Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 51450 on Freedom of Information and Written Questions: Costs, what the hourly rate of assessing staff time is for the Parliamentary Question disproportionate cost threshold.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
As set out in paragraph 219 of the guide to Parliamentary work, the disproportionate cost threshold is set at 140% of the Freedom of Information cost limit for central government, which is currently £600. The Freedom of Information and Data Protection (Appropriate Limit and Fees) Regulations 2004 set out that costs for these purposes are to be estimated at a rate of £25 per hour.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what changes have been made to the style guide for answering written Parliamentary Questions since July 2024; and if he will publish that style guide.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner
As is normal, changes are made to take into account individual ministerial preferences. Defra continues to follow the guidance set out by the Cabinet Office on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to respond to Question 46599, tabled by the hon. Member for Mid Leicestershire on 17 April 2025.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
With apologies to the Hon. member, a response has now been issued.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 19 May 2025 to Question 51150 on Freedom of Information and Written Questions: Costs, what the notional hourly cost of civil service time when assessing a written parliamentary question further to the £850 threshold under paragraph 218 of the Guide to Parliamentary Work is.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
I refer the Member to my previous answer to PQ 51150. The cost limit is calculated at a flat rate of £25 per hour.
The Guide to Parliamentary Work also makes reference to the Procedure Committee's advice that the threshold “be calculated only with regard to policy team time—it should not account for any central processing in parliamentary branches or WPQ teams, or the time taken by Ministers or their advisers” (paragraph 219).
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how are aggregate disproportionate cost thresholds reviewed for (a) written Parliamentary Questions and (b) Freedom of Information Act requests; how often do these reviews take place; and on what dates have changes been made since 2000.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
The Guide to Parliamentary Work, which is published online and available here, sets out that there is an advisory cost limit known as the disproportionate cost threshold which is the level above which departments can decide not to answer a written question. The current disproportionate cost threshold is £850; the limit does not apply to oral questions.
The threshold is pegged at 140% of the Freedom of Information Act cost limit, currently £600, to the nearest £50. Where a change in the FOI cost limit occurs, the Cabinet Office will make a written statement to advise Parliament of the new disproportionate cost threshold.
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 allows public authorities to refuse to deal with any requests where they estimate that responding to the request would exceed the “appropriate limit”, known as the “cost limit”.
If a public authority calculates that responding to a request will take it over the appropriate limit it is not obliged to provide a substantive response. The cost limit is calculated at a flat rate of £25 per hour and since 2004 has been set at £600 for central government departments and £450 for other public authorities.
Asked by: Julian Lewis (Conservative - New Forest East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans respond to Question 50047 tabled on 6 May 2025 for answer on 12 May 2025.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
With apologies to the Hon. member, a response has now been issued.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 13 May 2025 to Question 45016 on Civil Service, if he will issue a Ministerial Correction to the Answer to attach the requested information.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The answer to Question 45016 has now been corrected to include an attachment with the requested information.
Asked by: Munira Wilson (Liberal Democrat - Twickenham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to answer Question 49434 tabled on 30 April 2025 by the hon. Member for Twickenham.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
With apologies to the hon. Member, a response has now been issued.
Asked by: Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Labour - Clapham and Brixton Hill)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how Serco performed against key performance indicators at the most recent performance review of their Restart Scheme contract.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to her previous Question UIN 50919.
Cabinet Office Statistics publish some of the Serco Key Performance Indicators on a regular basis. The latest publication is available here.
Ongoing performance reviews have identified a need for performance improvement in the two Contract Package Areas (CPA) CPA1a and CPA6 that Serco delivers in. Therefore, the department has implemented intensified support and heightened monitoring as part of our established performance management intervention regime.
This activity incorporates more frequent and more senior scrutiny and includes requiring Serco to implement comprehensive action plans to address concerns, with the intensity of support and challenge increasing at higher intervention levels.
Asked by: Lord Agnew of Oulton (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 17 March (HL5387), what the estimated cost was of answering that Question in full; whether an assessment of that cost was conducted in accordance with the guidance in the Guide to Parliamentary Work; and whether they will now place a copy of that assessment in the Library of the House.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Assessing what constitutes a project's original baseline would require making a case by case assessment for each of the 227 major projects in order to determine which baseline should be used as a reference point. Making this case by case assessment would have exceeded the current disproportionate cost threshold as set out in the Guide to Parliamentary Work. We have no plans to place a copy of this assessment in the Library of the House.