Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce fraud in the public sector.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Tackling public sector fraud is a priority for this government.
That’s why the government introduced the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill in January 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 (PSFA) is also developing artificial intelligence tools to tackle fraud - and is expected to surpass the PSFA’s £250m 2024-25 audited benefits target from these services.
Furthermore, at the request of the Secretary of State for Education to address fraud in student loans, the PSFA is working to coordinate the government's response to fraud within student loans by providing direct expertise understand the scale of the threat posed by fraudsters, identify the most effective immediate disruption activities and how to prevent this kind of fraud in the future.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the median age is of computers issued to officials in their Department.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The median age for currently deployed computers is 4.5 years for MacBook and 5 years for Windows devices.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to prevent the unauthorised disclosure of Cabinet discussions to the media.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As set out at chapter 5 of the ministerial code, the principle of collective responsibility requires that the privacy of ministerial discussions at Cabinet and its committees should be maintained. It is therefore a long established precedent that information relating to the proceedings of Cabinet and its committees is not normally shared publicly.
It is the longstanding policy of successive governments not to comment on specific leak investigations.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the oral statement by the Prime Minister of 25 February 2025 on Defence and Security, Official Report, column 634, if he will initiate a review of maritime security to inform the new national security strategy.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
There are no current plans to publish a separate national maritime security strategy. As announced by the Prime Minister, a new national security strategy will be published this summer.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many cyber attacks were conducted by (a) China and (b) Chinese-sponsored actors against (i) Government and (ii) Government-affiliated systems in the last 12 months.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The UK Government does not comment upon operational security matters.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many cyber attacks were conducted by (a) Iran and (b) Iranian-sponsored actors against (i) Government and (ii) Government-affiliated systems in the last 12 months.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The UK Government does not comment upon operational security matters.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many cyber attacks were conducted by (a) Russia and (b) Russian-sponsored actors against (i) Government and (ii) Government-affiliated systems in the last 12 months.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The UK Government does not comment upon operational security matters.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of public sector workers of working age who have become economically inactive in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 3 January is attached.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the First Report of Session 2023–24 of the Liaison Committee, Promoting national strategy: How select committee scrutiny can improve strategic thinking in Whitehall, HC 31, published on 29 May 2024, whether his Department has taken recent steps to develop a cross-Whitehall lexicon.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is considering the Liaison Committee's report and looks forward to discussing it with the incoming Chair once elected.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of paragraph 29 of the First Report of Session 2023–24 of the Liaison Committee, Promoting national strategy: How select committee scrutiny can improve strategic thinking in Whitehall, HC 31, published on 29 May 2024.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is considering the Liaison Committee's report and looks forward to discussing it with the incoming Chair once elected.