Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much and what proportion of the £3.6 million allocated to rail infrastructure has been spent; and when he plans to spend the remaining proportion of that funding.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
Since 2017, the DfT and Innovate UK have run six First of a Kind (FOAK) competitions. So far, we have awarded over £38m to 125 projects led by a range of organisations to support innovations that help to address priorities for the railway identified by both government and industry. This includes projects funded under FOAK 2022, announced in November.
You have clarified that your question relates to the first FOAK competition, which launched in October 2017 and offered £3.5m to bids focusing specifically on implementing innovative technology on railway vehicles, rather than rail infrastructure. Through a scoring process by independent experts, 10 winning projects were selected, to a total value of £3.375m.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much was spent on special advisors appointed from 6 September 2022 to 25 October 2022, including on severance payments.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Information on Special Adviser numbers and costs, including any severance payments, is published annually by the Cabinet Office in the Annual Report on Special Advisers, as per the requirements of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010. The next planned publication of this data will cover the current financial year (1 April 2022 - 31 March 2023) and will be available next year, in accordance with our publication timetable.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether his Department has conducted an environmental impact assessment on the potential opening of new coal coking mines in Cumbria.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
I refer the Hon. Member to my answer to Question UIN 73894 on 2 November 2022.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the impact of the £1.5 million allocated to help respond to flooding in Pakistan on the people impacted by that flooding.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The UK has pledged a total of £26.5 million of UK aid to support the flood relief effort in Pakistan. The £1.5 million initial allocation is responding to people's immediate needs. Through our partners in Pakistan, this funding has provided: 16,125 households with multi-purpose cash assistance, 65,403 affected people with medical consultations through mobile medical camps, 33,950 people with water filtration cubes, and 46,752 people with hygiene services. During his recent visit to Pakistan, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad, Minister for South Asia, visited some of Pakistan's worst flood- affected areas, to see the critical role played by UK aid.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it is his Department's policy that delivery drivers for (a) Uber Eats and (b) other online food ordering companies should receive the minimum wage.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government actively encourages businesses to treat workers fairly and in accordance with the law. The specific issues raised by the Honourable Member for Ilford South about UberEats and their drivers are internal matters of a private company on which I cannot comment.
An individual’s entitlement to employment rights such as the minimum wage are determined by their employment status (employee, limb (b) worker or self-employed). The Government recently published employment status guidance, making it easier for businesses to comply with existing regulations and for individuals to understand which employment protections apply to them.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the (a) rate of pay and (b) employment conditions of Uber Eats drivers.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government actively encourages businesses to treat workers fairly and in accordance with the law. The specific issues raised by the Honourable Member for Ilford South about UberEats and their drivers are internal matters of a private company on which I cannot comment.
An individual’s entitlement to employment rights such as the minimum wage are determined by their employment status (employee, limb (b) worker or self-employed). The Government recently published employment status guidance, making it easier for businesses to comply with existing regulations and for individuals to understand which employment protections apply to them.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if the Government will make it its policy to permanently cancel any plans to open new coal mines.
Answered by Graham Stuart
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer I gave the Hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion on 28th September 2022 to Question 51588.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will take steps to increase aid for environmental protection programmes in Pakistan.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
At COP26, the UK pledged £55 million to help Pakistan develop climate resilience, manage water more sustainably and unlock climate investment. The UK government regularly engages with the Pakistan government on climate change and environmental protection. On 14 October, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister for South Asia, met with Pakistan's Minister for Climate Change, Sherry Rahman, to discuss how the UK can best help Pakistan mitigate the long-term effects of climate change.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether (a) he or (b) officials in his Department have had recent discussions with Lieutenant General Vikum Liyanage on human rights and protestors in Sri Lanka.
Answered by Anne-Marie Trevelyan - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK carefully considers all our engagement with the Sri Lankan Armed Forces, aiming to support the development of a modern, professional and human rights compliant military. Promoting adherence to international humanitarian law and human rights compliance is integral to this engagement. We continuously monitor the context and viability of our approach to ensure that assistance is in line with our values and is consistent with our human rights obligations.
The then Minister for South Asia, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, set out our concerns regarding human rights and security responses to peaceful protests when he spoke with President Wickremesinghe in July.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion civil service staff are employed (a) on zero hours contracts, (b) on fixed-term contracts, and (c) via employment agencies broken down by Government Department.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The number of civil servants employed on zero hour contracts is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office. Zero hours contracts are not the normal practice within the Civil Service. Departments may use them in very limited circumstances to help meet exceptional or fluctuating demands on the business.
The number of civil servants by department on a fixed-term contract of up to 12 months, including those on casual contracts, is published quarterly by Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of their quarterly public sector employment statistics and is available at:
An extract of the relevant data published by ONS is presented at Table 1 below. Information on civil servants on contracts of more than 12 and less than 24 months are not held centrally as these employees are counted as permanent in the statistics, in line with official ONS public sector headcount methodology.
Civil servants are employed by departments and their agencies and not by employment agencies. However, information on the numbers of employment agency staff working at departments are published by individual departments each month for transparency purposes on their gov.uk departmental webpages as part of their Monthly Workforce Management Information.
Table 1: Civil servants on temporary/casual contracts [1] as at June 2022
Department | Headcount | Full-Time equivalent |
Attorney General’s departments | 200 | 190 |
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy | 70 | 70 |
Cabinet Office | 10 | 10 |
Other Cabinet Office agencies | 40 | 40 |
Charity Commission | 20 | 20 |
Competition and Markets Authority | 20 | 20 |
Defence | 20 | 20 |
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport | 50 | 50 |
Education | 210 | 200 |
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs | 210 | 200 |
Estyn | 0 | 0 |
Export Credits Guarantee Department | 10 | .. |
Food Standards Agency | 30 | 30 |
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office | 60 | 60 |
Health and Social Care | 1,820 | 1,680 |
HM Land Registry | 10 | 10 |
HM Revenue and Customs | 560 | 550 |
HM Treasury | 30 | 30 |
Chancellor’s other departments | 0 | 0 |
Home Office | 1,220 | 880 |
International Trade | 0 | 0 |
Justice | 1,240 | 1,190 |
Levelling Up, Housing and Communities | 50 | 40 |
The National Archives | 20 | 20 |
National Crime Agency | 0 | 0 |
Northern Ireland Office | 0 | 0 |
Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills | 20 | 20 |
Office of Gas and Electricity Markets | 150 | 150 |
Office of Qualifications and Examinations Regulation | 20 | 20 |
Office of Rail and Road | .. | .. |
Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland | 0 | 0 |
Office of the Secretary of State for Wales | .. | .. |
Ofwat | 10 | 10 |
Transport | 580 | 550 |
UK Statistics Authority | 120 | 110 |
UK Supreme Court | 10 | 10 |
Work and Pensions | 3,520 | 3,450 |
Scottish Government | 1,940 | 1,450 |
Welsh Government | 30 | 30 |
TOTAL | 12,280 | 11,080 |
Temporary or casual employees are those with a fixed term contract of 12 months or less, or employed on a casual basis
Numbers are rounded to the nearest ten, and numbers less than five are represented by “..”. Data not available are represented by “-”.
Department totals include Executive Agencies, Ministerial and Non-Ministerial Departments
Source: Public Sector Employment Statistics, Office for National Statistics