Asked by: Lord Grocott (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask His Majesty's Government what public appointments are made directly by the Secretary of State for Defence.
Answered by Earl of Minto - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
As specified in the Public Appointment Order in Council, 15 November 2023, 2023-2-Public-Appointments-Order-In-Council.pdf (independent.gov.uk), the Secretary of State for Defence is responsible for public appointments to the following public bodies and offices:
Armed Forces Pay Review Body
Defence Nuclear Safety Expert Committee
Departmental Board for the Ministry of Defence (non-executive members)
Independent Medical Expert Group
Independent Monitoring Board for the Military Corrective Training Centre
Nuclear Research Advisory Council
Oil and Pipelines Agency
Royal Air Force Museum
Scientific Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons
Service Complaints Ombudsman
Service Police Complaints Commissioner
Single Source Regulations Office
Veterans Advisory and Pensions Committees
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether he has received recent representations on the financial impact of the police pension scheme 2015 on retired police officers.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Retired police officers have written recently to ask when they will receive information about the remedy, to resolve a discrimination case, that came into force from October 2023. This information is not held centrally.
The police pension scheme is locally administered by each of the separate police forces in England and Wales. The Home Office does not have any role in the administration of police pensions.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking work with Cabinet colleagues to deliver a joined-up approach to suicide prevention.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published on 11 September 2023, is a multi-sector and cross-Government strategy, with actions from a wide range of organisations that will be delivered over the next five years. Suicide prevention is everybody’s business, and a joined-up approach is essential to achieving this. The strategy is a call for action for national and local government, the health service, the voluntary, community & social enterprise sector, employers and individuals to tackle suicide.
We have worked across Government departments to develop this strategy and will continue to do so in order to deliver the actions within it. As part of this, the Government will take a leading role in tackling methods of suicide, collaborating with partners across the world in policy, law enforcement and society more broadly to limit access, reduce awareness, and share research, evidence and lessons learned. We are also working with NHS England and professional bodies to improve suicide prevention signposting and support to people in contact with primary care services.
We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions in seeking opportunities to improve the Government’s role in supporting employers to improve the support they provide for the mental wellbeing of themselves and their employees.
In November 2023 we launched a new nationwide near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system that will improve the early detection of and timely action to address changes in suicide rates or trends.
We are also working together with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and local authorities to explore opportunities for improving data collection and data sharing in all areas.
More generally, we work closely with local government via the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ regional leads network, and we have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them to align their own strategies with the national strategy.
Asked by: Stephen Morgan (Labour - Portsmouth South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to work with local government to deliver a joined-up approach to suicide prevention.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
The Suicide Prevention Strategy for England, published on 11 September 2023, is a multi-sector and cross-Government strategy, with actions from a wide range of organisations that will be delivered over the next five years. Suicide prevention is everybody’s business, and a joined-up approach is essential to achieving this. The strategy is a call for action for national and local government, the health service, the voluntary, community & social enterprise sector, employers and individuals to tackle suicide.
We have worked across Government departments to develop this strategy and will continue to do so in order to deliver the actions within it. As part of this, the Government will take a leading role in tackling methods of suicide, collaborating with partners across the world in policy, law enforcement and society more broadly to limit access, reduce awareness, and share research, evidence and lessons learned. We are also working with NHS England and professional bodies to improve suicide prevention signposting and support to people in contact with primary care services.
We are working with the Department for Work and Pensions in seeking opportunities to improve the Government’s role in supporting employers to improve the support they provide for the mental wellbeing of themselves and their employees.
In November 2023 we launched a new nationwide near real-time suspected suicide surveillance system that will improve the early detection of and timely action to address changes in suicide rates or trends.
We are also working together with the National Police Chiefs’ Council and local authorities to explore opportunities for improving data collection and data sharing in all areas.
More generally, we work closely with local government via the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities’ regional leads network, and we have set out our intention in the strategy to write guidance for local areas to support them to align their own strategies with the national strategy.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the (a) PCS union, (b) Prospect union and (c) First Division Association on expanding powers of arrest to trained DWP benefit investigators.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Fraud Plan, published in May 2022, sets out the ambitions for the use of the Powers of Arrest for DWP staff when parliamentary time allows. This will be limited solely to use in DWP’s Economic and Serious Organised Crime investigations.
To date, DWP have engaged with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and the National Police Lead for Fraud in relation to this policy. We will continue to engage with NPCC and more widely with the police in developing this measure.
