Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding her Department and its predecessor Department (a) allocated for (b) spent on magazine subscriptions in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The department does not allocate specific funding for magazine subscriptions.
As stated in the response to Parliamentary Question 15861, the department does not hold comprehensive information to the level of detail requested.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of digital posts in his Department were vacant on 26 February 2024.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As at 31 January 2024, approximately 11.2% of Digital roles were vacant across the Cabinet Office and were either in an active or planned recruitment stage, showing we are making good progress towards reaching the 10% target by 2025 set by the 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data. The majority of these roles sit within Cabinet Office Digital, Government Digital Service and Central Digital and Data Office.
We set this target to drive modernisation and digitisation in Government, improving public services for the British people and saving taxpayer money. Overall good progress has been made, with total vacancies across the Civil Service now at 15%.
In order to improve recruitment success and fill existing vacancies CDDO has:
recently launched its Government Digital and Data Civil Service Careers (https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/professions/working-in-digital-data-and-technology/) webpage to attract new talent to the Civil Service. The webpage showcases secondment opportunities, talent programmes and digital and data jobs available in departments.
developed a digital and data pay framework that enables departments to pay more competitive market rates to attract specialist digital and data skills. Participating departments can fund higher civil service pay allowances from savings flowing from reducing their contingent labour headcount.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding his Department has (a) allocated for (b) spent on magazine subscriptions in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what subscriptions to (a) newspapers, (b) magazines and (c) online journals his Department has paid for in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The requested information is not centrally held, and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what subscriptions to (a) newspapers, (b) magazines and (c) online journals her Department and its predecessor Department paid for in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
This information is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how much funding her Department and its predecessor Department (a) allocated for (b) spent on magazine subscriptions in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Graham Stuart
This information is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much funding was (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in departments that no longer exist in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The budget assigned to complete remediation of legacy IT is defined and agreed between the Chief Digital Information Officer and ultimately the Accounting Officer of each Department and HM Treasury. The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, does not have visibility of these figures directly, nor does CDDO monitor individual departments' technology spending on legacy treatment.
CDDO has established a programme to support departments in treating legacy. CDDO has agreed a framework to identify ‘red-rated’ systems, indicating high levels of risk surrounding the asset. Departments have committed to have remediation plans in place for these systems by 2025.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As per the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) definition of legacy, the department is only reporting one legacy system centrally. This service provides supporting checks for multiple policies within the department and is end of life. This service links to other government services and shares data through application programming interfaces. There have been two costs associated with this service that the department can report.
Costings will be published in the usual way in the department’s annual reports and accounts.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much funding her Department and the predecessor Department (a) budgeted for and (b) spent on software updates to legacy computer systems in each of the last three financial years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has no legacy infrastructure and or Computer systems, all services have been transformed as part of the initial transformation programme undertaken in 2021. We therefore do not hold data within the scope of this request.
Asked by: Pat McFadden (Labour - Wolverhampton South East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his speech at the Institute for Government’s Annual Conference 2024, published on 23 January 2024, with whom the Minister of State Without Portfolio in the Cabinet Office has held meetings on identifying inefficiencies.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Ministers regularly meet with department officials and external stakeholders. Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations and individuals are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK.
The Minister without Portfolio’s unique role allows her to work across government, supporting the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for the Cabinet office, to identify where our public sector delivery is inhibited by bureaucracy and inefficiencies. The Minister’s overarching aim is to ensure that the provision of public services delivers the best possible value for the taxpayer.
Further information on the Minister without Portfolio’s role can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/people/esther-mcvey.