Asked by: John McDonnell (Labour - Hayes and Harlington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the retendering of Facilities Management contracts in the Mitie Affiliate Cluster, what recent meetings he has held with (a) the Chief Operating Officer for the Civil Service, (b) the Chief Executive of the Government Property Agency and (c) civil service trade unions.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Employment Terms and Conditions are a matter for Employers and their Employees.
However, the Government Property Agency (GPA) has supported the employee representatives, notably the PCS Trade Union, in discussions with the GPA's new suppliers. All suppliers have listened to the concerns expressed by the PCS trade union and have provided both assurance and solutions to ensure that any affected member of staff is not directly or indirectly affected by the change of their employer. This includes financial assistance via ex gratia payments and interest-free loans and advice and support to mitigate against issues surrounding the claiming of "in work" benefits.
The GPA is committed to eliminating all forms of discrimination. Throughout the workplace services transformation programme the GPA has continued to give PSED due consideration and will continue the completion of the impact assessment following the recent award of contracts. This will be shared with trade unions upon completion. The successful bidders have been tested for this requirement at Framework creation stage and will be required to demonstrate ongoing compliance with the Equalities Act 2010 and the GPA’s aspirations during delivery of the contract.
Whilst the GPA has an active interest in the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations (TUPE) transfer of supplier employees, TUPE transfers are a matter for both the outgoing and incoming contractors and both the outgoing and incoming suppliers are experienced in this area. The employee rights are set out by the TUPE regulations and reinforced in the Crown Commercial Services framework which this contract is let on. The Government Property Agency will act upon any breach of this legislation if it occurs and holds its supply chain to the legislative requirements. The GPA continues to encourage both their current and their new suppliers to exchange information quickly to enable consultations to be effective and to resolve queries quickly where they arise.
Asked by: Sharon Hodgson (Labour - Washington and Sunderland West)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of contracting (a) rehabilitation, (b) therapy and (c) other similar services for frontline staff.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
In full recognition of the challenging aspects of front-line prison and probations services-based work, His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) provides a wide range of formal contracted rehabilitation, therapy, physical and mental health support for its staff.
The principal merits of external contracted services are firstly, that the robust Crown Service Commercial tender process requires a strict evaluation criterion and moderation exercise where all the evaluation forms and notes become public record. This means that the successful bidder has been selected fairly, on the merits of their service provision and without conflict of interest. As the largest individual customer of services through this framework, the Ministry of Justice takes a key role in defining the services that must be provided and the standards that contractors must meet before gaining access to the framework. Secondly, due to the wide geographically dispersed nature of our HMPPS working population across the UK with some overseas staff, it is imperative that the contractors are capable of delivering a range of services to 62,801 full time equivalent staff in post (HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: June 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)). Thirdly, contractors are subject to a series of performance measures set by both the Crown Commercial Service and the department which are reported at set intervals and managed accordingly in order to ensure staff have rapid access to services. This allows regular evaluation of service quality and effectiveness but also ensures that the correct governance structures remain in place, such as GDPR for handling employee personal data and ensuring their data protection rights. Fourthly, the contracted model of employee health services benefits from impartiality, in that independent external clinical advice is given to the employee confidentially and if appropriate with consent, to the referring line manager.
The contracted services for staff health and wellbeing include occupational health (OH), employee assistance programmes (EAP) and reflective sessions. These contracts include a variety of services which include but are not limited to therapeutic or rehabilitative interventions and are aggregated based on specialisms to ensure the MoJ has access to the most relevant services. Working with subject matter experts employed by the third-party providers, the department has the benefit of being able to explore and implement innovative and value-adding employee health and wellbeing services for front-line staff. This model is also vital to ensuring that the breadth of services can be delivered consistently across the prison and probation estate. The merits of contracted services can be evidenced upon illustration of the wide range of services that are hereby listed:
Occupational Health
Prison officer pre-employment health assessments at national Fitness Centres
Performance and Attendance management referrals for advice on fitness for work and reasonable adjustments due to ill health, disability and/or following an accident/injury at work
Post-Covid Syndrome Referral Service
Fast track Trauma referrals
EMDR and CBT (Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy)
Immunisations and vaccination history checks.
