Oral Answers to Questions
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 4 months ago)
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Hugh Bayley (York Central) (Lab)
1. How many full-time equivalent civil servants were employed in York in May (a) 2010 and (b) 2012.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
The number of full-time equivalent civil servants employed in York on 31 March 2010 was 2,390 and on 31 March 2012 it had reduced to 1,980.
Hugh Bayley
With electronic communications improving all the time, it is hard to justify having so many civil servants in London and so few in other parts of the country, such as my constituency, where rents and overheads are so much cheaper. Will the Cabinet Office carry out a strategic review of the number of civil service posts in London that could be relocated to cities such as York?
Mr Maude
There have been endless such studies, including under the last Conservative Government and the Government of whom the hon. Gentleman was a member. The truth is that the number of civil servants in central London is much higher than it needs to be, and it is already falling. We are concentrating the numbers into the central London freehold estate, which is significantly reducing our costs, but there is further to go.
Julian Sturdy (York Outer) (Con)
Does my right hon. Friend agree that, given the country’s huge deficit, it is only right that the civil service should contribute to savings, and that it is important that we ensure the creation of more private sector jobs, which are, indeed, being created across York and the wider region?
Mr Maude
The civil service certainly must reduce in size, and it is doing so: it is at its smallest since the second world war. Private sector jobs are being created at quite a rate, and in the two years after the formation of the coalition Government 11,000 jobs were created in the private sector in York, while 4,400 were lost in the public sector.
Jon Trickett (Hemsworth) (Lab)
Consensual civil service relocation to cities such as York is good, cost-effective one-nation politics, as it can help to overcome chronic regional economic disparities, but if the right hon. Gentleman insists on regionalising public sector pay such relocations will simply further retrench existing regional disparities. People in York doing exactly the same job as their colleagues elsewhere in the country will be paid less. The Cabinet is reportedly divided on the subject. In this festive season, may I encourage the right hon. Gentleman to say goodbye to his inner Scrooge and abandon the ill-conceived regional public pay proposals he has been hawking around Government?
Mr Maude
My inner Scrooge is the taxpayer’s outer friend, and I should, perhaps, point out to the hon. Gentleman that in only one part of the civil service—Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service—have regional pay scales been abandoned and the move to regional or local market-facing pay been made, and the Government of whom he was a member introduced that.
Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)
2. What recent assessment he has made of the implementation of the Government’s procurement reforms.
Amber Rudd (Hastings and Rye) (Con)
10. What progress he has made on his plans for the National Citizen Service.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
Our ambition is to make National Citizen Service a rite of passage available to every 16 or 17-year-old. In 2011, more than 8,400 young people took part in it. This year we made the programmes available to a much larger number of people. The programmes finished recently and we await final data on the numbers. In 2014, we will ensure that 90,000 places are on offer.
Richard Graham
All those involved in the NCS programme in 2012 in my constituency of Gloucester will welcome the Minister’s news of expansion in 2013. Excellent local partner, Gloucestershire college, has suggested to me that if it was possible for the organisations that pledge support to provide more detail it could provide even more opportunities to young people in my constituency and across the county. Does my right hon. Friend agree that more could be done from the Cabinet Office to facilitate that?
Mr Maude
I know that my hon. Friend has taken a very close interest in the NCS, which is fast-growing and immensely popular with those who take part. Satisfaction is expressed by more than 90% of its participants. I hear what my hon. Friend says and will discuss further with him how we can take that forward.
Amber Rudd
The NCS designated Catch22, the provider of this programme in the south-east, with more than 2,500 places for 16 to 17-year-olds in the summer of 2012, but only 30 places were allocated to the young people of East Sussex. Will my right hon. Friend assure me that more places will be available in 2013, particularly for the young people of Hastings and Rye?
Mr Maude
I am very sympathetic to that indeed. Of course, the first two years were pilot years in which the programme was not available throughout England. We are now rolling it out on a much wider scale and the whole country will be covered by the NCS in 2013 and 2014. I am confident that there will be significantly more places available in East Sussex, and I shall look particularly at the position in Hastings and Rye.
Susan Elan Jones (Clwyd South) (Lab)
12. The NCS is the Prime Minister’s flagship policy for volunteering and the big society. Is it not therefore a bit ironic that it is primarily being run by Serco, a private company?
Mr Maude
The hon. Lady is quite simply wrong. Serco has had no involvement whatsoever. It will be involved in some of the regions in the forthcoming—[Interruption.] There seems to be a certain amount of interest in this. Serco is in a partnership with voluntary organisations and it is the lead organisation in a minority. Most of the regions are being led by voluntary and community sector organisations, two of them by consortia of further education colleges. I hope the hon. Lady will welcome that.
Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)
5. What his policy is on streamlining the procurement process to enable more small and medium-sized enterprises to secure Government contracts.
Dan Rogerson (North Cornwall) (LD)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
My responsibilities are for the public sector efficiency and reform group, civil service issues, industrial relations, strategy in the public sector, government transparency, civil contingencies, civil society and cyber-security.
Dan Rogerson
I welcome the fact that the Government are increasing the range of services that they provide online to our constituents. However, digital by default is a cause for concern as some constituents who do not have access to broadband or for whatever reason choose to use a paper option are worried that that may not continue. Will the Minister reassure the House that that option will remain for all those constituents who do not wish to use the computer option?
Mr Maude
Transacting with the Government online costs about one twentieth of the cost of doing so by phone, one thirtieth of doing it by post, and one fiftieth, on average, of doing it face to face, so there are massive savings as well as increased convenience from moving public services online. But we recognise that there are of course people who cannot access services online and we will make sure that proper provision is made for them. We will publish our assisted digital strategy before the end of the year.
Michael Dugher (Barnsley East) (Lab)
In July 2010 the Minister for the Cabinet Office said that
“it is essential that we take radical steps to increase efficiency and reduce energy use. . .This Government is determined to tackle waste wherever it exists, and that includes energy”,
yet according to figures updated last week on data.gov.uk, energy use in the Minister’s own Department at 70 Whitehall has increased by 9% this year compared with last year. Why is the Minister not practising what he preaches?
