Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the changes made to the steel procurement guidelines in the last two years are being adhered to by (a) local authorities and (b) central government departments.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Central government departments are required to report on a regular basis, alongside the collection of forward pipeline information, to confirm that they are compliant with the steel procurement guidance and provide evidence on how they are applying this guidance on their projects.
Local Authorities and other parts of the wider public sector are not currently required to provide this information, given their separate legal nature.
This information is published in the guidance on Procuring steel in major projects, which can be found here:
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to take further steps to allow local authorities to make procurement decisions which favour local economies and businesses.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Whilst contracting authorities may not favour suppliers on purely geographical grounds, the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 allow them to consider incorporating social, ethical and environmental aspects into specifications, contract conditions and award criteria if they relate directly to the subject matter of a contract from the point of view of the contracting authority.
Furthermore, the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 places a requirement on commissioners to consider the economic, environmental and social benefits of their approaches to procurement before the process starts, at the pre-procurement stage.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government has made an assessment of the level of potential risk of cyber interference by foreign governments in elections in the UK.
Answered by Ben Gummer
We treat Cyber Security extremely seriously. Our 2015 National Security Strategy confirmed that cyber remains a top threat to the UK’s economic and national security. The threat posed by cyber-attacks continues to grow in both scale and complexity. Cyber security is crucial for keeping the UK safe.
To meet the challenges of cyber security threats, the government launched its new National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021 on the 1 November. Supported by £1.9billion of transformational investment, the strategy sets out ambitious policies and capabilities to protect the UK in cyber space.
The strategy is available online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-cyber- security-strategy- 2016-to-2021.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many meetings of the EU Exit and Trade Cabinet Committee have been (a) held and (b) attended by the Secretary of State for (i) Scotland, (ii) Wales and (iii) Northern Ireland.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Information relating to the proceedings of Cabinet Committees, including how often they have met and which Ministers have attended, is generally not disclosed as to do so could harm the frankness and candour of internal discussion.
Asked by: Tom Blenkinsop (Labour - Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, if she will make the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland a permanent member of the EU Exit and Trade Cabinet Committee.
Answered by Theresa May
A list of members of the European Union Exit and Trade Cabinet Committee is available in the Library of the House.