Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government when the terms of reference for the UK COVID-19 public inquiry, chaired by Lady Hallett, will be published; and what are the reasons for the delay.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The final terms of reference for the UK COVID-19 inquiry were published on 28 June 2022. This followed a full and extensive public consultation process led by the inquiry’s independent chair, in addition to engagement with the devolved administrations as required by the Inquiries Act 2005.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to encourage civil servants to return to work in the office.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
Following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, civil servants have been increasingly returning to the office.
The Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency has written to departments to underline the importance of workplace attendance and request that they review their existing guidance on the minimum number of days staff work in the office to ensure we are making efficient use of the government estate.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many civil servants who are currently primarily working from home received London weighting additional allowances in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
London weighting was removed as a prescribed central allowance in the 1990s. Civil Service pay arrangements have been delegated to individual departments for all grades below the Senior Civil Service, since 1996. London pay arrangements will therefore vary significantly between departments.
There is no central source of data that links those working from home to pay conditions.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many executives in charge of government agencies receive annual bonuses; which executives receive such bonuses; and in each case, what is the value of those bonuses.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
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 performance years 2019/20 and 2020/21, was published on Government Departments’ websites on 31 March 2022. This data includes information on total bonus spend, the number of civil servants receiving bonuses, and the size of payments.
Regarding the second question: executive agencies publish individualised data on payments received by their Board-level members in their Annual Accounts. This includes data on which executives receive bonuses, and the size of any payments. Since 2010, the Government has made bonuses across the Civil Service more tightly focussed on top performance; current spend on them is around 1 percent of the total Civil Service paybill.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many civil servants received bonuses in addition to their salaries in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
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 performance years 2019/20 and 2020/21, was published on Government Departments’ websites on 31 March 2022. This data includes information on total bonus spend, the number of civil servants receiving bonuses, and the size of payments.
Regarding the second question: executive agencies publish individualised data on payments received by their Board-level members in their Annual Accounts. This includes data on which executives receive bonuses, and the size of any payments. Since 2010, the Government has made bonuses across the Civil Service more tightly focussed on top performance; current spend on them is around 1 percent of the total Civil Service paybill.