Mr Maude
The Government are more than meeting their target to cut energy. It would be very good to hear the hon. Gentleman supporting our energy for growth project, which will mean cheaper energy for government and will unlock blocked renewable energy projects throughout the country. It would be very good to hear him supporting that.
Mr Robert Buckland (South Swindon) (Con)
T3. I am encouraged to see that the Government are firmly committed to reducing the extent of their bloated property portfolio. Will my right hon. Friend please update the House on progress that has been made in this area this year?
Mr Maude
We have hugely reduced the amount of property that the Government occupy. The overall size of the central estate in 2011 alone fell by nearly 6%; the number of our property holdings fell by 11%; and we sold Admiralty Arch, which is an unsatisfactory office building but will be a very good hotel building. We are making enormous savings. We have achieved total savings of £360 million in annual running costs. If this had started when the Leader of the Opposition had my job, the country would not have been in the mess that we inherited in 2010. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. There are far too many noisy private conversations taking place in the Chamber. As a result, Members are not attending to the answers that are being given by Minister Maude, and that is unsatisfactory.
Tom Blenkinsop (Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland) (Lab)
T7. Does the Minister think that abolishing the Advisory Committee on Hazardous Substances in the morning and establishing the Hazardous Substances Advisory Committee in the afternoon was a sensible use of taxpayers’ money and time?
Open Data
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 4 months ago)
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The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
I am today providing the first update on Her Majesty’s Government’s commitments to open data as set out in departmental Open Data Strategies and its performance against the Public Data Principles for the period between July and September 2012. The UK is seen as a global leader in the field of transparency and it is important that we monitor and report on progress achieved.
I am pleased to report that overall progress made shows that the open data agenda have become more established within individual Departments since the publication of the Open Data White Paper in June 2012. This first statement will act as a benchmark for progress on the Government’s commitment to open data. A detailed report elaborating on the figures, giving examples of progress made and the barriers to be overcome can be found on the data.gov.uk website and will be placed in the Library of the House.
Performance against the Public Data Principles
The Public Data Principles1 state that all data should be released in an open format, be reusable, machine-readable and linkable across sectors to allow for comparative “like-for-like” analysis. The openness of datasets is measured using Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s “Five Star Data Deployment Scheme” and our aspiration is to have all datasets released at the level of at least “Three Stars” which means that datasets released on data.gov.uk must be published now in a non-proprietary format. By adherence to these principles, Government can help to encourage greater use of published data and also help to reduce potential barriers to innovation based on the use of these data. Fifty-two per cent of datasets published on data.gov.uk by central Government Departments and their arm’s length bodies are of “Three Stars” and above quality.
Data.gov.uk provides a single portal for access to all Government datasets and its functionality has been greatly improved over the summer to enable the automatic validation of formats, a better publishing process, as well as the ability for users to monitor the frequency of publications. Data.gov.uk provides a forum for data users to discuss, request and comment on datasets. This has been supplemented with a service that directs requests for new unpublished datasets to the Open Data User Group to review and, if deemed worth pursuing, prepare business cases in support of their publication.
Completion of commitments undertaken by Departments
Of the 17 central Departments, nine are reported as having “Met” their commitments to make available data on central and local corporate spend, salaries, organograms and crime data as set out in the first of the Prime Minister’s letters to Government Departments on opening up data (May 2010) with the remainder reporting a delay.
Completion of the commitments to publishing key data on the national health service, schools, criminal courts and transport as set out in the second of the Prime Minister’s letters to Cabinet Ministers on transparency and open data (July 2011) is better. Eleven Departments are reporting their commitments are “Met” and only five reporting a delay. One Department is reporting it would be unlikely to meet its commitment due to security issues.
Compliance against departmental Open Data Strategies commitments sees 13 Departments reporting they have “Met” or are “On Track” and only four Departments reporting a delay.
A key commitment in the Open Data White Paper was for all transparency sector panels to establish privacy experts by September 2012. I can report that five out of seven of these panels have confirmed that they have privacy experts embedded within their membership. Two Departments have internal groups with no representation of external open data users although they do have a privacy expert as part of their membership.
Summary of the July to September Reporting Period
We are seeing the release of open data steadily becoming the norm within Government, despite the issues surrounding legacy infrastructures and business change. Infrastructure barriers will not be overcome until legacy systems are replaced or revised with more efficient and transparency-orientated systems or additions to allow for systematic publication of corporate data.
Further work must also be carried out to embed transparency as a culture and open data as a process within Government Departments and their arm’s length bodies. This can be achieved through further investment in stronger guidance, for example in how best to publish consistently to allow for better use of the datasets across sectors, and through good practice sharing among the policy and delivery community, with particular focus on arm’s length bodies. This will help ensure that these bodies comply with all their commitments and that the datasets they publish are done so in a format consistent with those published by central Departments.
The actions noted under each section of this report will be updated in future statements to Parliament.
1See http://www.data.gov.uk/library/public-data-principles.
UK Cyber Security Strategy
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 5 months ago)
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The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
On 25 November 2011, I published the UK cyber security strategy. In the strategy I committed to report back on progress after one year, in particular on the achievements of the national cyber-security programme for which my Department has oversight. I am pleased to present this report to both Houses today.
The strategy outlined how the internet has changed and shaped our lives. A year on from its publication, this transformation continues apace.
The UK has been proclaimed as the “most internet-based major economy”, with one recent study stating that the UK’s internet-related market is now worth £82 billion a year and rising1. The internet provides a rich and fertile basis for industry, and small businesses in particular, to expand and grow.
Industry suffers at the hands of such threats. The 2012 PwC information security breaches survey found that 93% of large corporations and 76% of small businesses had a cyber-security breach in the past year. With the cost for a security breach estimated between £110,000 to 250,000 for large businesses and £15,000 to 30,000 for smaller ones, these are losses which UK businesses can ill afford.
