Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many employment tribunals have been brought against the Cabinet Office in the last decade; and how many of the tribunal cases considered discrimination or harassment related to a protected characteristic.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Employment tribunal decisions are published on GOV.UK. To ascertain which protected characteristic an employment tribunal was related to would lead to disproportionate costs.
The number of official grievances lodged by Cabinet Office staff and how many of those complaints were entirely or partially upheld is not centrally held. The Cabinet Office is therefore not able to respond due to the disproportionate cost of gathering this data.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government plans to introduce the Public Service Ombudsman Bill, as drafted in December 2016, to Parliament.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The government has no plans at this time to introduce the 2016 Public Service Ombudsman Bill to Parliament. Whilst the government will consider specific proposals on Ombudsman reform we do not currently view more large scale Ombudsman reform as a priority for this Parliament.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether victims of the blood contamination scandal and their legal teams will have the opportunity to view the report into the framework for compensation for victims of the contaminated blood scandal on the same day as the Government.
Answered by Michael Ellis
I refer the Hon. Member to the Written Ministerial Statement, HCWS681, made on 15 March.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many photographers are employed by the Office of the Prime Minister and No. 10 Downing Street; and on what date the advertisement for each role was published.
Answered by Michael Ellis
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given by my Rt Hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, to PQ 119830.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the (a) ten publishing companies that received the most from the public purse through the All In, All Together advertising campaign and (b) total sum each of those companies received.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government has developed a strong national campaign to provide information and reassurance to the public about COVID-19. As part of this, we have utilised advertising in over 600 national, regional and local titles across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A list of participating publishers will be placed in the Commons Library.
As with any media planning approach, titles are selected on their ability to engage with audiences at a national, regional and local level.
Cabinet Office publishes expenditure, including on public information campaigns, on a rolling monthly basis on GOV.UK as part of routine government transparency arrangements.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total cost to the public purse of the All In, All Together newspaper advertising campaign has been since April 2020.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government has developed a strong national campaign to provide information and reassurance to the public about COVID-19. As part of this, we have utilised advertising in over 600 national, regional and local titles across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. A list of participating publishers will be placed in the Commons Library.
As with any media planning approach, titles are selected on their ability to engage with audiences at a national, regional and local level.
Cabinet Office publishes expenditure, including on public information campaigns, on a rolling monthly basis on GOV.UK as part of routine government transparency arrangements.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January to Question 100698,UK Trade with EU: VAT, how many fulltime equivalent staff are dedicated to engaging with counterparts in EU Member States on issues relating to the interpretation by those countries’ custom officials of the VAT rules being applied to UK traders and hauliers.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Officials in a number of different Government Departments work on the full range of issues relating to trade with the EU under the new arrangements set out in the Trade and Co-operation Agreement. It is not possible to disaggregate the level of full time equivalent staff resource involved specifically in engaging with EU Member States on the interpretation of their VAT rules which is one issue among many.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the MPs Toolkit for UK Transition Campaign communication, emailed to hon. Members on 7 January 2021, what data were used to show many of the queries the Government receives about VAT are regarding the VAT regimes and operation of those in EU Member States.
Answered by Michael Ellis
We do not systematically record where queries specifically relate to EU VAT regimes. However, questions on this topic have been raised numerous times in various cross-government engagement fora over the last year. Although we do not record the data, we always direct customers to the relevant guidance.