Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many staff in his Department have permission to work remotely outside the UK; and in which countries those staff are based.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Cabinet Office staff may apply for permission to temporarily work remotely overseas in exceptional circumstances. Examples of this might include when accompanying a Civil Service or Armed Forces partner on an official posting.
There are <5 staff registered on payroll whose permanent working location is abroad. On security and data protection grounds, we are not able to share their location/s.
Separately, there is also a process for staff to request to take their IT overseas with them while on leave, for example if they believe they may need to be contacted during that time.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department has spent on (a) social media promotions, (b) influencer marketing and (c) online advertising in the last 12 months.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Commercial sensitivities exist around aspects of this spend which could prejudice commercial interests. All spend in these areas are subject to the standard value for money assessments.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many public sector contracts have been subject to fraud investigations in each year since 2019.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Information pertaining to the amount of public sector contracts subject to fraud investigations is not held by the Cabinet Office. This information would be held by relevant law enforcement authorities, or specific government departments, that carried out investigation.
Tackling public sector fraud is a priority for this government. This government is taking strong action to reduce public sector fraud - ensuring that as much public money as possible goes to delivering vital public services.
That’s why the government introduced the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill as part of the biggest fraud crackdown in a generation. The measures in the Bill will give us more tools to combat fraud, recover public money and allow the government to investigate fraud.
The Public Sector Fraud Authority is also driving forward the development of the counter fraud approach across government, working with departments and public bodies to reduce the impact of fraud and build expert counter fraud services.
The 2024 Autumn Budget and 2025 Spring Statement also announced the most significant package of measures to tackle fraud and error in recent history. The 2025 Spending Review highlighted that Office for Budget Responsibility forecasts these measures to deliver £9.6 billion in savings by 2030.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total cost of external consultants across Government was in each year since 2019.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Individual Central Government departments publish expenditure on external consultants in their annual reports and accounts. The Government is committed to stopping all non-essential expenditure on consultants, and reducing the reliance on contingent labour.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many external consultancy projects have (a) overrun or (b) failed to deliver expected outcomes in each year since 2020.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
From 2022, there have been no consultancy contracts, awarded by the Cabinet Office, that were subject to formal performance action or contract termination due to poor performance. Any informal concerns about the delivery of contract objectives would be managed by contract managers and data is not held on this centrally.
Prior to 2022, individual Cabinet Office Business Units were responsible for contract management and central records for this period are therefore not available.
The Government is committed to stopping all non-essential expenditure on consultants, and reducing the reliance on contingent labour.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average daily rate of pay is for consultants working across Whitehall Departments.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This information is not held by the Cabinet Office.
Pay for consultants is managed by each department individually, as they are accountable for their own consultancy pay details. Average rates may differ due to the type of consultancy and commercial structure around individual customer contracts. The Government is committed to stopping all non-essential expenditure on consultants, and reducing the reliance on contingent labour.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether any procurement contracts over £1 million were awarded without competitive tender in the last two years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder). Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023 above £12,000 inc VAT are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service (https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search). The details published online include whether each contract was let through competitive tendering.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many working days have been lost to stress-related illness in the civil service in each of the past five years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Management Information on Average Working Days Lost due to mental ill-health, which includes stress-related illness, is published at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/sickness-absence
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of civil servants work from home for more than 80% of their contracted hours.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This information is not held centrally. Decisions on terms and conditions of employment, including flexible working arrangements, are made by the employing department. Heads of departments have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service.
Data on Civil Service Headquarters (HQ) occupancy is collected and published quarterly on GOV.UK for all HQ buildings of Whitehall Departments, Office for Scotland, Office for Wales and Northern Ireland Office. Data for the latest period for which data is available can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants have been dismissed for (a) incompetence and (b) misconduct in each year since 2015.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Departments have delegated responsibility for decisions relating to dismissal of an employee.
Civil Service statistics on the composition of the Civil Service workforce, including data on those leaving the Civil Service due to dismissals, are available on GOV.UK.