And we are not immune in Government. Attacks on Government Departments continue to increase.
The UK cyber-security strategy sets out our approach to tackling the threat. It clearly states four objectives for the UK:
To tackle cyber-crime and to be one of the most secure places in the world to do business in cyber-space.
To be more resilient to cyber attacks and better able to protect our interests in cyberspace.
To have helped shape an open, stable and vibrant cyberspace which the UK public can use safely and that supports open societies.
To have the cross-cutting knowledge, skills and capabilities the UK needs to underpin these other objectives.
These objectives are delivered through the national cyber-security programme which prioritises and co-ordinates work across Government and provides £650 million of new funding to improve the UK’s cyber-security capability.
We are making good progress against these objectives and I am pleased to be able to report on some notable achievements.
Combating the threats
First, I would like to point to the work of GCHQ in addressing cyber-threats. Its work underpins our ability to contend with the many challenges of the cyber-age that threaten our national security. We have invested in new and unique capabilities for GCHQ to identify and analyse hostile cyber-attacks in order to protect our core networks and services and support the UK’s wider cyber-security mission. I cannot reveal details of this work, but it has broadened and deepened our understanding of the threat, helping us prioritise and direct defensive efforts.
As part of this work, the MOD has established a tri-service unit, hosted by GCHQ in Cheltenham. The joint cyber-unit training and skills requirements have been established and it is currently developing new tactics, techniques and plans to deliver military capabilities to confront high-end threats.
The security service has developed and enhanced its cyber-structures, focusing on investigating cyber-threats from hostile foreign intelligence agencies and terrorists, and working with UK victims. This informs the work of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) which is helping organisations to improve their cyber-security measures.
CPNI is actively influencing standards, researching vulnerabilities and focusing on the key technologies and systems of cyber-infrastructure. As part of this work it has commissioned a major research programme from the University of Oxford with the aim of delivering advice, guidance and products to help reduce the risk of cyber-attacks mounted or facilitated with the help of company insiders.
In terms of protecting core Government systems, work is being done across the public sector network to create a new security model for the sharing of services. This includes: a common and standardised approach to assurance—Single Sign-on—through an employee authentication hub; security monitoring; more effective policing of compliance; and greater network resilience.
2012 saw the UK hosting one of one the greatest sporting events of our time. The London Olympics was the first truly digital games and, as such, we recognised the need to address potential cyber-threats. We established unprecedented mechanisms for working hand-in-hand with sponsors and suppliers to the games in combating and managing incidents. The lessons learned from the event are informing our cyber-security national incident management plans as we go forward.
Tackling cyber-crime
The Government have invested in strengthening law enforcement and prosecutors’ capabilities to prevent, disrupt and investigate cyber-crimes and bring those responsible to justice. The Police Central e-Crime Unit has trebled in size, three regional cyber-policing teams have been established, and training on cyber-crime for mainstream police officers has been designed. This is increasing the capacity of the police to tackle cyber-crime in line with the strategic policing requirement which was issued by the Home Secretary in July 2012. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) has increased its cyber-capability including the introduction of cyber-overseas liaison officers and a number of posts dedicated to mainstreaming cyber and digital investigations across the organisation.
The Police Central e-Crime Unit has reported that it has exceeded its four year operations performance target of averting £504 million of harm within the first year of the national cyber-security programme alone—preventing £538 million of harm at a return on investment of £72 harm averted for every pound invested. In addition and in conjunction with partners, SOCA has repatriated over 2.3 million items of compromised data to the financial sector in the UK and internationally since November 2011 with an estimated prevention of potential economic loss of over £500 million. In addition, The Crown Prosecution Service in turn is devoting more resources to prosecuting cyber-crime. As at the end of September 2012, the Department was prosecuting 29 “live” cyber-crime cases.
Joint operations between the two units have now been initiated as a first step towards their coming together in 2013 to form the National Cyber Crime Unit of the new National Crime Agency. This will deliver the next step in transforming law enforcement capability to tackle cyber and cyber-enabled crimes.
National cyber-security programme funding has enhanced Action Fraud to be the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and financial internet crime, operating on a 24/7 basis. This enables reported incidents of crime to be developed into intelligence packages that national and local agencies can use for targeted enforcement activity. Over 12 months. Action Fraud received 46,000 reports from the public of cyber-enabled crimes amounting to attempted levels of fraud of £292 million.
To further assist in tackling online fraud, HMRC has established a new cyber-crime team to enhance the Department’s capability to tackle tax fraud by organised criminals. HMRC’s enhanced anti-phishing capabilities are now leading to the interception of five major threats a day and have helped the Department to shut down almost 1,000 fraudulent websites in the last 12 months.
Partnership with industry
Government cannot do this alone. We know that industry is the biggest victim of cyber-crime, and intellectual property theft through cyber-crime is happening on an industrial scale. In the past year we have cast our net wide to work with industry, academia and ever wider across the public sector to promote awareness of the need to address cyber-threats. We have produced and promoted a “Cyber Security Guidance for Business” document for industry chief executives, which sets out how board members and senior executives should adopt a holistic risk management approach to cyber-security in order to safeguard their most valuable assets, such as personal data, online services and intellectual property.
We have successfully completed a pilot Government and industry information-sharing initiative to provide a trusted environment for organisations to share information on current threats and managing incidents. This included around 160 companies across five sectors: defence, finance, pharmaceuticals, energy and telecommunications. Although industry to Government and Government to industry information exchange worked well, most value was gained through the industry to industry engagement and this is informing how we take this work forward.
