Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people received honours in each constituency between August 2016 and August 2020.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Honours recipients are not categorised by constituency. However, the honours lists, as published on GOV.UK, are searchable by county.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent steps his Department has taken to increase diversity on public boards.
Answered by Michael Gove - Minister for Intergovernmental Relations
Annual reports by the Commissioner for Public Appointments and the Cabinet Office include data on those taking up and holding public appointments. The government has published and is implementing the Public Appointments Diversity Action Plan, available on gov.uk. I will keep this plan under review and the next update will reflect the Government's levelling up agenda, including regional diversity, and diversity of thought.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to increase diversity in the (a) nomination for and (b) award of UK honours.
Answered by Chloe Smith
Significant progress has been made in recent years to improve diversity in the honours system. For example, we now consistently see around half of awards overall going to women, and in the New Year 2020 Honours List, 51% of honours went to women. Around 10% of awards go to recipients from a BAME background. The Cabinet Office will consider whether further steps to improve diversity and representation are required. We welcome more nominations from under-represented regions and we are running a programme of regional events to promote the system in those areas most under-represented.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of staff in his Department in receipt of each category of Honour in (a) December 2018 and (b) June 2019 were (i) from ethnic minority backgrounds and (ii) female aged (A) under 30, (B) 31 to 40, (C) 41 to 50 and (D) aged over 50.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Government is committed to ensuring that the honours system is fully representative of UK society. The proportion of women and people from ethnic minorities receiving recognition on each honours list is available on GOV.UK as is a breakdown of ethnicities of recipients is published on the Ethnicity Facts and Figures website at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/honours-recipients-by-ethnicity
Information on ages is not correlated with other diversity factors. We also publish the proportion of honours by independent committee on GOV.UK. The numbers of honours recipients in the Cabinet Office are very small and vary from year to year. Releasing the requested data would identify the individuals and they have given permission for their data to be used for statistical purposes only.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the proportion of deaths that are premature in (a) London and (b) Hounslow Borough.
Answered by Kevin Foster
It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many BAME staff are employed at (a) grade 7, (b) grade 5 and (c) grade 3 in his Department.
Answered by Kevin Foster
Information about the ethnicity of staff working in the Cabinet Office (and other Government Departments) is published annually as part of the Annual Civil Service Employment Survey. The most recent statistics for March 2018 are published at https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/construct/summary.asp?mode=construct&version=0&dataset=129 . Statistics for March 2019 are scheduled for publication on 24th July 2019. Please note that in the Cabinet Office, Grade 7 is merged with Grade 6 in the Band A payband.
Summary representation rates of ethnic minority SCS by department are published on the Civil Service diversity dashboard as at December 2018. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-diversity-inclusion-dashboard/civil-service-diversity-and-inclusion-dashboard .
The table below provides more statistics on BAME staff in Cabinet Office:
Grade | No. of BAME | % Representation | % Declarations |
Band A | 197 | 17% | 68% |
SCS1 | 21 | 11% | 70% |
SCS2 | 5 | 10% | 68% |
All Grades | 791 | 20% | 59% |
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his policy is on adopting environmental, social, and governance criteria in relation to civil service pension funds.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
‘The Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and Civil Servants and Others Pension Scheme’ is an unfunded scheme and therefore does not have any investments.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the capacity of civil service pension funds to engage in shareholder advocacy with the companies in which they have holdings; and to what extent those funds have exercised that capacity to date.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
‘The Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and Civil Servants and Others Pension Scheme’ are unfunded schemes and therefore do not engage in shareholder advocacy as they do not have any direct share holdings in companies.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has plans to commission and investigation into the the potential disenfranchisement of EU citizens resident in the UK in the 2019 European Parliament elections.
Answered by Kevin Foster
In line with their statutory duty, the Electoral Commission will be publishing a report into the administration of the polls later this year, which the Government will consider in due course.
Asked by: Seema Malhotra (Labour (Co-op) - Feltham and Heston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of the (a) financial and (b) practical feasibility of divesting Civil Service Pension Funds from (i) fossil fuel and (ii) carbon-intensive industries.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
‘The Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme and Civil Servants and Others Pension Scheme’ is an unfunded scheme and therefore does not have any investments.