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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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.
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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.
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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.
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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.
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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.
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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.
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 - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
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.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the amount of Chinese investment in infrastructure in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 18 January is attached.
Lord Taylor of Warwick
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
26 January 2023
Dear Lord Taylor of Warwick,
As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what assessment has been made of the amount of Chinese investment in infrastructure in the UK (HL4889).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces foreign direct investment (FDI) statistics which include international investment positions, that is the value of the stock of investments held at a point in time. Statistics are presented for both UK-based companies that have a foreign parent company (inward) and for UK companies that control affiliates abroad (outward). Our latest FDI statistics for China are available up to 2021, with figures in the table below extracted from our Foreign direct investment involving UK companies (directional): inward[1] publication.
‘Infrastructure’ is not an identifiable category in FDI statistics. Therefore, we have included all industrial activity categories in Table 1 to enable you to consider the relevant components.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond
1https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessinnovation/datasets/foreigndirectinvestmentinvolvingukcompanies2013inwardtables
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to update their Global Britain in a Competitive Age: The Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy command paper, published in March 2021.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
As the Chancellor set out in the Autumn Statement, the Government is updating the Integrated Review. The date of publication for this will be confirmed in due course.
Asked by: Lord Taylor of Warwick (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions the Parliamentary Secretary for the Cabinet Office (Minister for Constitution) has had with other ministers regarding the post-Brexit funding arrangements.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
Ministers and officials regularly meet other Ministerial and departmental colleagues to discuss a range of issues, including those relating to the United Kingdom's departure from the European Union.
Taking into account the financial settlement with the EU, an additional £14.6 billion of spending by 2024-25 has been allocated to the United Kingdom’s domestic priorities, rather than being sent in contributions to the EU. This spending was incorporated into the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-budget-and-spending-review-2021-documents.