Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason he has not sent confirmation to the Intelligence and Security Committee that he has received its report on China, submitted to him on 15 May 2023.
Answered by James Heappey
Under the terms of the Justice and Security Act 2013 and the Government's Memorandum of Understanding with the Intelligence and Security Committee, the Committee must, before making a report to Parliament, send it to the Prime Minister for the purpose of excluding any matter that would be prejudicial to the continued discharge of the functions of the security and intelligence services. The Secretary of State for Defence has no role in the process.
The Prime Minister has responded to the Committee to confirm that its report on China may be published, and the Committee has announced that it will therefore be laid before Parliament ahead of the House rising for summer recess.
Following publication of the report on China, the Government will consider the Committee's recommendations and conclusions and publish a full response in due course and in the usual manner.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when he plans to respond to the Intelligence and Security Committee regarding its report on China, submitted on 15 May 2023.
Answered by James Heappey
Under the terms of the Justice and Security Act 2013 and the Government's Memorandum of Understanding with the Intelligence and Security Committee, the Committee must, before making a report to Parliament, send it to the Prime Minister for the purpose of excluding any matter that would be prejudicial to the continued discharge of the functions of the security and intelligence services. The Secretary of State for Defence has no role in the process.
The Prime Minister has responded to the Committee to confirm that its report on China may be published, and the Committee has announced that it will therefore be laid before Parliament ahead of the House rising for summer recess.
Following publication of the report on China, the Government will consider the Committee's recommendations and conclusions and publish a full response in due course and in the usual manner.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 20 June 2023 to Question 189762, if he will provide a list of (a) all Business Units in the Cabinet Office and (b) the hospitality expenditure for each unit in the last four financial years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
a) The following list provides the business units that make up the Cabinet Office at the time of answering the question. This is limited to the core department and does not reflect any arms length bodies or executive agencies. The makeup of the department is subject to change following shifts in ministerial priorities and objectives. This has changed over the course of the four years in scope of this question.
Prime Minister's Office
Propriety and Constitution Group
Government in Parliament
Economic and Domestic Secretariat
Intelligence and Security Committee
National Security Secretariat
Joint Intelligence Organisation
Cabinet Secretary Group
Government Digital Service
Central Digital and Data Office
Government Communication Service
Office of Government Property
Infrastructure and Projects Authority
Civil Service Human Resources
Government Business Services
Government Commercial Function
Government Security Group (Includes UKSV)
Borders
Geospatial Commission (MOG Pending)
Public Sector Fraud Authority
Equality Hub
Commercial Models (GCF)
COP Presidency
Chief Operating Officer's Office
People and Places
Strategy, Finance, and Performance
Central Budgets
CO Commercial
CO Digital
Public Bodies and Priority Projects Unit
Public Inquiry Response Unit
Modernisation and Reform Unit
Office for Veterans' Affairs
Delivery Group
CO HMT Commercial
Infected Blood Inquiry
Grenfell Inquiry
Covid Inquiry
b) We do not routinely publish this financial data, as has been the case under successive administrations.
Asked by: Sarah Jones (Labour - Croydon Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government response to the Intelligence and Security Committee report entitled Extreme Right-Wing Terrorism, published on 30 March 2023, in what circumstances a person who is a member of a proscribed organisation could have their application for vetting clearance approved.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
It is an offence under Section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to belong to, or profess to belong to a proscribed organisation in the UK or overseas.
United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) provides national security clearances to government, including certain posts in policing. As part of this, UKSV assesses an individual’s vetting application and any related risks. Where an individual is known to have or has declared affiliations or membership to a proscribed organisation, their application for national security vetting will not be approved.
UKSV and government organisations have ongoing controls in place to manage staff and review their security clearances. These include annual reviews of security clearances for higher level clearance holders, change of circumstances forms, and additional reporting mechanisms through which concerns may be raised for all clearance holders. If subsequently there are security concerns relating either to an individual’s involvement with, or connections to proscribed organisations, their clearance will be withdrawn.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the Chinese surveillance companies (1) Dahua, and (2) Hikvision; what assessment they have made of any links between those companies and human rights abuses in the Xinjiang province; and what assessment they have made of whether they constitute a security threat to the UK.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK takes its national security extremely seriously. On 24 November 2022, the Government announced that Departments should cease deployment of visual surveillance systems produced by companies subject to China's National Intelligence Law onto sensitive sites. The Government has also consistently led international efforts to hold China to account for its human rights violations, including the use of invasive surveillance to target Uyghurs and other minorities. On 31 October, we supported a joint statement at the UN Third Committee alongside 49 other countries that specifically called out China's systematic use of invasive surveillance on the basis of religion and ethnicity. We also consistently raise the situation in Xinjiang with the Chinese authorities at the highest levels. Most recently, the Foreign Secretary did so in a meeting with his Chinese counterpart on 20 September.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, if he will bring forward proposals to update the Memorandum of Understanding between Government and the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.
Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union
The Government welcomes the independent and robust oversight of the Security and Intelligence Agencies and wider Intelligence Community that the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament provides.
The role and remit of the Committee is set out in the Justice and Security Act 2013 and accompanying Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), agreed between the Committee and the Prime Minister. The current arrangements set out in the Act and related MoU are sufficient to enable the Committee to discharge its statutory function in respect of the oversight of the UK Intelligence Community. There are therefore no plans to update these arrangements.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that hospitals can manage the influx of respiratory related paediatric intensive care patients; and what lessons they have learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in this regard.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service has surge plans in place which include mutual aid between hospitals and paediatric specialists to ensure hospitals can manage and monitor influxes of respiratory-related paediatric intensive care patients and infections. NHS England has also set out its overall plan for increasing the NHS’s operational capacity and resilience this winter, including increasing bed capacity by the equivalent of 7,000 general and acute beds.
Children are protected from paediatric intensive care unit admissions via both the flu vaccination programme and other respiratory disease vaccinations, including for measles, pneumococcus and Haemophilus influenzae B. The palivizumab programme protects infants at very highest risk from Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is looking at RSV immunisation programmes for the future. Children in clinical risk groups for flu are eligible for vaccination from six months of age. Infants also receive indirect protection from the child and adult influenza vaccination programmes and are protected in the first months of life via the maternal flu vaccination programme.
As with the COVID-19 pandemic, careful surveillance is important in managing the impact on the NHS. The UK Health Security Agency’s disease surveillance and epidemic intelligence helps the NHS optimise clinical management of these diseases, and aids future healthcare delivery and planning.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to reduce the number of infant respiratory virus-related appointments (1) this winter, and (2) in future years.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service has surge plans in place which include mutual aid between hospitals and paediatric specialists to ensure hospitals can manage and monitor influxes of respiratory-related paediatric intensive care patients and infections. NHS England has also set out its overall plan for increasing the NHS’s operational capacity and resilience this winter, including increasing bed capacity by the equivalent of 7,000 general and acute beds.
Children are protected from paediatric intensive care unit admissions via both the flu vaccination programme and other respiratory disease vaccinations, including for measles, pneumococcus and Haemophilus influenzae B. The palivizumab programme protects infants at very highest risk from Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) infection, and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation is looking at RSV immunisation programmes for the future. Children in clinical risk groups for flu are eligible for vaccination from six months of age. Infants also receive indirect protection from the child and adult influenza vaccination programmes and are protected in the first months of life via the maternal flu vaccination programme.
As with the COVID-19 pandemic, careful surveillance is important in managing the impact on the NHS. The UK Health Security Agency’s disease surveillance and epidemic intelligence helps the NHS optimise clinical management of these diseases, and aids future healthcare delivery and planning.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the annual research and development budget was of the intelligence agencies in each year since 2010.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The budget for the Security and Intelligence Agencies is paid through the Single Intelligence Account (SIA). This is published on an annual basis. The total budgets since 2010 are:
2021/22 - £4.12 billion
2020/21 - £3.72 billion
2019/20 - £3.49 billion
2018/19 – £3.22 billion
2017/18 – £3.02 billion
2016/17 - £2.92 billion
2015/16 – £2.93 billion
2014/15 - £2.63 billion
2013/14 - £2.52 billion
2012/13 - £2.54 billion
2011/12 - £2.38 billion
2010/11 - £2.01 billion
We do not publish break downs on research and development expenditure for national security reasons. Security and Intelligence Agency budgets are audited by the National Audit Office and expenditure is scrutinised by the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.
Asked by: Stuart C McDonald (Scottish National Party - Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch East)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when her Department plans to prepare a report on the operation of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016, in accordance with section 260 of that Act.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
The Home Office carried out an internal review into the operation of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 last year to inform the Home Secretary’s Report as required by Section 260. This report will be published and laid in Parliament in due course. A final copy of the report will be shared with the Investigatory Powers Commissioner and Intelligence and Security Committee ahead of publication. This Report aims to assess, as far as possible, the extent to which the objectives of the Act continue to be met and whether any changes are required to ensure it remains fit for purpose.
To complement this process, and noting the value of the independent scrutiny that informed the passage of the 2016 Act, the Home Secretary has decided to appoint Lord Anderson KBE KC to conduct a separate review into aspects of the Act to inform any potential legislative change. Lord Anderson will carry out his own consultation with law enforcement, the intelligence agencies, and wider public authorities, as well as other external organisations and individuals with an interest in this work.