Education, skills and awareness
We have been actively raising awareness among industry and the public about the problem so that people take the simple steps to protect themselves and demand better cyber-security in products and services. Working with industry, we have been raising awareness of cyber-security threats among the general public through initiatives such as the recent Get Safe Online Week, which for the first time ran in conjunction with the EU and US and Canadian partners, as part of a drive to establish a global Cyber-Security Month in October each year. The National Fraud Authority has also delivered targeted campaigns on online fraud, reminding people of the increasing threat of cyber-crime. Over 4 million individuals were reached by the Devils in Your Details campaign in spring 2012. In evaluation afterwards two-thirds of those surveyed said they would change their behaviour as a consequence.
We are investing in skills and research so that we have the capability to keep pace with this problem in the future. The first eight UK universities conducting world-class research in the field of cyber-security have been awarded “Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research” through the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. In addition, a new virtual Research Institute has been launched as a Government/academia partnership. Its aim is to improve understanding of the science behind the growing cyber-security threat. These initiatives help keep the UK at the forefront of international research in this field.
Meanwhile we have taken steps to improve cyber-security skills among young people and to widen the pipeline of talent coming into this field. BIS has commissioned e-Skills UK to develop interactive learning materials on cyber-security for GCSE students. One hundred and twenty schools have already signed up to use the materials as part of the Behind the Screen initiative. In November, GCHQ and the other intelligence agencies launched a new technical apprenticeship scheme which aims to identify and develop talent in school and university-age students. They aim to recruit up to 100 apprentices who will be enrolled on a tailored two-year foundation degree course. We have also sponsored the Cyber-Security Challenge UK in its work providing advice, support and guidance for anyone interested in a career in cyber-security, and to create opportunities for employers and previously unidentified talent to come together. Since its launch in 2010, over 10,000 people have registered with the initiative.
Ensuring that those in the field of cyber-security get the right training and education, GCHQ has established and is building on a set of certification schemes to improve the skills and availability of cyber-security professionals. The certification for information assurance professionals scheme will help Government and industry to recruit cyber-security professionals with the right skills at the right level to the right jobs. It will also assist participants to build a career path and to have the opportunity to progress through re-assessment as skills and experience grow.
International efforts
The nature of the internet means that we cannot focus our efforts on the UK alone. International co-operation is crucial. We have continued to promote the UK’s vision of an open, vibrant and secure cyberspace internationally, for instance through our active contribution to the Budapest Cyber Conference, and to build up a wide network of international partnerships. We have strengthened relationships with traditional allies and have initiated discussions with a broad range of countries. We are also working with international partners to improve co-operation to tackle cyber-crime through legislation and operational work, and have played a prominent role in international discussions on norms of behaviour and confidence building measures in cyberspace. In October, the Foreign Secretary announced the establishment of a Cyber Capacity Building Fund for supporting cyber-security internationally, part of which will create a new Global Centre for Cyber Security Capacity Building. This centre will help to make UK expertise and technology in this field available to international partners.
Reflecting the global nature of the cyber-crime threat, UK law enforcement agencies continue to work closely with their international partners, through partnership building and joint operations. SOCA continues to lead, with international partners, on the global representation of law enforcement interests to internet corporation for assigned names and numbers (ICANN), the internet domain name organisation. Collaboration with ICANN to amend the registrar’s accreditation agreement has assisted law enforcement in crime prevention and detection. In April 2012, SOCA led a global day of action to tackle automated vending cart websites selling compromised financial data. Two arrests were made in the UK and 70 websites taken down world-wide, resulting in major disruption to organised crime-groups’ activities.
A fuller list of achievements from the first year of the Cyber Security Strategy and work on the National Cyber Security Programme can be found at: www. cabinetoffice.gov.uk.
Future plans
Looking forward, we are clear that there is still much work to do. We will continue the work that is under way, while regularly assessing it against priorities, and taking into account new and emerging threats.
We are reviewing our national approach to cyber-incident management, particularly in the light of the successful Olympics response outlined above. Our intention is to move towards the establishment of a UK national CERT (computer emergency response team). This will build on and complement our existing CERT structures, improve national co-ordination of cyber-incidents and act as a focus point for international sharing of technical information on cyber security.
In addition, a new Cyber Incident Response scheme, recently launched by CESG and CPNI in pilot form, will move to become fully operational in 2013. It is an HMG quality-assured service, provided by industry, that organisations can turn to for assistance when they have suffered a cyber-security incident. The scheme will enable the UK’s emerging cyber-response industry to grow, bringing further benefit to the UK in terms of skills and business opportunities.
Working with the private sector to improve awareness of the need for better cyber-security continues to be a priority. We are now focusing our efforts on making sure that the right incentives and structures are in place to change behaviour in a sustainable way. Government Departments and agencies are working with professional and representative bodies to ensure the consideration of cyber-security becomes an integral part of corporate governance and risk management processes. We are supporting the development of organisational standards for cyber-security so consumers can identify those businesses with good cyber security practices.
Building on the successful “Auburn” pilot project between Government and businesses, we are developing a permanent information sharing environment called CISP (Cyber-security Information Sharing Partnership) to be launched in January 2013. This has been a joint industry/Government design. Initially, this will be open to companies within critical national infrastructure sectors, but we intend to make membership available more broadly, including to SMEs, in a second phase.
We are constantly examining new ways to harness and attract the talents of the cyber-security specialists that are needed for critical areas of work. To this end, the MOD is taking forward the development of a “Cyber Reserve”, allowing the services to draw on the wider talent and skills of the nation in the cyber field. The exact composition is currently in development and a detailed announcement will follow in 2013.
On cyber-crime, the Government will continue to work with the law enforcement community to enhance their capabilities, particularly through the creation of the National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU), an integral part of the National Crime Agency which, subject to parliamentary approval, will be established in October 2013. The NCCU will bring together the capabilities of the Police Central e-Crime Unit and SOCA’s cyber-team to create an even more effective response to the most serious cyber-criminals.
Alongside tackling the threat the Government are determined to help seize the business opportunity in cyber, promoting the UK cyber security industry both domestically and across the globe. To support this, we are today forging a new joint “Cyber Growth Partnership” with Intellect, the organisation which represents the UK technology industry. Central to this will be a high-level group which will identify how to support the growth of the UK cyber-security industry, with an emphasis on increasing exports.
