Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the next review of the Public Duty Costs Allowance will take place; who will be consulted; what plans they have for recipients to be required to declare their claims upon the fund in a similar fashion to MPs; and whether the review will examine how the use of the allowance for public duties can be distinguished from costs incurred in (1) making fee paying speeches or (2) publishing books.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Public Duty Costs Allowance was introduced to assist former Prime Ministers who are still active in public life. It has operated under successive administrations, including the last Labour Government and the Coalition Government. Exceptionally, a total of £444,775 was paid to the former Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister, Sir Nick Clegg, before he became a senior executive at Facebook.
The allowance is reviewed annually by the Government. The allowance has an annual limit of £115,000, which has remained frozen since 2011. The amount received by each claimant is published annually in the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts.
It is not a form of salary; payments are made only to reimburse actual administrative costs incurred in the fulfilment of public duties. Generally, these costs can include managing an office (staffing, payroll and administration); handling correspondence as a former Prime Minister; and support with visits and similar activities. Invoices are submitted to the Cabinet Office to cover relevant costs. In this light, no review of the matters of (1) or (2) is required.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, when the next review of the PDCA will take place; on what basis the review of the PDCA will be undertaken; and who will be consulted.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The review of the Public Duty Costs Allowance is undertaken by the Prime Minister at the start of a Parliament and annually. It is for the Prime Minister to consider the level, operation and coverage of the allowance. This review will take place in due course.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, whether the next review will consider transferring responsibility for the PDCA to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) to operate in a similar fashion to the way in which MPs expenses and allowances are regulated under the “Scheme of MPs’ Staffing and Business Costs”, designed to ensure MPs are reimbursed for costs incurred in the performance of their parliamentary functions; and whether similar details of claims made using the PDCA will in future be made public along similar lines to the way in which MPs allowances and expenses are published.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The review of the Public Duty Costs Allowance is undertaken by the Prime Minister at the start of a Parliament and annually. It is for the Prime Minister to consider the level, operation and coverage of the allowance. This review will take place in due course.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, whether the Prime Minister is entitled to set the level of allowance which would be available to that Prime Minister after ceasing to occupy that role; and whether the Prime Minister remains able, at their discretion, to make the PDCA available to former Deputy Prime Ministers, or other ex-Ministers.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The review of the Public Duty Costs Allowance is undertaken by the Prime Minister at the start of a Parliament and annually. It is for the Prime Minister to consider the level, operation and coverage of the allowance. This review will take place in due course.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, whether the next review of the PDCA will consider restricting the allowance to former Prime Ministers (and any other eligible other Ministers) to those who have served less than a full parliamentary term.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The review of the Public Duty Costs Allowance is undertaken by the Prime Minister at the start of a Parliament and annually. It is for the Prime Minister to consider the level, operation and coverage of the allowance. This review will take place in due course.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), how a distinction is made between the staff and office costs involved through working on recognised public duties conducted by former Prime Ministers, such as non fee-paying public appearances, and commercial activities, such as writing books and paid media or public appearances, or party-political campaigning.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Public Duty Costs Allowance is administered by the Cabinet Office.
Former Prime Ministers may only be reimbursed for legitimate staff salary, office or other expenses incurred in meeting the demands of the former Prime Minister’s public life up to the annual limit, which has been set at £115,000 since 2011. The allowance cannot be paid in advance of need and cannot be backdated.
Invoices to cover such costs are submitted to the Cabinet Office. Supporting documentation (for example receipts and salary details, including where relevant the proportion of salary being claimed) are retained by the claimant and made available on request by either Cabinet Office Finance or the National Audit Office for audit purposes.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the answer by Baroness Neville-Rolfe on 21 November (HL Deb col 1170) concerning the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA), and the statement that the “Government keep these matters under review and that the level of the limit is reviewed by the Prime Minister, at the start of a Parliament and annually”, what have been the total sums paid to each recipient of the PDCA in each of the years for which they have been able to claim; and what have been the total costs of the scheme to date.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Government does not hold a full record of claims against the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA) going back to 1991 when the allowance was established. The table above provides information from 2009/10 collated from government data.
From the financial year 2013/14, the annual amount of PDCA claimed by each former Prime Minister has been included in the Cabinet Office Annual Reports and Accounts which is published on GOV.UK. The years that have been published in this way are highlighted in Table 1. Prior to 2013, in line with the approach taken on Parliament’s Office Costs Allowance, to which the PDCA was linked, details of claims made by former Prime Ministers were not published.
I would also refer the noble Lord to a written answer provided on 6 April 2010 by the late Baroness Jowell, then Minister for the Cabinet Office (reference 311222) which provides details of total annual claims made against the PDCA in 1997/98-2008/09.
Table 1:
The Government does not hold a full record of claims against the Public Duty Costs Allowance (PDCA) going back to 1991 when the allowance was established. The table above provides information from 2009/10 collated from government data.