DWP plans to fully engage with the trade unions prior to the implementation of these powers.
Asked by: Beth Winter (Labour - Cynon Valley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the (a) National Police Chiefs Council and (b) Police Federation on expanding powers of arrest to DWP benefit investigators.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Fraud Plan, published in May 2022, sets out the ambitions for the use of the Powers of Arrest for DWP staff when parliamentary time allows. This will be limited solely to use in DWP’s Economic and Serious Organised Crime investigations.
To date, DWP have engaged with the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and the National Police Lead for Fraud in relation to this policy. We will continue to engage with NPCC and more widely with the police in developing this measure.
DWP plans to fully engage with the trade unions prior to the implementation of these powers.
Asked by: Sarah Olney (Liberal Democrat - Richmond Park)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data their Department holds on the (a) number and (b) total cost of replacing (i) laptops, (ii) mobile phones, (iii) memory sticks and (iv) external hard drives that have been (A) lost and (B) stolen in the last year.
Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The following table includes the number of lost or stolen devices in DWP in the last year. Departmental recording systems do not differentiate between lost and stolen, therefore these numbers have been amalgamated.
Type | a) Number lost/stolen | b) Cost |
i) Laptops | 94 items | £78,014.13 |
ii) Mobile phones | 24 items | £10,800.00 |
iii) Memory sticks | 6 items | £00.00 |
iv) External hard drives | Zero items | £00.00 |
All departmental IT is fully security encrypted. Memory sticks are also fully encrypted, and no data is accessible on a lost stick.
The departmental security unit records and investigates each reported loss from the Department. If appropriate, the police are invited to undertake further inquiries. Any mobile device reported as lost is immediately and remotely deactivated and the contents deleted. The user account on any laptop reported as lost is immediately and remotely locked. There has been no data loss or compromise because of these losses.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether he plans to recognise police officer (a) suicides and (b) attempted suicides as work-related accidents under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ819.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 18 May 2023 to Question 184944, Prison Service: Dismissal, what proportion of prison staff aged 60 or over were dismissed from service because of medical inefficiency in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Information on the proportion of staff, aged 60 and over in HM Prisons (including YCS) who left for reasons of ‘Dismissal - Unsatisfactory attendance’ or ‘Dismissal - Medical Inefficiency’ is given in the table below. Between January 2017 and December 2019, cases of ‘Dismissal - Medical Inefficiency’ were recorded as ‘Dismissal - Unsatisfactory attendance’ on our internal reporting system, and so these have been combined in the response throughout the time series.
Table 1: Proportion of prison staff aged 60+1 who were dismissed due to medical inefficiency/unsatisfactory attendance2, from 01 April to 31 March; 2013/14 to 2022/23 |
(headcount)
Financial Year | Proportion of prison staff aged 60+ dismissed due to medical inefficiency/unsatisfactory attendance |
2013/14 | 1.7% |
2014/15 | 2.1% |
2015/16 | 1.8% |
2016/17 | 2.1% |
2017/18 | 1.0% |
2018/19 | 1.3% |
2019/20 | 1.8% |
2020/21 | 1.2% |
2021/22 | 1.5% |
2022/23 | 2.3% |
Notes
1. Age as at time of leaving
2. From January 2017 to December 2019, information regarding dismissals as a result of medical inefficiencies were recorded as unsatisfactory attendances. Therefore, these categories have been combined here throughout the timeseries.
Prison officers are part of the Civil Service Pension Scheme which has a pension age linked to the individuals state pensions age – this is between 65 and 68 depending on their date of birth. This is the same for HMPPS in England and Wales as it is for the Scottish Prison Service.
This is a defined benefit scheme which pays a pension for life without investment uncertainties. It has one of the lower employee contribution rates across the public sector, whilst employer contributions are 27%
Whilst the fire and police service pensions have a lower retirement age of 60, members of these schemes pay between 12% and 14% contributions, whereas prison officers pay only 5.45%
HMPPS takes very seriously the health and safety of all prison staff – whatever their age. All prison officers who joined the service after April 2001 must pass an annual fitness test in order to remain a prison officer.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy for all Departments to publish a list of all their associated public bodies that have been delegated power to (a)make amend or revoke, (b) enforce and (c) monitor compliance with regulations.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Cabinet Office publishes a list of public bodies classified as arm’s length bodies, the public bodies directory, which includes whether an organisation performs a regulatory function.
The arm’s length bodies which departments have flagged as performing a regulatory function through the most recent public bodies directory data collection are:
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