Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, 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 Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of all suppliers excluded from the procurement process are included in the Contract Award Report, which is approved and signed off by Cabinet Office Commercial. No central record of these exclusions is held by the Cabinet Office, and in order to confirm the details of suppliers excluded from any procurement would mean checking each Contract Award Report approved and signed off between 1 January 2021 and 31 January 2023.
The UK imposes a range of sanctions against individuals or organisations that pose a threat to our country or its interests. Alongside procurement exclusions, these include asset freezes, travel bans, trade sanctions and transport sanctions.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many suppliers the Department excluded from procurement on the grounds of (a) fraud, (b) corruption and (c) any other grounds under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 between 2015 and 2022.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. To obtain the information a manual search through individual records would be required as this is not recorded centrally on departmental systems.
The grounds for the exclusion of bidders from public procurement procedures are set out in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. These rules set out the circumstances in which bidders must, or may, be excluded from a public procurement process.
The Procurement Bill brought forward by this Conservative Government, currently being considered by Parliament, expands the scope of misconduct which can lead to exclusion. We are also increasing the time period within which misconduct can lead to exclusion from 3 years to 5; bringing subsidiary companies into scope of exclusion; and making the rules clearer so that contracting authorities can undertake exclusions with more confidence
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many suppliers his Department has excluded from procurement on the grounds of (a) fraud, (b) corruption and (c) other grounds under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 from 2015 to 2022.
Answered by Alex Chalk - Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
As part of its standard procurement processes, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) requires potential suppliers to confirm whether they have been convicted in the last five years of certain offences set out in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. These include offences relating to fraud and corruption.
Since Financial Year 2015-16, the MOD has placed over 14,000 contracts, and decisions on exclusion are made case-by-case. Information on how many suppliers have been excluded from procurement is therefore not held centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many suppliers his Department has excluded from procurement on the grounds of (a) fraud, (b) corruption and (c) other grounds under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 from 2015 to 2022.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The information requested is not readily available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. To obtain the information a manual search through individual records would be required as this is not recorded centrally on departmental systems.
The grounds for the exclusion of bidders from public procurement procedures are set out in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. These rules set out the circumstances in which bidders must, or may, be excluded from a public procurement process.
The Procurement Bill brought forward by this Conservative Government, currently being considered by Parliament, expands the scope of misconduct which can lead to exclusion. We are also increasing the time period within which misconduct can lead to exclusion from 3 years to 5; bringing subsidiary companies into scope of exclusion; and making the rules clearer so that contracting authorities can undertake exclusions with more confidence.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2023 to Question 167132 on Ministry of Defence: TikTok, which devices are being used to publish and monitor his Department's TikTok content; and what security measures are in place to prevent hacking and spyware on those devices.
Answered by Ben Wallace
The Ministry of Defence (MOD) TikTok account has been implemented to communicate globally the ongoing efforts of the UK Armed Forces, including our work with nine partner nations, to train Ukrainian soldiers and prepare them for frontline combat.
To deliver our messages internationally we must leverage the largest digital platforms available to us with the most significant reach and scale. Defence communications needs to speak to both domestic and overseas audiences and as well as showcasing Defence events, our comms also form part of UK strategic messaging. TikTok is currently key to reaching vital overseas audiences.
Our TikTok channel showcases the amazing courage and determination of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to win the war and highlights the multilateral support for UK-led training of Ukrainian troops.
Whilst the benefits vs risk case is finely balanced, the MOD’s secure publishing model and long-standing experience of digital communication channels management enable us to operate the channel safely.
Robust processes are in place to control publishing to social media from within the MOD. Communications on social media are delivered by separate systems through a small number of communications staff. TikTok communications, like all social media publishing, are delivered via third-party software and no Government (or personal) devices are being used to publish or monitor the platform directly. The MOD’s secure publishing model means that no MOD staff are logged into TikTok using an official device.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many suppliers his Department has excluded from procurement on the grounds of (a) fraud, (b) corruption and (c) other grounds under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 from 2015 to 2022.
Answered by Graham Stuart
This information is not held centrally and can only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether the Voter Identification Evaluation Form will be required at (a) local government, (b) combined authority mayoral and (c) local authority mayoral elections after 4 May 2023.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Further to the answer given here, I refer the Rt. Hon. Member to schedule 1, paragraph 7 of the Elections Act.
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 many units of personal protective equipment purchased by the Government are in storage in warehouses in China; and what the cost to the public purse is of that storage on average in January 2023.
Answered by Will Quince
As of 31 January 2023, there were 118,000,000 items of personal protective equipment stored in China. The average cost of storage was £30,000 a day for the month of January 2023.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how much his Department spent on external consultants in 2022.
Answered by James Cartlidge - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The information on how much the department has spent on consultancy will be published in the HMT annual report and accounts for the financial year 2022-23 late this summer as it has done in previous years.
Asked by: Angela Rayner (Labour - Ashton-under-Lyne)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the level of compliance by (a) Government Departments, (b) Executive Agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies with the guidance set out in Procurement Policy Note 01/22: contracts with suppliers from Russia and Belarus.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia has been met with unprecedented global condemnation. The UK is proudly standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and has introduced tough financial and investment sanctions, to push Russia to cease its illegal and destabilising actions.
In March 2022, Cabinet Office published PPN 01/22 which set out the government's commercial policy and guidance, recommending that public bodies immediately seek to identify any contracts with Russian and Belarusian companies and, to switch suppliers with minimal disruption, pursue legal routes of cancelling them. In all cases, contracting authorities must be proportionate and take a risk-based approach. The final decision to terminate a contract rests with the contracting authority with responsibility for the contract.
In the case of the Cabinet Office’s own commercial activities, since the publication of PPN 01/22, there have been no instances where a Russian/Belarusian supplier has bid, and therefore been excluded from a procurement. Other departments will hold their own records on such matters.