Health Surveillance
Physiotherapy
Workstation and workplace ergonomics
Dyslexia and other neurodiverse conditions assessments 13
Occupational Therapy
Ill-health retirement and advice on eligibility for ill-health early retirement
Body Fluid Exposure & Sharps Injury Support
Online Physio Support
Online Health Condition Management
Employee Assistance Programmes
Employee self-referral to 24/7 confidential telephone helpline staffed by qualified counsellors
Face to face or online counselling Services, including therapeutic interventions
Bullying and harassment support
Management support services
Support and advice on personal matters e.g. health, relationships, family, financial, emotional, legal, anxiety, alcohol, drugs and other issues.
Support for work matters - work demands, working relationships, work/life balance, stress and other related issues
Reflective Sessions
Trauma and Critical Incident Support
Health and wellbeing promotion, such as wellbeing and mental health related workshops and training programmes
Mediation
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to promote debt (1) advice, and (2) management, services across public services.
Answered by Baroness Penn - Minister on Leave (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State)
The Government recognises the vital role that debt advice and management services play in helping people in financial difficulty and vulnerable circumstances.
The Government Debt Management Function (GDMF) works closely with the debt advice sector through the Fairness Group to improve the way vulnerable debtors are identified and supported. This includes through improved signposting / referrals to the advice sector.
The GDMF has published the Debt Functional Standard, Vulnerability Toolkit and Economic Abuse Toolkit. These set expectations for government organisations to, where appropriate, signpost to external support services and debt advice.
To help people access debt advice, the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) launched MoneyHelper in 2021, a consumer-facing service which provides free online guidance for people dealing with money worries and debt and connects people to free advice through its debt advice locator tool.
This year, MoneyHelper undertook a cost-of-living promotional campaign to increase awareness of its content for those struggling with rising cost of living pressures, including tools to support people with prioritising bills, talking to creditors and budget planning. As of the end of March, the campaign had generated around 85,000 additional online sessions.
MaPS also promotes the Money Adviser Network (MAN), a free partnership opportunity for organisations having conversations with people in financial difficulty. The MAN seeks to simplify how people access regulated debt advice, providing a single point of entry to a panel of free, high quality debt advice agencies. It now comprises more than 500 referral partners including DWP’s Debt Management and Universal Credit Service Centre, HMRC, Crown Commercial Services and the Child Maintenance Service.
MaPS also engages with the GDMF’s Fairness Group, supporting improvements to the government’s debt management practices including promoting the use of the Standard Financial Statement (SFS).
Asked by: Christine Jardine (Liberal Democrat - Edinburgh West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department has spent on headhunters in each of the last three years.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Cabinet Office will on most occasions procure recruitment consultancy services through Crown Commercial Service (“CCS”) Framework Agreements. Procuring through CCS Framework Agreements delivers consistency and efficiency savings through providing a range of benefits, such as:
Access to pre-assessed capable and proven suppliers;
Reducing the need for repeat campaigns;
Capped maximum costs protecting from market price increases;
Notable saving against market rates on average;
No hidden costs of service; and
Vendors may agree to further discounts for large campaigns.
Venders are also aware of, and must support, government diversity and inclusion requirements when providing their services.
The relevant CCS Framework relating to recruitment consultancy services was established in November 2018 and its first year was a transitional year. Spend incurred by Cabinet Office in the first two full years post-transition are £216,868 for financial year 2020-21 and £206,048 for financial year 2021-22.
The Cabinet Office continues to encourage the use of the CCS Framework across the Department as standard.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many staff were trained by the Government Consulting Hub in financial years (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and c) 2022-23.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Government Consulting Hub (GCH) opened in May 2021, and operated on a cost neutral basis for the Cabinet Office, charging government departments for consultancy work undertaken and collecting a subscription fee for training and other services. It was tasked with helping to develop capability and ownership of consulting work within each department, triaging consulting requirements and establishing a “Consultancy Playbook” to establish best practice. A key focus of GCH was to develop capability and ownership of consultancy work within each department.
