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, whether there was a cost to the public purse from expenditure on (a) alcohol, (b) food, (c) suitcases and (d) a fridge at gatherings being investigated by the (i) Second Permanent Secretary to Cabinet Office and (ii) Metropolitan Police.
Answered by Michael Ellis
No.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the (a) ten publishing companies that received the most from the public purse through the All In, All Together advertising campaign and (b) total sum each of those companies received.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government has developed a strong national campaign to provide information and reassurance to the public about COVID-19. As part of this, we have utilised advertising in over 600 national, regional and local titles across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A list of participating publishers will be placed in the Commons Library.
As with any media planning approach, titles are selected on their ability to engage with audiences at a national, regional and local level.
Cabinet Office publishes expenditure, including on public information campaigns, on a rolling monthly basis on GOV.UK as part of routine government transparency arrangements.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
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 public purse of the All In, All Together newspaper advertising campaign has been since April 2020.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government has developed a strong national campaign to provide information and reassurance to the public about COVID-19. As part of this, we have utilised advertising in over 600 national, regional and local titles across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A list of participating publishers will be placed in the Commons Library.
As with any media planning approach, titles are selected on their ability to engage with audiences at a national, regional and local level.
Cabinet Office publishes expenditure, including on public information campaigns, on a rolling monthly basis on GOV.UK as part of routine government transparency arrangements.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether public funds were used to purchase refrigerators for use on the Downing Street estate in the financial year 2020-21.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Downing Street is a working building, including catering facilities and offices for staff; as is common in workplaces including the House of Commons, refrigerators are provided for general staff use.
One refrigerator was purchased in the financial year for a Downing Street meeting room, and one to replace an existing refrigerator that had reached the end of its working operation.
Notwithstanding, I can confirm that no such public expenditure was accrued in relation to the matters considered in the investigations by the Second Permanent Secretary or connected with associated media reports on this matter.
Asked by: Kevan Jones (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the public purse funded any of the party refreshments consumed within No.10 Downing Street on 20 May 2021.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The report undertaken by the Second Permanent Secretary - available in the Library of the House - did not identify any allegations relating to staff gatherings on this date.
For the avoidance of doubt, there was no such expenditure on 20 May 2020 either.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total annual running cost of Government bodies was in each year from 2010-11 to 2020-21.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Departmental annual reports and accounts, including financial statements, are laid before Parliament and published on GOV.UK.
Gross Resource Expenditure by Arms Length Bodies is published on GOV.UK.
The Treasury publishes Public Expenditure Statistical Analysis (PESA) which presents statistics on public expenditure, including government departmental administrative expenditure. Table 1.7 breaks down administration budgets by department and Table 2.1 by economic category (e.g. staff costs).
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: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what payments on contracts the Department made to Topham Guerin in August 2021; what payments are scheduled to made to that company in September 2021; and what were the nature of those contracts.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Cabinet Office publishes details of all contracts over £10,000 on Contracts Finder and spend over £500, including on public information campaigns, on gov.uk on a rolling basis. This will include expenditure on this campaign and will be broken down by supplier.
This contract was modified in accordance with Regulation 72.1.(c) and 72.1.(b) of the Public Contract Regulations. Further detail is available in the Tenders Electronic Daily supplement to the Official Journal of the EU.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether polling by the Government related to public opinion on covid-19 was conducted on 9 February 2020.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer given to PQs 186126-186130 on 29 April 2021.
Covid-19 polling for the cross-government public information campaign has been conducted regularly since the start of the pandemic. This work allows the Government to optimise campaign messaging and maximise effectiveness, ensuring vital public health information reaches as many people as possible. The insight gathered continue to inform the Government’s ongoing communications strategy and response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and so shall not be published at this time.
The Cabinet Office publishes details of all contracts over £10,000 on Contracts Finder and spend over £500, including on public information campaigns, on a rolling basis. This will include expenditure on this campaign and will be broken down by supplier.
Asked by: David Davis (Conservative - Haltemprice and Howden)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether polling by the Government related to public opinion on covid-19 was conducted on 8 February 2020.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer given to PQs 186126-186130 on 29 April 2021.
Covid-19 polling for the cross-government public information campaign has been conducted regularly since the start of the pandemic. This work allows the Government to optimise campaign messaging and maximise effectiveness, ensuring vital public health information reaches as many people as possible. The insight gathered continue to inform the Government’s ongoing communications strategy and response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and so shall not be published at this time.
The Cabinet Office publishes details of all contracts over £10,000 on Contracts Finder and spend over £500, including on public information campaigns, on a rolling basis. This will include expenditure on this campaign and will be broken down by supplier.