Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many companies owned by tax exiles have been awarded public contracts in each of the last five years for which data is available; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Information on the ownership of companies winning government contracts is not currently held centrally.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has established a register of people with significant control (PSC register). Companies, Societates Europaeae (SEs) and limited liability partnerships (LLPs) will be required to identify and record the people who own or control their company and must file the PSC information with the central public register at Companies House.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the letter of 14 February 2017 from the Minister of State for Digital and Culture to the hon Member for Birkenhead, which services and benefits he plans to include within the affirmative procedures for public service delivery under the Digital Economy Bill.
Answered by Ben Gummer
The draft Digital Government (Disclosure of Information) Regulations, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/535311/2016-07-05_Digital_Government__Disclosure_of_Information__draft_regs.pdf, give illustrative examples of the public service delivery purposes for which information may be disclosed.
The draft Regulations include:
i) supporting individuals or households who face multiple disadvantages;
ii) assisting people living in fuel poverty; and
iii) providing assistance to people who lose access to television broadcasts as a result of upcoming changes to the use of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Under the provisions of the Digital Economy Bill, information may also be disclosed for the purposes of assisting people living in water poverty. The Digital Economy Bill allows for further regulations to be made that change, including adding further purposes.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, whether she has established a temporary or permanent cabinet committee or sub-committee to prepare for the next Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.
Answered by Theresa May
The UK government is working closely with the Commonwealth Secretariat to prepare for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018. I, along with Cabinet colleagues, will oversee preparations to ensure the Summit is a cross-government effort, supported by a dedicated unit in the Cabinet Office, in line with previous summits.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people working for his Department or its executive agencies on a (a) directly employed, (b) agency or (c) outsourced basis are paid less than the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation; and how many of those people are employed on zero-hours contracts.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Cabinet Office has no one paid less than the living wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation.
The Crown Commercial Service, which is an agency of the Cabinet Office, has seven staff who are paid less than the national living wage and one person paid less than the London living wage but none are on zero-hours contracts. One agency staff member working in the Cabinet Office is paid less than the national living wage but none are on zero-hours contracts.
In line with the practice of previous Administrations we do not require companies contracted to the Department to pay the living wage to the staff they employ. There are currently 63 individuals working in the Cabinet Office for companies contracted to the Department that are paid less than the Living Wage as defined by the Living Wage Foundation, and 14 are on zero hours contracts.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what central government agencies are based in Merseyside.
Answered by Ben Gummer
Based on data published in Public Bodies Directory in December 2015, agencies with a principal office in Merseyside are:
a) Executive Agency: Crown Commercial Service, in Liverpool.
b) Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs): Charity Commission for England and Wales, Health and Safety Executive, both in Bootle; Disclosure and Barring Service and National Museums Liverpool, in Liverpool.
In addition, the Government Property Unit’s Electronic Property Information Mapping Service, published on data.gov.uk, shows the following public bodies have a presence in the North West of England as of June 2016:
Arts Council England
Big Lottery Fund
British Council
Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
Education Funding Agency
Environment Agency
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Forestry Commission
Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service
High Speed 2
Historic England
HM Land Registry
HM Revenue and Customs
Homes and Communities Agency
Imperial War Museum
Information Commissioners Office
Insolvency Service
Maritime and Coastguard Agency
National Heritage Memorial Fund
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
National Offender Management Service
Natural England
Natural Environment Research Council
Nuclear Decommissioning Authority
Office for National Statistics
Ordnance Survey
Public Health England
Science and Technology Facilities Council
Science Museum Group
The Met Office
Valuation Office Agency
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government recorded in his Department's spending analysis tool that it spent on acquisitions from external suppliers in the last year for which figures are available; and how much and what proportion of central government spending the Government spent with each of the 20 suppliers which received the largest proportion of that spending in that period.
Answered by Matt Hancock
In 2014-15 central government (excluding Network Rail) spent a total of £43.8 billion with external suppliers.
Recorded expenditure with each of the top 20 suppliers is set out in the following table:
Spend | % of total | |
Bae Systems Plc | £3.3bn | 7.6% |
Hewlett Packard Ltd | £1.3bn | 2.9% |
Babcock International Group | £1.2bn | 2.7% |
Awe Management Limited | £1.1bn | 2.4% |
Capgemini Uk Plc | £900m | 2.1% |
Capita Plc | £700m | 1.6% |
Finmeccanica Spa | £690m | 1.6% |
Rolls-Royce Plc | £650m | 1.5% |
Telereal Trillium | £640m | 1.5% |
BT Group Plc | £620m | 1.4% |
Airtanker Limited | £490m | 1.1% |
Atos | £490m | 1.1% |
The Boeing Company | £460m | 1.1% |
Qinetiq Limited | £440m | 1.0% |
Connect Ltd | £430m | 1.0% |
Serco Limited | £400m | 0.9% |
Thales Group | £380m | 0.9% |
Interserve Plc | £350m | 0.8% |
Airwave Solutions | £340m | 0.8% |
Carillion Plc | £330m | 0.7% |
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will place in the public domain the complete set of submissions that were made to the Boundary Commission's review of parliamentary constituency boundaries in the previous Parliament.
Answered by John Penrose
This is a matter for the independent Boundary Commissions.
All the representations that the Boundary Commissions for Scotland and Northern Ireland received at the boundary review in the previous Parliament are available on their websites, and the representations that the Boundary Commission for Wales received on its initial proposals and during the secondary consultation period at that review are available on its website. The Boundary Commission for England makes available on its website the representations received for the review ongoing at the time only.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to extend central government funding for Age UK Wirral beyond April 2016.
Answered by Rob Wilson
As far as we have been able to ascertain Age UK Wirral has not received direct funding from central government during the financial year 2015/16.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many babies born in NHS hospitals have been born to mothers of non-UK citizenship in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Lord Field of Birkenhead (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) direct employees, (b) agency staff and (c) outsourced staff working for his Department and its subsidiary agencies are paid less than the living wage.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Chancellor has announced a new National Living Wage compulsory as of next April, expected to reach £9 an hour by 2020. Tackling low pay is part of the Government's plan to move to a higher wage, lower tax and lower welfare society.