GCH enhanced the skills of a total of 526 civil servants across a variety of programmes. In FY 2020-21, the capability offer was stood-up. 189 received training in FY 2021-22 and 337 in FY 2022-23. In total, 414 civil servants received training via the main offer “Core Consulting Skills for Government”; this included 96 Fast Streamers and 14 Director Generals via a Senior Leaders workshop.
These skills continue to be deployed through the Civil Service.
The estimated fee differential associated with Government Departments using GCH for consultancy rather than external suppliers was £4.3 million.
The triage service has (since GCH was wound down on 31st January 2023) transferred to the Crown Commercial Service, building on the work done by GCH with each department. This transition is a recognition of the maturity level of the service, which means it can now integrate with CCS work on consultancy procurement strategies across Whitehall.
The GCH capability programme, supporting civil servants to adopt consultancy type skills where appropriate, has now onboarded to Civil Service Learning, and will continue to be available to all civil servants. By improving these skills in the public sector, we can continue to ensure the Government is only using consultants when absolutely necessary.
The Consultancy Playbook was well-received and set a new bar for how we get best value from external firms. It will now be integrated into the suite of playbooks owned by the Commercial Function.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Office spent on the Government Consulting Hub in financial years of (a) 2020-21, (b) 2021-22 and (c) 2022-23.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Government Consulting Hub (GCH) opened in May 2021, and operated on a cost neutral basis for the Cabinet Office, charging government departments for consultancy work undertaken and collecting a subscription fee for training and other services. It was tasked with helping to develop capability and ownership of consulting work within each department, triaging consulting requirements and establishing a “Consultancy Playbook” to establish best practice. A key focus of GCH was to develop capability and ownership of consultancy work within each department.
GCH enhanced the skills of a total of 526 civil servants across a variety of programmes. In FY 2020-21, the capability offer was stood-up. 189 received training in FY 2021-22 and 337 in FY 2022-23. In total, 414 civil servants received training via the main offer “Core Consulting Skills for Government”; this included 96 Fast Streamers and 14 Director Generals via a Senior Leaders workshop.
These skills continue to be deployed through the Civil Service.
The estimated fee differential associated with Government Departments using GCH for consultancy rather than external suppliers was £4.3 million.
The triage service has (since GCH was wound down on 31st January 2023) transferred to the Crown Commercial Service, building on the work done by GCH with each department. This transition is a recognition of the maturity level of the service, which means it can now integrate with CCS work on consultancy procurement strategies across Whitehall.
The GCH capability programme, supporting civil servants to adopt consultancy type skills where appropriate, has now onboarded to Civil Service Learning, and will continue to be available to all civil servants. By improving these skills in the public sector, we can continue to ensure the Government is only using consultants when absolutely necessary.
The Consultancy Playbook was well-received and set a new bar for how we get best value from external firms. It will now be integrated into the suite of playbooks owned by the Commercial Function.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which energy provider supplies energy to their Department; how much carbon dioxide was emitted by their Department in the latest period for which figures are available; whether the criteria their Department uses to select an energy supplier include how environmentally friendly that supplier is; and what recent steps their Department has taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its energy use.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
DWP’s main energy suppliers are Total Energies for gas and EDF for electricity, these supplies are arranged in a tri-party contract with Crown Commercial Services (CCS). DWP aims to ensure all supplies are made with CCS. However, as the DWP acquires new properties, incumbent suppliers (whoever they may be) are adopted in the short term whilst the supply is changed over.
The below list includes suppliers that have served DWP in the last 6 months.
