Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of issuing a statement of principle that all services should be provided in-person where possible.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Departments are required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use it.
Asked by: Angela Eagle (Labour - Wallasey)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the uptake of Pension Credit in (a) Wallasey constituency, (b) Wirral, (c) the North West and (d) United Kingdom.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
To raise awareness of Pension Credit and increase take-up, the Department launched a nationwide marketing and communications campaign in April 2022.
Nationally, the campaign has included advertising on TV, broadcast radio and in newspapers; in medical centre and Post Office screens; as well as advertising on buses and digital street displays. Online marketing activity has also included social media, internet search engines and sponsored advertising on targeted websites that pensioners, their friends and family are likely to visit.
We have also been promoting Pension Credit at a local level in regional newspapers (including Liverpool Echo, Blackpool Gazette, Bolton News, Lancashire Evening Post, Manchester Evening News); and on local radio (stations such as Capital radio in Lancashire, Liverpool, Manchester and Greatest Hits Radio in Blackpool and Bolton).
There is a strong indication that the campaign has had a positive impact and has resulted in an unprecedented number of Pension Credit applications.
The Department is building on this success through a range of creative no-cost media campaigns to boost awareness of the benefit. We are also engaging with stakeholders, including other Government Departments, Councils, and charities, in order to harness their help and support to raise awareness through their networks and channels. For example, we will be holding a Pension Credit Week of Action commencing on 10 June. As in previous years, this will be an opportunity to collaborate with all our partners to maximise awareness of Pension Credit and to encourage eligible pensioners to make a claim.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans his Department has to help ensure that public services are available to (a) individuals and (b) households without internet access.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
All new public services therefore must adhere to the Government Service Standards, which require Departments to provide a service that meets the needs of all users, across a range of channels. These channels include phone, paper, and face-to-face as options for both individuals or households that do not have access to the internet, or lack the confidence to use it.
Service teams are required to provide evidence that their service meets these standards, as part of which they undertake rigorous user testing for both online and offline services.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the rate of cloud adoption for each Government Department as of 27 March 2024.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) in the Cabinet Office continues to work with departments to promote the best practice adoption of public cloud services, in accordance with Government Cloud First policy that has been extant since 2013. This was refreshed by CDDO in 2023.
The requested information relating to specific departmental adoption rates of public cloud is not currently centrally held.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to help increase the uptake of Pension Credit in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
To raise awareness of Pension Credit and increase take-up, the Department launched a nationwide marketing and communications campaign in April 2022.
This campaign has included advertising on national TV; in regional and national newspapers (including Birmingham Mail and Coventry Telegraph); on local and national broadcast radio (stations such as Capital Birmingham, Free Radio Birmingham and Coventry, Greatest Hits Radio Coventry and Heart West Midlands); on medical centre and Post Office screens across Great Britain; as well as advertising on buses and digital street displays. Online marketing activity also included promotion of Pension Credit on social media, via internet search engines and sponsored advertising on targeted websites that pensioners, their friends and family are likely to visit.
There is a strong indication that the campaign has had a positive impact and has resulted in an unprecedented number of Pension Credit applications. The number of claims received in the financial year 2022-23 was more than 80% higher than over the same period the year before.
Latest available figures also show that more households were receiving Pension Credit in August 2023 than in May 2022 – at the beginning of the campaign.
The Department is also continuing to build on this success through various creative no-cost media campaigns to boost awareness of the benefit through broadcast, radio and print media. We are engaging with a range of stakeholders, including other Government Departments, Councils, and charities, asking for their support to raise awareness through their networks and channels.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it her policy to ensure that everyone has the choice to access public services offline by phone, letter or face-to-face.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.
Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to help ensure that people who are not online have the choice of accessing public services (a) by phone, (b) by letter and (c) face-to-face.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.
Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.
Asked by: Andrew Western (Labour - Stretford and Urmston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it her policy to introduce funding for public bodies to ensure that they are able to provide offline options for all service users.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.
Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to introduce funding for public bodies to help ensure the provision of offline options for service users.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to ensuring that everyone has affordable access to public services, whether online or offline.
Government departments are already required by the Government's Service Standard to provide support via alternative channels for all their online services. The wider public sector, including local government, is also encouraged to use the service standard, with some Local Authorities having committed to doing so via the Local Digital Declaration.
Government teams are assessed against Service Standard to ensure that services are accessible to all users, including disabled people, people with other legally protected characteristics, people who do not have access to the internet and/or lack the skills and/or confidence to use the internet.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the prevalence of imported cellular internet of things modules in equipment used by the Prison Service; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure the security of such equipment.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The UK takes its national security extremely seriously and has taken robust action to secure its critical infrastructure and resilience. For security reasons, we do not comment on specific prison security measures.
The National Security and Investment Act allows the Government to intervene where foreign direct investment is targeted at innovative UK companies. Where such investment is within critical sectors, it is mandatory to notify the Government and this is subject to thorough assessment by the national security community. The Procurement Bill will also provide powers for the Government to exclude and debar companies from public procurement where the Government assesses there to be an intolerable national security risk.
Additionally, the Government has taken specific action on Chinese-made devices on the Government estate. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster published a Written Ministerial Statement in November 2022 detailing instructions for departments to disconnect such surveillance equipment from core departmental networks, where it had been produced by companies subject to the National Intelligence Law of China. Government departments have been implementing these policies along with other protective security controls and will not hesitate to take further action if necessary.
The Ministry of Justice keeps the security issues associated with internet facing technology/components under close review as part of its overall approach to security, and in line with GSG, NPSA and NCSC guidance.