To ensure the UK can continue to call on cutting-edge skills and research BIS and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) will fund two Centres of Doctoral Training (CDT). The centres will call on a wide range of expertise to deliver multidisciplinary research and so help to provide the breadth of skills needed to underpin the work of the UK’s next generation of doctoral-level cyber-security experts. The two CDTs will deliver, in total, a minimum of 48 PhDs over their lifetime with the first cohort of students starting in October 2013. These are in addition to 30 GCHQ PhD Studentships also sponsored by the National Cyber Security Programme.
We are also building cyber security into undergraduate university degrees. We have partnered with the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) to support and fund the Trustworthy Software Initiative which aims to improve cyber security by making software more secure, dependable and reliable. As part of the initiative a module has been developed to educate students on technical degree courses on why trustworthy software is important. This material is currently being piloted at De Montfort University, the University of Worcester and Queens University Belfast. The IET plans to expand the pilot next spring; from 2015 education in cyber-security will be a mandatory component of software engineering degrees accredited by the institution.
On the international front, we will continue to expand and strengthen the UK’s bilateral and multilateral networks. Key opportunities to shape the future of cyberspace in the year ahead will include the Seoul Cyber Conference, the report of the UN Group of Government Experts on international security norms, OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) work on Confidence Building Measures and discussions on internet governance in the lead-up to the world summit on the information society (WSIS). We will also play an active role in discussions on the new EU cyber-strategy.
Public awareness will be a priority: we need to warn people of the risks and what they can do to protect themselves while ensuring that confidence in the internet is maintained. From spring 2013 we will be rolling out a programme of public awareness drives, building on the work of GetSafeOnline.org and the National Fraud Authority. This programme will be delivered in partnership with the private sector and will aim at increasing cyber confidence and measurably improving the online safety of consumers and SMEs. We are working now to understand the online behaviour of different segments of consumers in order to prepare the ground for these campaigns and to ensure what we do is based on evidence on what works.
Meanwhile Government will be mainstreaming cyber-security messages across the breadth of its communication with the citizen. For example, HMRC will be automatically alerting customers using out of date browsers and directing them to advice on the threat this might pose to their online security.
Conclusion
Further details on forward plans are available at: www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk. One year after the strategy’s publication a great deal has already been accomplished in our aim of protecting UK interests in cyberspace and making the UK one of the safest places to do business online. This is not an issue for Government alone. Industry has the potential to lose the most by not rising to these challenges so together we must work to address cyber-threats which could undermine our economic growth and prosperity.
The past year has created an increasing momentum across the UK at varying levels and across all sectors in addressing a wide range of cyber-security threats. We look forward to maintaining this pace, continually assessing our progress as we go forward. I will report back on progress again a year from now.
1AT Kearney: The Internet Economy in the United Kingdom
Ministerial Responsibilities
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 5 months ago)
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The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
The new list of ministerial responsibilities has been published today. Copies have been placed in the Vote Office and the Libraries of both Houses. Copies will also be sent to each MP’s office.
The list can also be accessed on the Cabinet Office website at:–
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/government-ministers-and-responsibilities.
Oral Answers to Questions
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 5 months ago)
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Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)
1. What progress he has made in implementing the civil service reform plan.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
In June, we published a plan with specific actions to tackle long-standing weaknesses in the civil service, to build on strengths and to address frustrations expressed by civil servants themselves. If effectively implemented, the actions will lead to real change, which is urgently needed. The pace of change now needs to increase. Yesterday, we published the digital strategy, which sets outs how we can save money while improving the delivery of public services. That is an example of civil servants enthusiastically embracing and driving radical reform.
Craig Whittaker
Over the past decade, public sector productivity remained static while private sector productivity improved by a third. What steps is my right hon. Friend taking to ensure that the civil service learns best practice from business?
Mr Maude
After the coalition Government formed, we put in place the efficiency and reform group, which is driving a much more business-like approach to those areas of activity that run across government: the procurement of common goods and services; property; the management and oversight of major projects; and information and communications technology infrastructure, which was wholly unco-ordinated. All this is driving savings in the cost of government, but we need to do much more. The key to that is developing much more interchange between the private sector and the civil service, which the head of the civil service is committed to driving forward energetically.
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)
Will the Minister confirm that “reform” is not just code for privatisation, outsourcing and politicising the senior civil service? Will the civil service be retained as a neutral service to government, with proper ministerial responsibility?
Mr Maude
There is no plan to change the basic rules of accountability, in the sense that there is a permanent, politically impartial civil service. However, there is a view, which I believe is shared right across the House, particularly by those who were Ministers in the previous Government, that responsiveness and effectiveness need to increase. That view is shared by the leadership of the civil service. One thing we are trying to do, through the civil service reform plan, is to respond to some of the frustrations expressed by civil servants themselves. They get very frustrated with the bureaucracy and the hierarchical nature of the service, as it is currently run.
Mel Stride (Central Devon) (Con)
13. I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his bold and imaginative reforms of the civil service, particularly the mutualisation of the civil service pension scheme. May I press him to look at other areas of the civil service where that successful approach may be adopted?
Mr Maude
The movement towards mutualisation of public services is very powerful and is being looked at by other Governments, as well as our own. It is powerful because it enables entrepreneurial leaders in the public sector, of whom there are many, to take control of the services, innovate, do things differently and drive out cost. It is a powerful means of driving efficiency, for the taxpayer and for the user.
Jon Trickett (Hemsworth) (Lab)
Today’s Institute for Government report reveals what it calls “fragile leadership” of the civil service reform programme. It is clear that the chaotic and expensive redundancy programme and the culture of blaming the service for blunders while Ministers get away scot-free is damaging morale. Even the right hon. Gentleman’s friends in the TaxPayers Alliance acknowledge that he is engaging in the costly practice of laying off staff while paying to recruit replacements. For all his bluster about savings, the Cabinet Office now has more staff than it had last year. When will he get a grip?
