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Written Question
Statistics
Wednesday 27th March 2024

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, in the light of the recommendations of the Independent Review of the UK Statistics Authority on the separation of functions and reporting arrangements, what steps they are taking to ensure greater transparency in the governance and enhancements of the statistical system.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The independent review of the UK Statistics Authority and the Government’s response to the recommendations were published on 12 March 2024. They can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-the-uk-statistics-authority-uksa-2023

The review made 19 separate recommendations to the UK Statistics Authority and Cabinet Office including amending the statistical legislation (Statistical and Registration Services Act 2007) to better reflect the governance arrangements in place and reflect the practical operation of the UKSA.

The Government agrees in principle with this recommendation but noted that - given that the report concluded the current arrangements were working in practice - this is not a current priority for legislation and will be a matter for the next Parliament to consider. However, in our response we said that the UKSA leadership in the meantime should take active steps to better communicate the current working arrangements to assure users and stakeholders that robust systems are in place to regulate the Office for National Statistics and the wider Government Statistical Service.

The Government also welcomed wider recommendations regarding transparency, such as establishing a triennial statistical assembly which will allow users and the Authority to discuss priorities in an open and constructive way.


Written Question
Foreign Investment in UK: National Security
Wednesday 28th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to recommendations made by the House of Commons Business and Trade Sub-Committee on National Security and Investment on 9 February in their submission to the Government’s call for evidence ahead of reforms to the UK’s investment-screening regime, what steps they are taking to strengthen the screening processes under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 to better align with the investment rules of UK allies.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Government is grateful for each response to the recent Call for Evidence on the National Security and Investment Act, including the submission from the Business and Trade Sub-Committee. The Government is now analysing all the responses and will respond publicly in due course.

The NSI Act brought the UK’s approach to investment screening in line with many of our allies. Whilst the vast majority of acquisitions pose no national security risk, where the government does identify risk, it will not hesitate to act.


Written Question
Labour Force Survey
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following reports of concern from analysts regarding the reliability of figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), what steps they are taking to ensure that the ONS labour force survey is reliable and accurate.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

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 Taylor of Warwick

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

21 February 2024

Dear Lord Taylor,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking, following reports of concern from analysts regarding the reliability of figures released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), what steps they are taking to ensure that the ONS Labour Force Survey (LFS) is reliable and accurate (HL2453).

Following the suspension of publishing LFS estimates and micro-data in October 2023 because of quality concerns, the ONS put a comprehensive plan [1] in place to address these concerns and reintroduce LFS estimates and micro-data. The plan covers both data collection measures and methods used to make the survey estimates more representative of the UK population.

The planned improvements to data collection procedures were implemented in October/November 2023. These included the prioritisation of interviewer resource allocated to the LFS, the reintroduction of in-home interviewing, recontacting households that did not respond, and increasing the monetary incentive to participate. Furthermore, at the start of January we have increased the number of households we initially contact on the survey by 8,000 up to 25,800 for the quarter of January to March 2024. The combination of measures has already resulted in an increase in the achieved sample and we plan to maintain these measures for the foreseeable future.

As part of the improvements to our methods used to make the survey estimates more representative [2], the ONS have produced UK population projections specifically for the purpose of the LFS. This used 2022-based population projections for England and Wales combined with population estimates for Scotland and Northern Ireland. Additionally, we have reviewed and where appropriate adjusted the estimation method for the LFS to account for the challenges of low response levels in certain areas.

Both the improvements to data collection operations and methods to improve representativeness had a positive impact on the quality and reliability of the LFS data and enabled the ONS to reintroduce the publication of LFS-based estimates and micro-data from 13 February 2024.

As we expect to continue to see higher volatility in LFS data in the short term than might historically have been the case, we continue to advise users to apply caution when observing short-term changes in the survey-based estimates. As well as this, the commentary we publish alongside our statistics bulletins should also be considered.

While we are working hard to improve our LFS-based data, it remains our plan to make the transformed Labour Force Survey (TLFS) our main measure for the UK labour market. The TLFS is an online-first survey that asks many more people about their employment status. While early returns from this survey look positive, we need a longer consistent time series to aid interpretation before we share these data with users. We expect the TLFS to become the primary source for the labour market release in September 2024.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1] Labour Force Survey: planned improvements and its reintroduction, ONS article, 2 November 2023,

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/methodologies/labourforcesurveyplannedimprovementsanditsreintroduction

[2] Impact of reweighting on Labour Force Survey key indicators: 2024, ONS article, 5 February 2024,

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/impactofreweightingonlabourforcesurveykeyindicators/2024


Written Question
Cybersecurity
Thursday 1st February 2024

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to reports that spending on overseas cyber security programmes doubled last year, what assessment they have made of the impact of that increased spending on the cyber safety of (1) citizens, and (2) businesses.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Programming on cyber security plays an important role in protecting commercial opportunities and sustaining UK competitiveness in a key growth sector as well as helping organisations and citizens better manage cyber risks. The Financial Year 2022/23 Annual Report on the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund highlighted increased spending and the transfer of a wide range of skills overseas to support UK cyber security objectives. This included public awareness campaigns and training with national Computer Security Incident Response Teams, ensuring critical assets overseas are better protected from cyber-attacks. As a result, UK Government-funded projects have led to the arrest of cyber criminals across Africa, improved threat intelligence sharing in the Indo Pacific, and supported the implementation of a new national Cyber strategy in Georgia.