From the financial year 2013/14, the annual amount of PDCA claimed by each former Prime Minister has been included in the Cabinet Office Annual Reports and Accounts which is published on GOV.UK. The years that have been published in this way are highlighted in Table 1. Prior to 2013, in line with the approach taken on Parliament’s Office Costs Allowance, to which the PDCA was linked, details of claims made by former Prime Ministers were not published.
I would also refer the noble Lord to a written answer provided on 6 April 2010 by the late Baroness Jowell, then Minister for the Cabinet Office (reference 311222) which provides details of total annual claims made against the PDCA in 1997/98-2008/09.
Table 1:
| The Rt Hon Baroness Margaret Thatcher | The Rt Hon Sir John Major | The Rt Hon Tony Blair | The Rt Hon Gordon Brown | The Rt Hon David Cameron | The Rt Hon Sir Nick Clegg | The Rt Hon Theresa May | Pensions | Total PDCA |
2009-10 | 103,812 | 103,812 | 103,812 |
|
|
|
| 10,381 | 321,817 |
2010-11 | 104,133 | 109,125 | 109,191 | 93,698 |
|
|
| 10,912 | 427,059 |
2011-12 | 109,192 | 115,000 | 115,000 | 114,998 |
|
|
| 25,096 | 479,286 |
2012-13 | 70,693 | 114,996 | 115,000 | 100,316 |
|
|
| 15,832 | 385,172 |
2013-14 |
| 114,765 | 115,000 | 101,348 | - | - | - | 76,000 | 407,113 |
2014-15 |
| 115,000 | 115,000 | 112,450 | - | - | - | 115,463 | 226,987 |
2015-16 |
| 115,000 | 115,000 | 114,763 | - | 101,911 | - | 21,435 | 468,109 |
2016-17 |
| 115,000 | 115,000 | 114,838 | 50,227 | 114,982 | - | 28,020 | 538,067 |
2017-18 |
| 115,000 | 115,000 | 114,920 | 111,544 | 115,000 | - | 39,524 | 610,988 |
2018-19 |
| 114,935 | 115,000 | 114,057 | 110,413 | 112,882 | - | 21,425 | 588,712 |
2019-20 |
| 115,000 | 115,000 | 114,802 | 111,457 | - | 34,836 | 11,500 | 502,595 |
2020-21 |
| 115,000 | 115,000 | 113,712 | 113,423 | - | 57,832 | 55,381 | 571,348 |
2021-22 |
| 115,000 | 115,000 | 114,655 | 106,747 | - | 80,083 | 11,500 | 542,985 |
Total | 387,830 | 1,477,633 | 1,478,003 | 1,325,557 | 603,811 | 444,775 | 172,751 | 179,879 | 6070,239 |
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the number of people aged under 25 and living in London who have neither a passport nor a photographic driving licence.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The Cabinet Office commissioned a nationally representative survey in 2021 to explore photographic ID ownership of residents eligible to vote in Great Britain. The list of identification accepted for voting purposes will not be limited to UK passports or driving licences and will include a broad range of documents already in use, such as various concessionary travel passes, Proof of Age Standards Scheme (PASS) cards and photocard parking permits issued as part of the Blue Badge scheme.
The survey estimates that 99% of respondents from London (with the 95% confidence interval placing this estimate between 97.8%-100%) and 99% of 18-24 year olds (with the 95% confidence interval placing this estimate between 97.5%-100%) hold at least one of the forms of photographic identification accepted under the planned policy.
Further information on photographic identification ownership for voting can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/voter-identification-photographic-id-ownership-in-great-britain.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what was the cost of printing and distributing polling cards to voters in the 2019 general election.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
The cost of printing and distributing polling cards to voters at the 2019 general election will not be known until all of the Returning Officers’ expenses claims for those polls have been reviewed, agreed and settled.
Asked by: Lord Rennard (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the Electoral Commission's publication of electoral data from the 2019 United Kingdom Parliamentary general election, what assessment they have made of (1) the reasons for tendered ballot papers having to be issued, and (2) how the number of tendered ballots compares to the total votes cast; and what plans they have to work with the Electoral Commission and professional bodies representing Returning Officers to assess the possible reasons for tendered ballot papers being issued.
Answered by Lord True - Shadow Leader of the House of Lords
A tendered ballot paper may be issued to a voter in a number of circumstances at an election; for example, if an elector goes to a polling station and finds that the register has been marked to show that somebody has already voted for them, and the elector believes this is an error. As noted in the question, the Electoral Commission included information on the number of tendered ballot papers issued in the electoral data it compiled from the 2019 General Election. The Government will continue to work with the Electoral Commission and other relevant bodies to support the delivery of elections and will consider a wide range of issues as part of this work.