Mr Maude
Coming from the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the previous Prime Minister, who presided over a massive explosion in the size of the state and the growth of inefficiency—who presided over the decade in which public sector productivity was flat while private sector productivity grew by 30%—that is pretty rich. The hon. Gentleman refers to the expensive voluntary redundancy programme that has taken place. Under the position that his Government left—until we reformed the redundancy scheme—it would have been impossible to pursue that at all. The civil service today is considerably smaller. There are plans in Departments to reduce the size further, but productivity is already improving considerably. I just wish it had started under the previous Government.
Mr David Hanson (Delyn) (Lab)
2. Whether his Department has issued guidance to other Departments on the likely implementation date of a statutory register of lobbyists.
Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)
7. What recent assessment he has made of steps to improve transparency throughout Government.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
The Government have a world-leading transparency programme, as is widely acknowledged. Open data sharpen accountability, inform choice over public services and offer raw material for a fast-growing industry of developers and entrepreneurs. As lead co-chair of the open government partnership, we are working with Governments the world over to embed transparency through stretching action plans.
Dan Jarvis
Does the Minister share my concern about the Government’s failure to extend freedom of information to private companies that deliver public services? Does that not make a mockery of the Government’s transparency agenda? If he does share my concern, what will his Department do about it?
Mr Maude
First, FOI is the responsibility of the Ministry of Justice, not my Department. Secondly, the Justice Committee recently undertook a wide-ranging post-legislative study of the Freedom of Information Act 2000—the Government will respond before too long—and, as I recollect, recommended no such change.
Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley) (Con)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
My responsibilities as Minister for the Cabinet Office are for the public sector efficiency and reform group, civil service issues, industrial relations in the public sector, Government transparency, civil contingency, civil society and cyber-security.
Craig Whittaker
My local authority currently gives teaching unions £8,000 a year out of the schools budget, as well as giving Unison £27,000 in cash and paying for its offices. In the light of the differences between the private and public sectors in this area, may I ask my right hon. Friend what is being done to bring this into line across the civil service?
Mr Maude
Anyone who has responsibility for spending public money needs to ensure that it is spent on the front-line services on which citizens depend. In the civil service, we discovered that 248 civil servants were doing nothing but trade union work at the taxpayers’ expense. Following our consultation, we have introduced tough new controls that will more than halve the cost of trade union activity to the taxpayer.
Mr Speaker
Order. There are far too many noisy private conversations taking place in the Chamber. Let us have a bit of order so that Members may actually be heard—it is something to do with manners.
Mr Andy Slaughter (Hammersmith) (Lab)
T2. As the Minister seems to love contracting out work to the cosy cartel of G4S, A4e, Serco and Capita, does he not think that transparency should extend to those companies as much as it does to the public sector?
Mr Maude
We can, of course, build appropriate levels of transparency into contracts when services are contracted out. That process was taken a lot further by the previous Government, so it is not a feature of the coalition Government. I will pass on the hon. Gentleman’s concern to my right and hon. Friends in the Ministry of Justice.
Simon Kirby (Brighton, Kemptown) (Con)
T3. Will the Minister update the House on the launch of gov.uk and the savings he expects to make?
Mr Maude
We published our digital strategy yesterday and launched gov.uk recently. We will make significant savings—gov.uk will save £36 million and, ultimately, when all the Departments migrate over to it, between £50 million and £70 million a year, and that is just to provide a much better service for citizens. As more and more of the transactions that people undertake with Government are moved online, we expect to save nearly £2 billion a year, and that is for a better service for the consumer.
Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Lab)
T5. The National Audit Office report into Whitehall’s budget management showed that just 0.2% of Government spending is in the form of departmental joint submissions. There are opportunities for greater joint working and to save more money; what are Ministers doing to improve this?
Mr Maude
I think that every Minister in every Government I have ever known or observed would say that there is scope for much better joined-up activity between Departments. As a result of the civil service reform plan that we are now pushing through, with the strong support of the leadership of the civil service, we should have much greater interchange between Departments to break down the silos that partly cause the problem to which the hon. Gentleman rightly refers.
Karl MᶜCartney (Lincoln) (Con)
T4. Will my right hon. Friend update the House on the progress of the efficiency and reform group in driving savings across Government Departments?
Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
The civil service has traditionally been a good employer of women, black and minority ethnic staff and disabled staff. What equality measures are the Government taking to ensure that a 23% cut in staff by 2015 will have no adverse impact?
Mr James Gray (North Wiltshire) (Con)
T6. Government spending on advertising and consultants of all kinds is nearly always wasteful, profligate and—[Interruption.]
Mr Gray
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Government spending on advertising and consultants is nearly always wasteful, extravagant and profligate. What was the annual spend of the previous Government, how much has my right hon. Friend managed to cut it by, and what further plans does he have to squeeze this kind of waste out of Government spending?
Mr Maude
We saved nearly £400 million a year by restricting the spend on advertising and marketing, which was wholly incontinent under the previous Government. There are sometimes good cases for using consultants, but we have cut the spend on them by nearly 70%. These disciplines will continue for the future.
Chris Bryant (Rhondda) (Lab)
The Minister boasts about the Government’s transparency. The Cabinet Office still holds a large cache of e-mails from Andy Coulson to Rebekah Brooks. When will the Minister publish them?
Cabinet Committees List
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 6 months ago)
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The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
Today I am publishing an updated Cabinet Committee list. I have placed a copy of the new list in the Libraries of both Houses.
Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Guidance)
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
Guidance has today been issued to civil servants in UK departments on the principles which they should observe in relation to the conduct of Government business in the run up to the elections for Police and Crime Commissioner roles in England and Wales outside London. The elections will take place on 15 November 2012.
