Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 9 February to Question 140150 on Ministers: Members' Interests, what progress he has made on aligning ministerial interests declarations more closely with the declarations of Members of Parliament.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Right Honourable Member to the official record here: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2023-02-20/debates/9DF0D70A-7E95-4FEB-9C02-DF57D3EA4E94/CabinetOffice#2MC
The Government is assessing a number of recommendations from both the Committee on Standards in Public Life and Nigel Boardman regarding Ministers' quarterly transparency returns, which cover gifts; hospitality, meetings and overseas travel.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of storing personal protective equipment in China in (a) December 2021 and (b) January 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The cost to the public purse of storing personal protective equipment in China was approximately £2 million in December 2021, and approximately £1.9 million in January 2022.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether contracting authorities are regularly alerted by his Department about suppliers who have been excluded from procurement on the grounds of (a) fraud, (b) corruption and (c) other grounds under the Public Contract Regulations 2015.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Exclusion decisions are for individual departments. In the most serious of cases, the Cabinet Office may undertake a review of a supplier and issue guidance to departments but the decision on exclusion remains with the contracting authority.
The Procurement Bill, which is making its way through Parliament, further strengthens the rules on supplier exclusion for fraud and corruption. It will also create a new 'debarment register', accessible to all public sector organisations, which will list companies who should be excluded from contracts.
Information about exclusions relating to legal action being initiated by the Government relating to contracts to supply personal protective equipment is not held centrally.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many companies have been excluded from participating in public procurement due to legal action being initiated by Government relating to contracts to supply personal protective equipment.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Exclusion decisions are for individual departments. In the most serious of cases, the Cabinet Office may undertake a review of a supplier and issue guidance to departments but the decision on exclusion remains with the contracting authority.
The Procurement Bill, which is making its way through Parliament, further strengthens the rules on supplier exclusion for fraud and corruption. It will also create a new 'debarment register', accessible to all public sector organisations, which will list companies who should be excluded from contracts.
Information about exclusions relating to legal action being initiated by the Government relating to contracts to supply personal protective equipment is not held centrally.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost of storing personal protective equipment in China is per (a) day, (b) week and (c) year as of 15 March 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
Storage costs data for personal protective equipment are compiled on a monthly basis and the latest collated figures relate to January 2023. The cost of storing items in warehouses in China was £25.9 million in the year from February 2022 to January 2023. The daily cost of storage has fallen from £63,000 in February 2022 to £30,000 in January 2023.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on consultants for the disposal of personal protective equipment programme, including costs associated with the resolution of disputed contracts, between January 2020 and January 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
From April 2022 to January 2023, the Department spent £1,613,305 on consultancy that can be directly attributed to the disposal of goods. It is not possible to calculate the directly attributable costs associated with consultancy working on disposal prior to April 2022.
The costs associated with consultancy and contingent labour for the resolution of contracts between April 2022 to January 2023 is expected to be £5.45 million. This activity is responsible for the Department recovering well over £50 million to date, and further cash settlements are expected.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has any record of public contracts being awarded to suppliers on the UK Sanctions List between 1 January 2021 and 31 January 2023.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice has not awarded any contracts to entities (suppliers) on the UK Sanctions list between 01 January 2021 and 31 January 2023.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much his Department spent on (a) costs associated with the resolution of disputed contracts for and (b) other costs arising from the disposal of personal protective equipment between January 2020 and January 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
A team solely dedicated to the resolution of contracts was established in April 2022. Prior to April 2022 work on contract resolution was a proportion of staff time across several different teams, and it is therefore not possible to accurately extract those costs. The Department has assessed the directly attributable costs between April 2022 and March 2023 (using an estimation for March 2023) as £5,367,486. These costs relate to contingent labour, consultancy, and legal fees.
The Department has defined ‘other costs’ of disposal to include the following: costs committed and spent with Lead Waste Partners and others for disposal, and costs of staff time working on disposals. The total during the period January 2020 to end of January 2023 was £18.55 million.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many people took up unpaid parental leave between 1 January and 31 December 2022.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department does not hold data on the number of people who have taken unpaid parental leave between January and December 2022. Findings from the Fourth Work-Life Balance Employee Survey (2012) indicate that 11% of employee parents with children aged under 6 took parental leave in the previous 12 months, available here - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/work-life-balance-survey-number-4
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many people received statutory adoption pay between 1 January and 31 December 2022.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Information provided by employers to HM Revenue and Customs show that there were 4,600 individuals in receipt of Statutory Adoption Pay (SAP) in 2021/22 (the latest year for which full year data is available).