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Written Question
Office for National Statistics
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 February (HL2184), how many of the 20 Integrated Data Service projects and 600 Secure Research Service projects referred to in that answer have a lead researcher whose primary affiliation is given as (1) academic, (2) central government, (3) commercial, (4) local government, (5) non-commercial, and (6) the Office for National Statistics.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the noble Lord’s Parliamentary Question of 14 March is below and attached.


The Lord Clement-Jones CBE

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

22 March 2024

Dear Lord Clement-Jones

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 19 February (HL2184), how many of the 20 Integrated Data Service (IDS) projects and 600 Secure Research Service (SRS) projects referred to in that answer have a lead researcher whose primary affiliation is given as (1) academic, (2) central government, (3) commercial, (4) local government, (5) non-commercial, and (6) the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL3276).

  1. Of the monthly average of 600 projects running in the SRS during 2023, 382 were led by those affiliated with the academic community. There were no academic lead projects within the Integrated Data Service for the same period.

  2. For the same period, the number of projects led by central government on the SRS was 43; these include agencies, public bodies, devolved administrations, ministerial and non-ministerial and public research bodies. The number of central government lead projects on the IDS was 10.

  3. The number of commercial lead projects on SRS projects was 81; these include private sector organisations, primarily think tanks and consultancies. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.

  4. The number of local government affiliated lead projects in SRS was 6. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.

  5. The number of non-commercial affiliated lead projects in SRS was 69; these include those categorised as third sector/voluntary. There were no lead researchers within this affiliation attached to the 20 IDS projects.

  6. The number of Office for National Statistics lead researchers on SRS projects was 19. The subsequent number for the 20 IDS projects was 10.

We have recently communicated the timetable for the transition to IDS to our SRS users and over the next year, the IDS will scale its data at pace and onboard a range of users from across all the aforementioned user groups in SRS, leading to a more varied distribution of user types accessing projects on the IDS. The IDS has an ever-growing list of prospective use cases that it will onboard throughout 2024 as the service scales its data catalogue and analytical tooling capabilities.

In light of your interest in the IDS and to provide additional context around the SRS and IDS figures in this and our previous responses, I would like to personally offer our team to come and showcase the service, discuss future prospects around the SRS and IDS and answer any further questions you have. We would be delighted to attend a location at your convenience, if this is an attractive proposition.

Yours sincerely,

Sir Ian Diamond


Written Question
UK Internal Trade: Northern Ireland
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much expenditure they have incurred since 2020 assisting businesses engaging with rules and regulations pertaining to the movement of goods between (1) Northern Ireland and Great Britain, and (2) Great Britain and Northern Ireland, following agreement with the EU on the Protocol on Ireland/Northern Ireland, and subsequently the Windsor Framework.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

  • The Government is committed to supporting industry in moving goods smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including through schemes such as the Trader Support Service and Movement Assistance Scheme. There is no central provision made for support schemes.

  • As the Government announced in September last year, the current term of Trader Support Service will run to December 2024. Information about the costs of the Trader Support Service is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts. The total cost of the Movement Assistance Scheme up to the end of January 2024 was £29.8m. The Government also launched a £50m labelling financial assistance scheme, to assist businesses with the costs of meeting labelling requirements.

  • We have always been committed to taking steps necessary to support businesses - both through the WF arrangements for internal trade but also for those whose business models may not fall within them. This is entirely excepted funding support and so has no negative implications for the NI block grant, where of course the Government has also provided an unprecedented £3.3bn as part of the recent efforts to restore the Executive.

  • It is not the case that the money available to support schemes would be diverted to any other project in Northern Ireland - if the support scheme were to be withdrawn then no additional funding of any kind would be available in NI as a result.


Written Question
Windsor Framework: Private Sector
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what are (1) the value, and (2) the term length, of each contract awarded to private sector companies to assist with the implementation of the Windsor Framework.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

  • The Government is committed to supporting industry in moving goods smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including through schemes such as the Trader Support Service and Movement Assistance Scheme. There is no central provision made for support schemes.

  • As the Government announced in September last year, the current term of Trader Support Service will run to December 2024. Information about the costs of the Trader Support Service is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts. The total cost of the Movement Assistance Scheme up to the end of January 2024 was £29.8m. The Government also launched a £50m labelling financial assistance scheme, to assist businesses with the costs of meeting labelling requirements.

  • We have always been committed to taking steps necessary to support businesses - both through the WF arrangements for internal trade but also for those whose business models may not fall within them. This is entirely excepted funding support and so has no negative implications for the NI block grant, where of course the Government has also provided an unprecedented £3.3bn as part of the recent efforts to restore the Executive.

  • It is not the case that the money available to support schemes would be diverted to any other project in Northern Ireland - if the support scheme were to be withdrawn then no additional funding of any kind would be available in NI as a result.