The guidance sets out the need to maintain the political impartiality of the civil service and the need to ensure that public resources are not used for party political purposes. The period of sensitivity preceding the elections starts on 25 October.
Copies of the guidance have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses and on the Cabinet Office website at: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/resource-library/election-guidance.
Committee on Standards in Public Life (Triennial Review)
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 7 months ago)
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The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
I am today announcing the start of the triennial review of the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL). Triennial reviews of non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) are part of the Government’s commitment to ensuring that NDPBs continue to have regular challenge on their remit and governance arrangements.
The review will be undertaken by an independent external reviewer, Peter Riddell, Director of the Institute for Government, who will want to consult widely with relevant stakeholders, including Parliament, the devolved Administrations, the main political parties, academics, ethics regulators and others with an interest in the work of the Committee. He will be issuing an issues and questions paper in due course and the findings of the review will be published. Peter will be supported in the review by the Cabinet Office. At his request, he will not be paid for his time.
In common with all such reviews, Peter Riddell will undertake the following:
to challenge the continuing need for this NDPB—both its functions and form; and;
if it is agreed that it should remain as an NDPB, to review its control and governance arrangements to ensure that it is complying with recognised principles of good corporate governance.
The aim will be to complete the review in the autumn.
Oral Answers to Questions
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 8 months ago)
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John Howell (Henley) (Con)
2. How much money was saved as a result of his Department’s cross-Whitehall spending controls in 2012.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
To deal with the enormous budget deficit that the coalition Government inherited from the Labour party opposite, in the days after the general election in May 2010 we introduced tough new spending controls. In the year to March 2012, those controls helped to save the taxpayer no less than £5.5 billion, on top of the £3.75 billion that we saved the year before.
John Howell
I congratulate my right hon. Friend on those figures and ask him whether he agrees that this shows just how wasteful spending was under the previous Government.
Mr Maude
I am afraid that that is the case. It was open to the Leader of the Opposition, when he sat in my position in the Cabinet Office, to introduce the same kind of controls, but it is very unglamorous hard work; one needs to get into the detail. It is a pity that he did not do it; if he had done, we would not be in quite the fiscal mess that the coalition Government inherited two years ago.
Tom Greatrex (Rutherglen and Hamilton West) (Lab/Co-op)
The Minister has previously made great play of the contracts finder website as an indication of cross-Whitehall spending. Before the summer recess, I tabled a series of questions to all Government Departments about the level of spending on contracts with Atos and Atos Healthcare. It turns out that despite the claim that all the information is on the website, a significant number of contracts with Atos across Whitehall are not on it. Will the Minister review the website to ensure that it is absolutely accurate?
Mr Maude
I must start by saying that we inherited a complete lack of transparency about Government contracts. It was impossible for potential suppliers to the Government to find out what contracts were available. We are gradually reaching a stage at which more and more contracts will be made available transparently, but provisions relating to confidentiality are built into many of the contracts with suppliers that we inherited. We will seek to avoid that in future, but I think the hon. Gentleman will find that many of the Atos contracts stem from the time when his own party was in government.
Mr Marcus Jones (Nuneaton) (Con)
14. I welcome the savings that my right hon. Friend has already found, but what more can he do to reduce the burden of excess in Whitehall which has existed over the last few years and which was fostered by the Labour party?
Mr Maude
The longer we stick at this task, the more possibilities of saving yet more money we will find. It is important to protect spending on the front-line services on which the public depend, and we will continue to do that. I am delighted to welcome my hon. Friend the Member for Norwich North (Miss Smith) to her post: she will give huge support to me in my role of seeking out wasteful spending and driving efficiency through central Government.
Neil Parish (Tiverton and Honiton) (Con)
3. What his policy is on the provision of trade union facility time across the civil service.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
Unions can play a positive role in the modern workplace. [Interruption.] On the subject of paying, it is nice to know who is paying that lot on the Labour Benches.
However, the Government believe that taxpayer-funded facility time arrangements in the civil service should reflect good practice across the private and public sectors. That is why I launched a consultation to review facility time, and will ensure that future arrangements are subject to rigorous controls and monitoring.
Neil Parish
Can my right hon. Friend tell me what arrangements for the monitoring of union facilities and activities were in place when he entered Government in 2010, and how much they were costing?
Mr Maude
The arrangements for the monitoring of facility time were very mixed indeed, and in most cases almost non-existent. It has taken a long time—many months—to tease out of Whitehall the data on how much is being spent and how much facility time there is. We estimate that the cost to the taxpayer of facility time for trade unions in the civil service alone is between £33 million and £36 million a year. That is too much, which is why we are consulting on how it can be significantly reduced and controlled.
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South) (Lab)
When measuring the costs, the Minister should take account of not just the cost of the time to the taxpayer, but the benefit of the work done by trade unions throughout the civil service. How will he estimate the cost of what he is doing in terms of benefit?
Mr Maude
I am confident that our consultation will tease out the benefits. I absolutely accept that the trade union duty to support union members in employment disputes can have a benefit, and for that reason we are not suggesting that all facility time should be removed; indeed, it would not be lawful for us to do so. However, the amount is excessive. It has been allowed to creep up over time, and it now needs to be reduced and controlled for the future.
Mr Mark Spencer (Sherwood) (Con)
4. What recent progress his Department has made on its programme to abolish and reform non-departmental public bodies.
Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
My responsibilities as Minister for the Cabinet Office are for the public sector efficiency and reform group, civil service issues, industrial relations strategy in the public sector, Government transparency, civil contingencies, cyber-security and civil society. [Interruption.]
Mr Speaker
Order. There is far too much noise in the Chamber, which is very discourteous to the Minister and to the Member. I want to hear Jenny Chapman.
Jenny Chapman
In Darlington, post offices are seen as vital community hubs. Will the Minister update the House on his discussions with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on how better to exploit the community value they offer?
