Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to help improve the transparency of government procurement contracts in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Procurement Act, which recently received Royal Assent, helps deliver this Government’s promise to grow the economy by creating a simpler and more transparent system that will deliver better value for money, reducing costs for business and the public sector.
The Act embeds transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle so that the spending of taxpayers’ money can be properly scrutinised.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to his Department of (a) setting up and (b) running the Public Sector Fraud Authority each year are.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
HM Treasury announced £24.7m funding over three years to support the creation of the PSFA in the Spring Statement 2022. This was added to the £5.7m annual budget that the Centre of the Counter Fraud Function was provided by the Cabinet Office. The additional funding brought the PSFA budget in 2022/23 to £11.25m.
In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180m of savings to the taxpayer. The PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. As it enters its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of how much (a) was lost from the public purse due to fraud during the covid-19 pandemic, (b) of that fraud has been recovered and (c) is irrecoverable.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
During the pandemic, the Government delivered an unprecedented package of economic support to preserve livelihoods and save businesses across the whole United Kingdom.
The Government is committed to transparency in its efforts to tackle fraud against the public sector. The UK is one of the few countries to publish data on fraud and error within the public sector in the Fraud Landscape Report. The Government will continue to be transparent and prioritise its efforts in detecting, preventing and recovering fraud associated with the pandemic.
The Fraud Landscape Report showed that in 2020/21, across government and outside of tax and welfare (so, excluding COVID-19 expenditure in HMRC and DWP), departments reported £88m of recovered fraud and error related to COVID-19.
Since 2021, we have invested in taking action on fraud, to bolster the prevention and recovery of fraud losses in welfare, tax and COVID Business Loans, and prosecute those who have defrauded the public purse - this included the establishment of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA).
Fraud is a hidden crime and the Government’s focus remains on detecting and recovering as much of it as is possible. That is done by deploying cutting edge tools supported by world leading expertise to find and recover as much fraud as possible.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much Government expenditure lost to fraud has been recovered by the Public Sector Fraud Authority in each year since its establishment.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The PSFA was established in August 2022 - as such we only have audited counter fraud savings up to March 2023 (FY 2022/23).
In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180m of savings to the taxpayer. In fact the PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. As it enters its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.
This shows the Government is delivering its mission to transform the way we fight fraud and safeguard taxpayers’ money. Every pound we save in taking action on fraud reduces the cost of public services and makes taxpayers’ money go further. Better use of data and technology has been key in achieving this.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what was the cost to the public purse of Government attendance at the World Economic Forum in (a) total and (b) by each Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Ministers from the following departments have attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting with officials since 2018: Her Majesty’s Treasury (2020, 2019 and 2018); Cabinet Office (2022); and the Departments for International Trade (2022, 2019 and 2018); Health and Social Care (2019); Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2019 and 2018); Culture, Media and Sport (2019 and 2018); and International Development (2019). The then Prime Minister also attended in 2018.
The Cabinet Office does not hold a centralised database of total Government spending on travel to the World Economic Forum’s annual meetings. However, Ministerial and senior official foreign travel transparency data is published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which (a) Ministers and (b) other representatives of UK Government Departments attended the World Economic Forum annual meeting in each of the last five years.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Ministers from the following departments have attended the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting with officials since 2018: Her Majesty’s Treasury (2020, 2019 and 2018); Cabinet Office (2022); and the Departments for International Trade (2022, 2019 and 2018); Health and Social Care (2019); Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2019 and 2018); Culture, Media and Sport (2019 and 2018); and International Development (2019). The then Prime Minister also attended in 2018.
The Cabinet Office does not hold a centralised database of total Government spending on travel to the World Economic Forum’s annual meetings. However, Ministerial and senior official foreign travel transparency data is published on gov.uk.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the National Audit Office report published in April 2022, Managing cross-border travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, if he will take steps to help avoid unnecessary expenditure by Government Departments on official cross-border travel in the context of potential further travel restrictions being introduced due to the emergence of new variants of covid-19.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Government currently has no plans to introduce new travel restrictions at this time.
It is the responsibility of each individual department to ensure the proper and efficient use and spending of taxpayers money. All Cabinet Office employees that undertake cross-border travel must seek relevant approvals to do so and must book this travel through approved contractors.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, if he will publish a response to EDM 689 on Conduct of the Prime Minister.
Answered by Boris Johnson
When I stood on the steps of Downing Street one year ago, I pledged to be a Prime Minister for every corner of the United Kingdom. Whether you are from East Kilbride or Dumfries, Motherwell or Paisley, I promised to level up across Britain and close the opportunity gap.
The last six months have shown exactly why the historic and heartfelt bond that ties the four nations of our country together is so important and the sheer might of our union has been proven once again.
In Scotland, the UK’s magnificent armed forces have been on the ground doing vital work to support the NHS, from setting up and running mobile testing sites to airlifting critically ill patients to hospitals from some of Scotland’s most remote communities. And the UK Treasury stepped in to save the jobs of a third of Scotland’s entire workforce and kept the wolves at bay for tens of thousands of Scottish businesses.
More than ever, this shows what we can achieve when we stand together, as one United Kingdom.