Supplier | Electricity | Gas |
British Gas | Y | |
Bulb Energy | Y | |
Corona Energy | Y | |
Drax | Y | |
Ecotricity | Y | |
EDF Energy | Y | |
Engie | Y | |
Eon | Y | |
Eon Next | Y | Y |
Npower | Y | |
Opus Energy | Y | |
Pozitive Energy | Y | |
Scottish Power | Y | |
Smartest Energy | Y | |
SSE | Y | Y |
Totalenergies Gas & Power Ltd | Y | Y |
Unify Energy Ltd | Y | |
United Gas & Power Limited | Y |
How much carbon dioxide was emitted by their Department in the latest period for which figures are available?
*Spring and summer months
Whether the criteria their Department uses to select an energy supplier include how environmentally friendly that supplier is.
What recent steps their Department has taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its energy use
The department has a carbon and water management plan as well as a sustainability strategy and is currently running a number of projects to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. These include:
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department has spent on (a) agency workers and (b) agency retainer fees in (i) 2020, (ii) 2021 and (iii) 2022.
Answered by Trudy Harrison
The Department’s published figures in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts includes the total contingent labour expenditure figures for the core Department and its Executive Agencies. These numbers are available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/dft-annual-reports-and-accounts.
The table below provides the total spend on contingent labour
for DVSA, covering financial years 2019-20 and 2020-21, as these figures are not included in the total Departmental contingent labour expenditure published in the Department’s Annual Report and Accounts for those years:
Financial Year | Expenditure (£m) |
2019-20 | 0.6 |
2020-21 | 0.5 |
Agency workers (more commonly referred to as “Contingent Labour” or “Temporary Workers”) are subject to a Cabinet Office controls framework to ensure robust governance of spending in this area.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/contingent-labour-spend-control
Commentary on Contingent Labour usage, if applicable, is available in departmental annual reports.
The Crown Commercial Service provides two frameworks specifically for the supply of Contingent Labour which are used by central government departments. These are:
RM3749 - Public Sector Resourcing. https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/rm3749
This provides a managed service for departmental use including low supplier margins, regular pay rate benchmarking, comprehensive tracking and reporting of contingent labour assignments, full timesheeting and approvals technology and onboarding, contracting and payroll services.
RM6160 - Non Clinical Temporary and Fixed Term Staff https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6160
This provides access to a range of generalist, specialist and niche contingent labour agencies offering a wide range of suppliers, maximum margins, free transfer to permanent after 12 weeks and onboarding, contracting and payroll services.
Use of these frameworks provides robust governance, visibility, value for money and flexibility in meeting departmental contingent labour needs.
We have interpreted your reference to agency retainer fees as the fees charged at the commencement of the provision of a search recruitment service, this is only applicable when recruiting for a permanent or fixed term post.
Agency retainer fees are not applicable to the contingent labour market.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what equalities impact assessment his Department has undertaken in respect of the Government Property Agency's decision to retender their Facilities Management contracts in late 2022; and if he will place a copy of that equalities impact assessment in the Library.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
At this stage no Equality Impact Assessment has been undertaken for the Government Property Agency (GPA) Workplace Services Transformation Programme that will see the procurement of new facilities management contracts in this current financial year. There is no legal requirement to carry out an Equality Impact Assessment and GPA is confident it has had due regard to the public sector equality duty.
The new facilities management contracts will be procured using Crown Commercial Service (CCS) framework agreements. The commercial terms of these agreements include obligations on suppliers to follow all applicable equality law including protections against discrimination and also any other requirements imposed by the authority in relation to equality law.
Asked by: Vicky Foxcroft (Labour - Lewisham, Deptford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Part One of the National Disability Strategy, published 28 July 2021, what progress her Department has made on improving how digital products and services are procured (a) by the government and (b) across the public sector as a whole.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
Home Office officials have been working within the department to identify and trial improvements to how digital products and services are procured in order to recommend future cross government and cross public sector improvements.
This has included model contract language, guidance for buyers and improved accessibility involvement in some procurement activity. We expect that throughout the next financial year we’ll begin work with the Crown Commercial Service to identify improvements through it’s frameworks and processes to improve the accessibility of procurement.