Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to The Benefits of Brexit: How the UK is taking advantage of leaving the EU published in January 2022, what assessment he has made of the way in which the Withdrawal Agreement enabled the UK to establish a strategic partnership with Australia and the USA through AUKAS.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Following our withdrawal from the European Union, the UK is able to pursue an independent foreign, trade and security policy. As set out in ‘The Benefits of Brexit’, this gives us greater flexibility to pursue the UK’s international objectives: to sit at the heart of a network of like-minded countries, defend human rights and uphold global norms. This new and agile approach is demonstrated through AUKUS. AUKUS is a concrete articulation of the UK’s ambition, made in the ‘Integrated Review’, to deepen defence, security and foreign policy ties with like-minded partners in the Indo-Pacific and more widely across the globe. The agreement reflects the unique level of trust and cooperation between our three countries.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he will take with his counterparts in the EU to resolve the backlog of road freight at Dover.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Traffic flows and any congestion build up at the Short Straits are monitored 24/7 by officials on both sides of the English Channel, and the appropriate escalation routes are already in place, and well tested to mitigate the risk of delays at the border. The reasons why the Dover Traffic Assessment Project (TAP) has been activated recently are understood, and we are confident that new customs processes introduced from 1 January were not the cause of queues.
Officials continue to monitor the situation closely and are engaging with industry groups, Port of Dover and local stakeholders in Kent.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many of the Prime Minister's office (a) laptops, (b) mobile phones, (c) memory sticks and (d) external hard drives have been lost or stolen in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
For management and staffing purposes, the Prime Minister’s Office is an integral part of the Cabinet Office.
Figures are not available for 2017. Subsequent figures for the whole of the Cabinet Office as a department are as follows:
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
Laptops | 46 | 63 | 40 | 32 |
Mobile phones | 80 | 136 | 69 | 87 |
Memory sticks | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
External hard drives | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
To place this context, in 2020-21, the Cabinet Office (core department) had 9,248 staff.
All departmental IT is fully security encrypted.
Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated and the contents deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately and remotely locked.
The Departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries.
There has been no data loss or compromise as a result of these losses.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government has taken to inform small and medium sized enterprises of the new import processes taking effect from 1 January 2022; and how much money the Government has spent on dispersing that information.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Government officials and Ministers meet weekly with representatives of trade bodies that represent SMEs, such as the Federation of Small Businesses and the Confederation of British Industry, to discuss how best to target information at SMEs. We also engage larger companies to ensure they help prepare smaller companies in their supply chains for the changes ahead.
The Government has also prepared several freely available tools to assist all traders with the new import processes being introduced from 1 January 2022. This includes the publication and continuous updating of the Border Operating Model; over 200 webinars delivered by the Cabinet Office reaching around 20,000 UK and EU traders to date, and a haulier handbook translated into 17 languages.
In addition, our ‘Check, Change, Go’ communications campaign has been designed using polling and insights from SMEs. Based on these insights, all paid for marketing has been developed to target these audiences to ensure they are aware of the effect of new rules in place between the EU and the UK.
Given much of this activity falls within standard government business as usual, it is not possible to disaggregate all costs relating to communications specifically for preparing small and medium sized businesses. However the Cabinet Office publishes expenditure on gov.uk, including on public information campaigns on a rolling monthly basis as part of routine government transparency arrangements.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total cost to the Government is of new border infrastructure, including IT systems, put in place to process goods imported from the EU.
Answered by Michael Ellis
In July 2020, the Government announced a £705 million package of investment in border infrastructure, staff and technology to ensure GB border systems would be ready for the transition period. This included the £200 million Port Infrastructure Fund (PIF), £270 million for inland infrastructure and a further £235 million for border IT, systems and recruitments.
As of early December 2021, £95.5 million in grants from the PIF had been disbursed to ports to cover verified expenditure to date. Of the £200 million PIF, we expect all of the £195 million allocated to ports to be spent by the end of the current (2021-22) financial year. Additionally, by December 2021, the Department for Transport had spent £292.2 million on inland border infrastructure and the running of Information and Advice sites.
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has ongoing funding to deliver the key priorities for EU Exit. As of early December 2021, HMRC had spent, for example, £9 million scaling up the existing Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight (CHIEF) system, £45 million on the Goods Vehicle Movement Service (GVMS) and an additional £76 million on Inland Border Facility (IBF) development.
Since departments have border-related funding built into their baseline budgets, it is not straightforward to provide the total cost to the Government of all new border infrastructure and IT systems to date. Spending is ongoing and will be accounted for by departments in the usual way.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to resolve customs delays at the UK-EU border.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to PQ 175882 on 28 April 2021.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the length of time in which overseas electors can vote beyond 15 years.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In line with the commitment in the 2019 Conservative manifesto, the Government will scrap the rule that prevents British citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years from participating in UK parliamentary elections. Many British citizens overseas retain deep ties to the United Kingdom and it is right that we respect this.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will put in place a mandatory two-week notice period for changing guidelines for marriages and civil partnerships ceremonies.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
May I apologise for the delay in answering the question. On 5 November, the Department for Health and Social Care acted swiftly in accordance with growing evidence of virus prevalence to put in place new national COVID-19 restrictions in England. Under these new restrictions, weddings and civil partnership ceremonies are not permitted to take place, except in exceptional circumstances where one of those getting married is seriously ill and not expected to recover. We recognise that the restrictions may be disappointing for those who are planning such events. However, by their nature, weddings and civil partnership ceremonies are events that bring families and friends together from across the country and sometimes across the world, making them high risk events for transmission of the virus.
For further information on COVID-19 restrictions, please see https://www.gov.uk/guidance/new-national-restrictions-from-5-november. Information for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is available on related websites.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure that Article 8 of the Withdrawal Agreement is implemented in full.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The UK government is committed to implementing the Withdrawal Agreement, including Article 8.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, what discussions she had with President Erdogan on (a) human rights, (b) press freedom and (c) democracy in Turkey during her visit to that country on 28 January 2017.
Answered by Theresa May
I refer the hon. Member to the joint press conference following my meeting with President Erdogan, a transcript of which can be found on gov.uk website.