed timetable of the Inquiry's work would be published in January 2018, with a further procedural hearing at the end of January.
Transcripts and videos of each hearing are available on the Inquiry's website at https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent discussions he has held with the Prime Minister on the appointment of panel members to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the Prime Minister’s Written Statement of 14 September. Information about internal discussion and advice is not normally disclosed.
Asked by: Richard Burgon (Labour - Leeds East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total amount of funding allocated by the Government for legal representation to victims of the Grenfell Tower fire and their families was on 3 November 2017.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Prime Minister has made clear that survivors, families of victims and local residents affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy will have government funding for legal representation. This is confirmed by the Prime Minister’s notice of determination to the Inquiry, published on 22 August. The Inquiry will publish details of legal costs in due course.