Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of using (a) mixed taps and (b) hand-dryers on levels of personal hygiene; and whether he plans to take steps to install such devices in relevant facilities within his Departmental estate.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has no plans to make an assessment of the potential impact of using (a) mixed taps and (b) hand-dryers on levels of personal hygiene. The Department already uses these devices on its estate.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to his Department's publication of spending over £25,000 in 2022, for what purpose his Department made payments to Savill UK Ltd for the rental of Harrington House in (a) March, (b) May, (c) September and (d) November 2022; and for what reason those payments increased from £68,1381.01 to £74,242.65 in November 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department has leased Harrington House, Mandeville Road, Stoke Mandeville from BMW (UK) Trustees Limited for a term of 25 years from 25 March 1999. The permitted use is as accommodation for staff and/or students training at a National Health Service hospital or for such other residential purposes as the Landlord (BMW (UK) Trustees Limited) approves.
The Department sublets the property to Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust and all rental costs are recovered from the trust. Savills UK Ltd are the managing agents for the Landlord and collect the rent on behalf of the Landlord, hence why payments are being made to them by the Department.
The payment increases are as a result of the annual rent reviews provided for in the lease which are linked to the retail prices index.
The lease expires in 2024 and will not be renewed.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 17 January to Question 119018 on Department of Health and Social Care: Paper, whether his Department maintains records for the number of reams of A4 paper purchased in each financial year, consistent with the requirements of HM Treasury's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, 2022-23, published on 15 December 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department records its number of reams of A4 purchased each financial year, in line with HM Treasury Guidelines. The Department reports this paper purchased data under the Greening Government Commitments scheme. This information is published in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Report.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s Greening Government Commitments for 2021-25, how many tonnes of food waste were produced from his Departmental estate in Financial Year (a) 2021-22 and (b) 2022-23 up to 31 December 2022.
Answered by Will Quince
In line with the Greening Government Commitments, the Department has committed to measure and report on food waste, for estates with over 50 full time equivalent staff and/or over 500m2 floor area offering a food service.
The requested information for 2021/2022 will be published in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Report for 2021/2022, due later this year. The data for 1 April 2022 to 31 December 2022 will be published in the Annual Report covering 2022/2023.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s publication of government procurement card spending over £500 for December 2021, for attendance at which event did his Department pay Revolution Events Ltd. £4,627.80 on 22 December 2021; and at which hotel was accommodation booked for staff attending that event.
Answered by Will Quince
The event attended was the International Records Management Society Conference between 15 to 17 May 2021. The hotel was the DoubleTree by Hilton in Glasgow.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s Greening Government Commitments for 2021-25, how many reams of A4 paper were purchased by his Department in Financial Year (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21, and (c) 2021-22.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department is committed to the Greening Government Commitments target of reducing Government’s paper use by at least 50% from a 2017 to 2018 baseline.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 December 2022 to Question 107066, how many purchases with a value less than £500 were made against his Department’s budget through a Government procurement card in 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
There were 1027 purchases with a value of less than £500 in 2021.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 23 December to Question 107082, for what reason he is concerned that the disclosure of the information requested in relation to his Department could affect Edenred’s commercial interests when sixteen other government departments who also use the Edenred contract to pay non-cash vouchers to their staff have disclosed the same information since 6 December 2022 with no such concerns arising.
Answered by Will Quince
Upon further consideration with Edenred, the Department has decided to disclose this information in line with other Government departments. The following tables shows the total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to staff working for the Department.
Year | Value |
2017/18 | £11,585 |
2018/19 | £23,150 |
2020/21 | £53,155 |
2021/22 | £106,575 |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s publication of government procurement card spending over £500 for May 2021, for what purpose a payment of £4,320 was made to Thanet District Council on 19 May 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
The Department made a payment to Thanet Council for the COVID-19 Regional Testing Programme needed to print 120,000 lateral testing certificates.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his Department’s publication of government procurement card spending over £500 for May 2021, for what purpose a payment of £1,000 was made to “RAZ OMR GLOBAL” on 18 May 2021.
Answered by Will Quince
This refers to an organisation which processes invoices and payments on behalf of Orion Market Research. The payment to Orion Market Research relates to a market insights report.