Mr Maude
I have had a number of discussions about that with the BIS Minister who has responsibility for post offices, and we are doing what we can to encourage the post office network to be, as much as it can, a front office for a number of Government services. We think that is a valuable function.
Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)
T4. The Minister will be aware that Unison has instructed its members to secure as much paid or facility time as possible for union activity, including campaigning. Will he confirm that not a penny of taxpayers’ money will go to subsidise such trade union activity?
Mr Maude
There is a distinction between trade union duties, which are to do with genuine representation of employee rights, and trade union activities, which are not. There is no legal obligation to provide paid time off for trade union activities, which is why we are consulting on the reduction or elimination of that.
Michael Dugher (Barnsley East) (Lab)
Further to the answer given to my hon. Friend the Member for Darlington (Jenny Chapman), in recent weeks the Minister will have received a number of letters regarding the future of the post office network and the importance of Government services and their expansion. Will he endorse the campaign by the National Federation of SubPostmasters and, as the campaign slogan says, help make it happen?
Mr Maude
I have had discussions with the federation of postmasters and we are very alert indeed to the desirability of more business being available, but the federation understands that there is a need for Post Office Ltd to improve its activities and productivity. I know that that is under way.
James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)
T5. Over the summer, I had the pleasure of hosting a visit by a group of young people as part of the National Citizen Service, organised by the Challenge Network in the black country, which was a fantastic success. Will the Minister outline his plans for the further roll-out of the NCS next year?
Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)
T2. Reshuffles are always a busy time. Does the Cabinet Office have any specific plans to ensure that Cabinet Office staff do not have communication difficulties with the overwhelmingly male, rich and white Cabinet who have just been appointed?
Stephen Mosley (City of Chester) (Con)
T6. Last week, I was privileged to see the hard work of the NCS volunteers at the New Scene centre in Chester. However, a number of the young people were from over the border in Wales. While they were delighted to be able to do their NCS activities in England, they were disappointed that they were not able to do them in their own communities. Will the Minister join me in calling for the Welsh Assembly Government to introduce a national citizen service in Wales next year?
Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
T3. Earlier this year, Ministers announced the closure of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency office in my constituency, which was widely used by small local motor traders to get their vehicle licences. Will the Minister confirm that he is having discussions, and urging colleagues in BIS to have discussions, with the motor trade about whether the Post Office might pick up that slack?
Mr Maude
The public can already carry out a number of functions and transactions relating to the DVLA through the post office network, and the DVLA has one of the best online applications for renewing car tax, but we are looking, with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Transport, at how it can be further modernised to improve service and save more money.
Robert Halfon (Harlow) (Con)
T8. In July 2011 the Department for Work and Pensions introduced a new standard contract that encouraged its suppliers to hire 5% of their work force as apprentices. A year later, more than 2,000 apprenticeships have been created, at no extra cost to the Government. Is the Minister aware that rolling that out across Whitehall will create thousands of new apprenticeships?
2011 Census Results (England and Wales)
Lord Maude of Horsham Excerpts(11 years, 9 months ago)
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The Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Mr Francis Maude)
The 22nd decennial census of population for England and Wales was taken on 27 March 2011. Today, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes the first results in a report that I have laid before the House this morning.
Everyone in the country uses public services at various times—such as schools, health services, roads, public transport, job centres and libraries. These services need to be planned to keep pace with the changing demographics of the country. Government, local authorities, the health service, the education and academic community, commercial business, professional organisations and the public at large all need reliable information on the number and characteristics of people and households if they are to conduct their activities effectively. This need is currently best met by conducting a census every 10 years covering the whole of the population, and by updating the population estimates each year from the census benchmark.
Throughout the UK, broadly the same questions are asked and the information recorded in the same way. This allows the comparison of different groups of people and small areas across the entire nation. It also provides the opportunity of comparing various characteristics of the population and, owing to a high degree of consistency between censuses, allows the measurement of change over time.
The results of the 2011 census for England and Wales, which will in total comprise many hundreds of detailed tabulations designed to meet a wide range of users’ needs, are being published in a series of phased releases over the next 12 months. This first release will establish the new baseline for ONS’s population estimates for the next 10 years, and will help to determine the allocation of future local government funding. The release covers estimates of:
the usually resident population by single years of age and five-year age bands, by sex for England and Wales together, for England and for Wales;
the usually resident population by five-year age bands, by sex for regions, counties and local authority areas;
the number of households for England and Wales together, for England, for Wales and for regions, counties and local authority areas;
the number of non-UK short-term residents for local authority areas.
The final figures show that the usually resident population of England and Wales was 56,076,000, an increase of 7% since 2001. The response rate to the census was 94 % nationally, representing a small improvement on the 2001 census. However, response rates have improved markedly in many of the areas that were found to be most challenging in the 2001 census. The published results make full allowance for those people who did not complete a census form.
Although additional processing has been carried out this time, and an intense programme of quality assurance has been undertaken, publication of these figures is six weeks ahead of the corresponding report from the 2001 census. These first results are being made publicly available via the ONS website and are accompanied by a range of supporting information, including the response rate for each local authority area.
The Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency will today publish a similar but separate first release from the census in Northern Ireland. The first release from the census in Scotland will be published by the National Records of Scotland in December.
Further releases over the next 12 months will cover the more detailed results. Within these, data from the full range of questions included in the census will be cross-analysed and presented for a range of geographies down to the lowest level—“census output area” (an output area is, on average, 125 households or 250 people). Strict measures of statistical disclosure control will be applied to each release to ensure that no individual person or household will be identified from the information released.
In line with Government policy on open data, these later releases will be available via the ONS website in a format that will make it easy for organisations and individuals to use the detailed results in their own systems and websites, increasing the use and exploitation of the census results.
As part of the preparations for the future, the Office for National Statistics last year instigated a review of a number of different methods of collecting demographic and socio-economic data from a variety of sources with the aim of providing a viable alternative methodology for collecting census data. The outcome of that review will be reported in 2014 in time to implement plans by 2021.