Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which Departments within the shared service matrix cluster does UK Shared Business Services provide shared services for.
Answered by George Freeman
UK Shared Business Services provides services for two departments which are in the Matrix cluster: the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and the Department for International Trade (DIT).
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, which Departments within the Shared Service Matrix Cluster have in-house shared services; and from which offices those shared services are conducted.
Answered by George Freeman
Matrix shared services cluster is formed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), Department for International Trade (DIT), Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and Cabinet Office (CO) in a first wave of rapid adopters, followed by Department for Education (DfE), Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and Her Majesty’s Treasury (HMT).
The following Departments have Department-defined in-house shared services:
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: The DCMS definition of shared services is provided by a combination of Outsource and Insource provision. HR transactional services (excluding payroll) are provided in-house across a geographically dispersed team, with people located in
Department for Education: The DfE definition of shared services is services provided by core DfE to other entities. DfE provides services to the core Department and a number of its ALBs. DfE staff are based in the offices below and the teams that operate our shared service provision are split site, with teams spanning multiple offices.
Department of Health and Social Care: The DHSC definition of shared services is provided by core DHSC. DHSC staff are geographically dispersed, with people located in:
- London
- Leeds.
HM Treasury: The HMT definition of shared services is provided by Treasury Group Shared Service centre to HM Treasury and its ALBs. Staff are geographically dispersed, with people located in:
- Norwich
- London.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 13 November 2020 to Question 112077, Artificial Intelligence, what progress has been made with each of the items listed.
Answered by George Freeman
A progress update where available (in italics) on each of the items in the answer I gave the Hon. Member on 13 November 2022 to Question 112077 can be found below.
BEIS are exploring AI and machine learning techniques internally to enable more efficient working. Projects are being
(i) Undertaken:
(ii) Considered:
BEIS Analysts use machine learning techniques, under the umbrella of artificial intelligence, where appropriate as part of analysis supporting policy development.
Machine Learning projects are being
(i) Undertaken:
(ii) Considered:
BEIS policy teams are exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence. AI projects are being considered by the Better Regulation Executive who are looking to convert the stock of regulatory requirements placed on business into machine readable code and pilot hosting this as open source a metadata set on the ‘Open Regulation Platform’ (ORP), freely available on The National Archives GOV.UK platform. The project is currently in discovery phase to identify all data that government holds on regulatory obligations that could be relevant for this platform. This application is closely related to work that has already been undertaken as part of BEIS GovTech challenge to apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand the cumulative impact of regulation. The Open Regulation Platform project is currently at the private beta stage.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 10 November 2020 to Question 112078, Land Registry: Artificial Intelligence, what progress has been made by the Land Registry on exploring new and emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through its Digital Street research and development project.
Answered by George Freeman
HM Land Registry (HMLR) is already using machine learning to enable its caseworkers to compare documents more efficiently, to make the Land Register increasingly machine readable and to accelerate the migration of Local Authority data as part of the Local Land Charges programme.
HMLR’s Annual Report and Accounts 2020/21 includes an update on the Digital Street research and development programme and is available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many (a) civil servants, (b) public servants in UK Shared Business Services and (c) private sector workers in Shared Services Connected Ltd work on shared services within the shared service matrix cluster.
Answered by George Freeman
The Matrix shared service cluster was introduced as part of the Government Business Services “Shared Services Strategy for Government” in March 2021. A programme team has been put in place to develop a business case and secure a budget for the implementation of the shared service centre for the cluster.
The current number of civil servants that work directly on transactional shared services is c.80.
UK Shared Business Services provide shared services, including to BEIS and DIT. The number of public servants in UK Shared Business Services is c.640.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the level of fuel debt accumulated on prepayment meters due to the build-up of standing charges; and what steps he is taking to help prevent the accumulation of fuel debt through standing charges.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Standing charges are capped under the energy price cap which is set by Ofgem to protect customers on default tariffs.
In addition to the existing £12bn package, the government has announced a further package of support to help households with the rising cost of energy, worth £9.1 billion in 2022-23. This includes:
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what the difference in unit cost is for households using (a) energy prepayment meters and (b) paying for energy by direct debit; and what steps he is taking to reduce that cost difference.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
Supplier licence conditions, enforced by independent regulator Ofgem, state that the differences in price between payment methods for energy, including by prepayment meter, must reflect the cost to the supplier of that payment method. The energy price cap protects prepayment meter customers and ensures they pay a fair price for their energy.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what records his Department keeps relating to staff working times under Regulation 9 of the Working Time Regulations 1998; and how long those records are kept for.
Answered by George Freeman
Staff at BEIS work a standard 36/37 hour full-time week. Pay and Time Off In Lieu for overtime, and flexitime, are available where agreed and recorded locally. Managers are responsible for monitoring the hours worked by their team members and for addressing any excess hours that are worked on a regular basis.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of amending the Working Time Regulations in response to the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling in the case of Federacion de Servicios de Comisiones Oberas v Deutsche Bank SAE (CJEU Case C-55/18); and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Paul Scully
It is important that employers comply with the Working Time Regulations in respect of working hours and daily and weekly rest, and that they are held to account if they don't. Workers can take a case to employment tribunal concerning insufficient rest, and the Health and Safety Executive directly enforces maximum working hours. The Government has also committed to bringing forward state enforcement of the rules in the Working Time Regulations on holiday pay for vulnerable workers, to ensure that workers get the paid time off they deserve.
Asked by: Chris Stephens (Scottish National Party - Glasgow South West)
Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the compliance of the facilities management contractor ISS with employment practices for staff based in his Department's buildings.
Answered by Amanda Solloway - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The Government Property Agency (GPA) is the contract holder for the facilities management provider ISS. Both GPA and BEIS work closely with all their suppliers on all aspects of service delivery. GPA and the Department draw facilities services from a Crown Commercial Service framework supplier to help ensure confidence in the supplier base.