Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to extending the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to political parties in receipt of Short Money in respect of (1) their policy-making, and (2) their fundraising activities.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Registered political parties are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 in respect of any of their functions.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the number and value of government contracts awarded to companies with criminal convictions.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
For contracts awarded under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, this information is not collated centrally. Departments are responsible for making their own procurement decisions.
The Procurement Act 2023, which went live on 24 February, requires all suppliers bidding for public sector contracts to register via a central digital platform and declare any relevant convictions and exclusion information. The strengthened exclusions and new debarment provisions in the Act enable and, where appropriate, require the exclusion of suppliers convicted of relevant offences.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the Office for National Statistics will publish their latest data on winter deaths; what criteria they will use to calculate them; and whether they have any plans to return to a static reporting date.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Lord Sikka
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
31 January 2025
Dear Lord Sikka,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking when the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will publish their latest data on winter deaths; what criteria they will use to calculate them; and whether they have any plans to return to a static reporting date (HL4448).
The ONS previously published a regular release on winter mortality in England and Wales. However, following the recent consultation on health and social care statistical outputs[1], this release has been paused to enable a review of the methodology and timeliness of the statistics to be completed. Once the review is complete, a proposal on the future status of this output will be published.
The ONS does publish regular statistics on deaths registered each week[2] which may be of interest to you. This includes deaths registered over the winter period as well as estimates of excess deaths using the methodology that was implemented in February 2024[3].
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to extend the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to include registered political parties.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Government has no plans to extend the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to registered political parties.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to require Government departments to inform those affected of any errors and flaws found in the computer information systems that they operate.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
There are no plans to introduce new legislation to inform affected citizens of errors in computing and information systems operated by the government. There is existing legislation in the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) pertaining to personal data which protects individuals.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to publish a list of Post Office directors who have been recommended for honours by the Prime Minister since 2010.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
A full list of honours recipients is published biannually and these are therefore a matter of public record.
The Government does not routinely publish a list of names broken down by sector and there are currently no plans to publish a list of Post Office directors.
The Government is aware that there is increased interest and speculation surrounding honours relating to the Post Office inquiry. We will not speculate or provide commentary on any individual cases: these are confidential.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government to provide a list of government departments that use Fujitsu designed software; and whether any operating errors have been reported.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Cabinet Office does not hold a central register of software being used across Government.
The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, is responsible for supporting departments to build and operate modern, state of the art, highly responsive and cost effective technology that meets the needs of our end users and delivers the cross-government digital strategy.
CDDO operates a delegated assurance process which reviews proposed projects for value for money as well as alignment to standards and policies. Once projects are approved, contracts are awarded by individual departments. Projects meeting specific criteria are also reviewed by CDDO experts. Details of central government contracts where the contract value is above £12,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many contracts they have currently open with Fujitsu, and what their value is.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
This information is not centrally held by the Cabinet Office. However, details of central Government contracts with values above £12,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.
To collate all of this information would incur a disproportionate cost to the department, especially as contracts are held and procured across multiple Government departments.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the (1) 2020–21, and (2) 2021–22, editions of the Cross-Government Fraud Landscape Bulletin were or will be published.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Public Sector Fraud Authority is committed to publishing data promoting transparency and highlighting progress across government to fight fraud against the public sector. Due to a number of factors the publication of the 2020-21 Fraud Landscape Report was delayed. The 2020-21 report has been drafted and will be published shortly.
The data for the 2021-22 Fraud Landscape Report has been collected and is currently being analysed. We will be looking to publish this data in a Fraud Landscape Bulletin in 2023.
Asked by: Lord Sikka (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was (1) the estimated total amount of fraud and error loss across all government departments, and (2) the breakdown of these losses by each department, in each of the last five years.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The Public Sector Fraud Authority uses annual detected fraud figures and fraud estimates from fraud measurement activity to estimate fraud loss across Government. Due to the nature of this work the estimate for fraud and error levels in the public sector are reported retrospectively. From these calculations we estimate that levels are between 0.5-5% of government expenditure. The Public Sector Fraud Authority estimates that for 2020-21 the levels of fraud against the public sector, including tax and welfare, were between £33-55bn.
This estimate excludes fraud and error within Covid-19 schemes as fraud measurement activity within these schemes is still ongoing. Some departments have published estimates. However, a full picture of fraud and error levels in COVID-19 schemes is not yet available.
Detected fraud figures by department are published annually within the Fraud Landscape Report, this includes 5 year trends for total detected, prevented and recovered fraud and error across government, outside of tax and welfare.
The table below shows a departmental breakdown of detected fraud and error over the last available five years, outside of tax and welfare. Figures for 2020-21 will be published shortly in the 2021 Annual Fraud Landscape report.
Detected Fraud and Error
Department | 2015-2016 | 2016-2017 | 2017-2018 | 2018-2019 | 2019-2020 |
| £m | £m | £m | £m | £m |
BEIS | 17.64 | 13.9 | 8.9 | 12.6 | 17.8 |
CO | 0.48 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.05 | 0.04 |
DCMS | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.75 | 0.43 | 0.34 |
DEFRA | 4.03 | 7.9 | 5.3 | 4.1 | 9.9 |
DFE | 5.99 | 14.1 | 40.7 | 17.2 | 21.2 |
DFID | 5.05 | 18.7 | 6.7 | 9.1 | 15.0 |
DFT | 4.2 | 112 | 13.1 | 61.2 | 28.4 |
DHSC | 7.99 | 21.4 | 14.3 | 9.1 | 21.1 |
DIT |
|
|
| 0.0 | 0.0 |
DLUHC | 0.25 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 36.3 | 0.37 |
DWP* | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.68 | 0.27 | 0.89 |
FCDO |
|
|
|
| 0.39 |
FCO | 4.89 | 0.5 | 1.2 | 4.1 | 2.8 |
HMRC* | 1.5 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 5.5 | 2.2 |
HMT | 0.22 | 0.1 | 0.19 | 0.0 | 0.18 |
HO | 3.31 | 6.7 | 6.8 | 18.7 | 87.4 |
MOD | 18.27 | 88.6 | 116.9 | 60.2 | 172.4 |
MOJ | 28.79 | 14.1 | 0.76 | 2.5 | 3.5 |
Total | 103.81 | 300.7 | 207.4 | 227.5 | 360.4 |
*Figures for HMRC and DWP include internal fraud and error only. Tax and Welfare fraud figures are collected and reported separately by HMRC and DWP.