Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when they intend to hold the next meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee on EU Negotiations; and whether that meeting will include a discussion on extending the Brexit transition period.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The UK Government has been working closely with the devolved administrations throughout negotiations with the EU. It is intended that the next meeting of the Joint Ministerial Committee (EU Negotiations) will be convened in the coming weeks. Other engagement with the devolved administrations continues, with the Paymaster General speaking to Ministers from the devolved administrations, to update them on the negotiations, last week.
The Government’s position remains that there will be no extension to the transition period.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the comments made by Sir David Lidington on 22 April, what assessment they have made of the available capacity of the Civil Service; and whether that capacity is sufficient to conclude a trade agreement with the EU at the same time as responding to COVID-19.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
At this time of national crisis, resources have been redirected to work on Covid-19. There is a robust resourcing process in place that can be used to increase resource capacity on EU exit related work if departments require. This is a temporary arrangement, and at all times consideration has been given to ensuring that sufficient resource remains in place to support negotiations and readiness in line with the end of the transition period on 31 December.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of their vetting procedures when awarding contracts for Government support services.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
Her Majesty’s Government requires that National Security Vetting is conducted to the same standard for all employees in sensitive roles, including those working for government support services. Vetting is conducted centrally by United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV). Vetting policy, which sits with the Cabinet Office, applies equally to government personnel and private-sector employees on government contracts.
Cabinet Office encourages all government departments to uphold a set of minimum personnel security standards and these may be applicable for certain industry roles. ‘Support services’ is a broad category and could include everything from cleaning and catering to IT provision, security and administration. In that context different roles will have very different requirements and approaches are flexed depending on the risk. It is the responsibility of individual government departments to determine their security needs for each contract that they enter into. The requirement for vetting will be decided based on a given role’s access to sensitive assets, facilities or materials.
The procedures by which a private-sector company or contractor can gain a vetting clearance are currently designed to prioritise security as opposed to ubiquity; individuals must be able to demonstrate they will be working on an active government contract before being granted a clearance. This ensures tighter control of who is cleared, for what purpose and for how long.
A comprehensive, cross-government review of National Security Vetting is underway. This will examine potential reforms in vetting for the private-sector – including how we can improve the timeliness of security clearance and reduce the administrative burden of it for small and medium enterprises.
Asked by: Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Cabinet Office designation of Interserve as a high risk supplier in June 2018, how that designation was communicated to all Government departments and agencies.
Answered by Lord Young of Cookham
As stated in the Strategic Supplier Risk Management Policy that applied in June 2018, the Government does not publish whether or not a strategic supplier is designated as high risk. This Policy was withdrawn and replaced with a new approach to the monitoring and management of strategic suppliers through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the government and each of its strategic suppliers.