Lord Wallace of Saltaire: Cabinet Office: All Documents

Speech in Lords Chamber - Fri 18 Nov 2022
House of Lords (Peerage Nominations) Bill [HL]

"My Lords, most of those who have spoken have welcomed the Bill and spoken about the importance of this modest reform to the reputation of the House and, in effect, to restoring public trust in our parliamentary democracy.

Several people have spoken about how they were appointed to this House, …..."
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 17 Nov 2022
Peerages: Letters Patent

"My Lords, the Minister yesterday asserted the principle that the Government are entitled to have a similar majority in the Lords to the Commons, but that is not a principle that was understood in the last partial reform of the Lords in 1999. Indeed, the then Labour Government survived with …..."
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Wed 16 Nov 2022
Parliament: Deferred Peerages

"My Lords, in the last manifesto that the Conservatives came up with, there was a commitment for a commission on the constitution to consider questions such as the future of the House of Lords and the next stage of reform. By the time of the coming election, there will be …..."
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Wed 16 Nov 2022
Parliament: Deferred Peerages

"I mean unbalanced in favour of the Conservatives, of course. What does the Minister think might be in the next Conservative manifesto about the next stage of necessary reform of the House of Lords?..."
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 20 Oct 2022
Unemployment Figures

"Does the noble Baroness recognisethat there is a clear link between the lengthening waiting time for operations and those who are outside the labour force? Is that not one of the problems that the Government need to address—to speed up operations—if they want to get people in middle age back …..."
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Mon 17 Oct 2022
House of Lords: Appointments

"My Lords, my recollection of the negotiations between 1997 and 1999 is that there was a general agreement that there should not be a majority for any group in this House and that this House should have a different composition from the House of Commons. I understood the Minister to …..."
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Written Question

Senior Civil Servants

Monday 26th September 2022

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made as to whether Freedom of Information principles require the release of the responsibilities and names of all senior civil servants.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)

The guidance for departments to publish their SCS transparency data remains in place, and all departments have published at least once since 1st April 2022.

Each department publishes its departmental organograms on data.gov.uk as part of the Government’s commitment to transparency. In order to do so, departments individually collect and present data including names, grades, job titles, and annual pay ranges from Permanent Secretary through to SCS2. Information for those at SCS1 is anonymised.

The decision to only publish names for SCS2 and above dates back to 2010, and was made on the grounds of proportionality and reasonable expectations of privacy. The guidance for publication of SCS transparency data was reconfirmed in 2017, and has been reviewed regularly to ensure that it is still appropriate and provides the information that the public might reasonably need.

Written Question

Senior Civil Servants

Monday 26th September 2022

Asked by: Lord Wallace of Saltaire (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government why they have ceased publishing the responsibilities and names of all senior civil servants, including those at the SCS1 grade, in all departments of central government.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)

The guidance for departments to publish their SCS transparency data remains in place, and all departments have published at least once since 1st April 2022.

Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 21 Jul 2022
House of Lords Appointments Commission

"My Lords, the Minister makes the best of sometimes rather weak cases when putting them forward. He knows the Prime Minister much better than I do. Does he occasionally wonder whether the Prime Minister—a declared disruptor of our institutions—wants to undermine the current constitution of our second Chamber by flooding …..."
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Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 21 Jul 2022
Heatwave Response

"My Lords, the response to this extraordinary event has been extremely good. I hope the Minister will agree with me that the local responses were as important as the national effort. This reinforces the argument that we need to pay more attention to ensuring that our local authorities, their public …..."
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