Written Question
Public Sector: Technology
Wednesday 24th January 2024

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the wrongful convictions that occurred as a result of faulty Post Office Horizon software, what plans they have to integrate advanced oversight technologies that ensure accuracy and reliability of software used in public service systems to prevent any future issues.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

This was one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation’s history, which is why we set up an independent inquiry to establish culpability and are bringing forward legislation to make sure those convicted as a result of the Horizon scandal are swiftly exonerated and compensated.

It is right that we do not pre-empt the conclusions of the ongoing, formal inquiry, but once the full facts are established we will consider all options.

The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), in the Cabinet Office, established in April 2021 to lead the Government’s Digital and Data Function, is the strategic centre for digital transformation which includes measuring services against digital and technical standards.

CDDO is defining best practice patterns and practices for software delivery to ensure high quality software delivery via the automation and regular testing of software quality throughout development. Use of ‘oversight technologies’ such as automated testing would follow user technology good practice, user needs and the risk profile of the system.

In addition to the software testing, a core requirement of the development process, the Service Assessment Model assesses newly created services, checking for evidence that departments are regularly monitoring and mitigating quality and reliability issues.


Written Question
UK Internal Trade: Northern Ireland
Thursday 4th January 2024

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to secure an agreement with parties in Northern Ireland regarding trading arrangements between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom, and what assessment they have made of the consequential impact for the United Kingdom as a whole.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The Government has engaged extensively with relevant stakeholders in Northern Ireland and has sought to address the specific concerns of the DUP prior to and during negotiations to facilitate the return of devolved governments. These discussions have focussed, in the main, on strengthening Northern Ireland’s place in the UK Internal Market. As outlined by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland on the 19th December, from the Government’s perspective, the talks on all the issues of substance have effectively been concluded. The Government now stands ready to introduce a package of measures that have been worked on together should the DUP reach a decision to proceed.


Written Question
Storms
Tuesday 28th November 2023

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to mitigate the effects and damage across the country of Storm Debi.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Storm Debi brought strong winds to parts of north Wales and northern England on Monday 13th November. The strongest winds and rain were felt in the Republic of Ireland, leading Met Éireann - the Irish Met service - to name the weather system. There were no impacts in England from Storm Debi that required national response. Localised, short-lived impacts were managed by the relevant Local Resilience Forums and emergency services. The Cabinet Office, as the Lead Government Department for severe storms, maintained close contact with the Met Office and stood ready to respond for the duration of the storm.


Written Question
Artificial Intelligence
Friday 30th June 2023

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to manage the risks posed by their use of artificial intelligence with regards to (1) social security, (2) immigration, and (3) housing.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

It is the role of the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) in the Cabinet Office to establish the government's approach to new technologies.

In June 2022 as part of the Government Roadmap for Digital and Data, the government published our commitment to “systematically identify and capture opportunities arising from emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, blockchain and quantum computing”. CDDO has convened external experts and digital leaders across government to rapidly respond to developments in this area.

CDDO's role on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is to

  • establish government strategy;

  • ensure we have the right skills to harness AI; and

  • provide guidance, policy and assurance to ensure that this new technology is used effectively, to the benefit of taxpayers and communities in the UK, but safely, securely and acknowledging the risk inherent to any technologies that are new to market.

CDDO are working with colleagues from security, legal and other functions to achieve this.

The requested information relating to specific departmental risk management in the use of artificial intelligence is not centrally held. This sits with the respective departments for such policy areas, including social security, immigration and housing.


Written Question
Industrial Disputes
Wednesday 10th May 2023

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the Prime Minister’s discussions with trade unions in January regarding industrial action, what further engagement they have had with trade unions across all sectors to prevent any further industrial action.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

Ministers across Government have been meeting with the trade unions to attempt to resolve these disputes where it is possible to do so and, crucially, where it is affordable to the taxpayer.

We’ve been clear throughout that we must strike the right balance on what is affordable and realise where compromises must be made.

We are actively engaging with the unions to try and facilitate fair compromises to resolve these disputes – including through service reform, productivity and efficiency – and we remain happy to listen to their concerns.

Since January, the Government has negotiated with the Agenda for Change workforce, entering into a process of intensive talks to find a fair and reasonable settlement. The majority of AfC unions have now voted to accept that offer.

The Government and the education trade unions have entered intensive talks, focusing on teacher pay, conditions and workload reduction. There have also been discussions with unions representing the civil service and with the RMT and the British Medical Association.

We are determined to find a way through this. We are grateful for the talks we have had so far and we remain happy to listen to the concerns of unions and their members.


Written Question
Civil Servants: Strikes
Monday 20th February 2023

Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to prevent further strike action by civil servants.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The industrial dispute and subsequent strike action with the Public and Commercial Services Union concerns a number of issues including pay. While pay for grades below the Senior Civil Service is determined by individual departments and employers, we continue to engage with all Civil Service Trade Unions regarding cross Civil Service issues which are within the responsibilities of the Cabinet Office in attempting to help achieve a resolution.