Written Question
Windsor Framework
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what financial provision they have made for the 2024–25 financial year to assist businesses dealing with the requirements of the Windsor Framework for the movement of goods between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

  • The Government is committed to supporting industry in moving goods smoothly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland, including through schemes such as the Trader Support Service and Movement Assistance Scheme. There is no central provision made for support schemes.

  • As the Government announced in September last year, the current term of Trader Support Service will run to December 2024. Information about the costs of the Trader Support Service is published annually at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrcs-annual-report-and-accounts. The total cost of the Movement Assistance Scheme up to the end of January 2024 was £29.8m. The Government also launched a £50m labelling financial assistance scheme, to assist businesses with the costs of meeting labelling requirements.

  • We have always been committed to taking steps necessary to support businesses - both through the WF arrangements for internal trade but also for those whose business models may not fall within them. This is entirely excepted funding support and so has no negative implications for the NI block grant, where of course the Government has also provided an unprecedented £3.3bn as part of the recent efforts to restore the Executive.

  • It is not the case that the money available to support schemes would be diverted to any other project in Northern Ireland - if the support scheme were to be withdrawn then no additional funding of any kind would be available in NI as a result.


Written Question
Import Controls: Northern Ireland
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Dodds of Duncairn (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much of the money allocated for the construction of border control posts in Northern Ireland is for (1) agricultural food inspections, and (2) customs.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The funding allocated for SPS facilities in Northern Ireland to deal with goods moving into the EU through the red lane - as the Government had also committed to do under the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill - is a maximum funding envelope. The figure is in line with a business case which was being prepared when that Bill was in Parliament.

The facilities will fulfil a number of functions and it is not possible to provide a breakdown of costs in the manner described.


Written Question
Statistics
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the recommendations of the Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority on the separation of functions and reporting arrangements, what steps they are taking to ensure greater transparency in the governance and enhancements of the statistical system.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The independent review of the UK Statistics Authority and the Government’s response to the recommendations were published on 12 March 2024. They can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-the-uk-statistics-authority-uksa-2023

The review made 19 separate recommendations to the UK Statistics Authority and Cabinet Office including amending the statistical legislation (Statistical and Registration Services Act 2007) to better reflect the governance arrangements in place and reflect the practical operation of the UKSA.

The Government agrees in principle with this recommendation but noted that - given that the report concluded the current arrangements were working in practice - this is not a current priority for legislation and will be a matter for the next Parliament to consider. However, in our response we said that the UKSA leadership in the meantime should take active steps to better communicate the current working arrangements to assure users and stakeholders that robust systems are in place to regulate the Office for National Statistics and the wider Government Statistical Service.

The Government also welcomed wider recommendations regarding transparency, such as establishing a triennial statistical assembly which will allow users and the Authority to discuss priorities in an open and constructive way.


Written Question
Windsor Framework
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Empey (Ulster Unionist Party - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many civil servants they currently employ to implement all aspects of the Windsor Framework, broken down by Department.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

There is a proportionate level of resource allocated to ensure that the Windsor Framework is implemented. Many of those whose work concerns the Framework also work on a range of other issues including wider Northern Ireland-related matters, as well as wider UK-EU issues. It is therefore not possible to give a specific number of civil servants employed to implement the Windsor Framework.


Written Question
Blood: Contamination
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had on the appointment of a chair for the compensation arms length body for infected blood victims.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

The Government will respond in full to Sir Brian’s recommendations on compensation following the publication of the Inquiry’s final report, however, we are making progress. In particular, the Government will bring forward amendments at Report Stage of the Victims and Prisoners Bill in the Other Place with the intention of speeding up the implementation of the Government’s response to the Infected Blood Inquiry.


Written Question
Cabinet Office: Staff
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what staff networks there are in his Department.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

There are 15 active networks listed below:

  • Flexible working and job share,

  • Carers,

  • Parenting,

  • CORE (Race),

  • ABLE (disability),

  • Social Mobility,

  • Menopause,

  • Faith & Belief,

  • Christian Network,

  • Civil Service Jewish Network,

  • LGBT+,

  • EU Nationals

  • EngAge (intergenerational/age)

  • Gender Equality Group.

  • Neurodiversity Network


Written Question
Civil Servants: Incentives
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many civil servants have been paid bonuses in each of the last five years.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

As part of the Government’s commitment to transparency, departments have published aggregated annual information on their bonus spend on their own websites since 2011. This promotes scrutiny of how taxpayers’ money is spent. The latest data, which covers the 2021/22 performance year, was published on Government Departments’ websites on 31 March 2023. This data includes information on total bonus spend, the number of civil servants receiving bonuses, and the size of payments.