Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to his Department’s publication of government procurement card spending over £500 for August 2021, for what purpose two payments totalling £11,987.74 were made to British Airways on 6 August 2021.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The purpose of the two payments totalling £11,987.74 was for overseas travel.
Both payments were for Business Class flights to the 2021 Paralympic Games.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department spent in 2021 on purchasing goods and services with a value of less than £500 on a government procurement card.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The total spent by the Department for Work and Pensions on items with a value of less than £500 on a Government Procurement Card (GPC) in 2021 was £8,507,730.65 (69,786 transactions).
Source: GPC data. This gives details of all transactions posted during the 2021 calendar year and includes expenditure as well as refunds. The figure quoted is net of refunds.
Points to note:
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what was the total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to staff working for his Department as performance-related bonuses in (a) 2017-18, (b) 2018-19, (c) 2019-20, (d) 2020-21 and (e) 2021-22.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The table below show the total value of non-cash vouchers awarded to DWP staff in the years requested.
|
| £'s |
BONUSES - VOUCHERS | 2017 - 18 | 3,619,070 |
2018 - 19 | 5,137,259 | |
2019 - 20 | 4,031,772 | |
2020 - 21 | 5,313,692 | |
2021 - 22 | 5,915,116 | |
|
|
|
Source: Hyperion | ||
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much his Department has spent on staff activity related to the review of retained EU laws within his Department's areas of responsibility since 1 September 2021; and what funding his Department has allocated for these purposes for the rest of the 2022-23 financial year.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
Information is not held centrally on the staff activity related to the review of retained EU law or the passage of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill in financial years 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The Retained EU law dashboard was made by the Retained EU Law team, in conjunction with the Government Strategic Management Office and is hosted on Tableau Public, which is a free platform for hosting public dashboards. The dashboard has been updated at no additional cost.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what total amount of money has been paid out by his Department in severance payments for former (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers since 29 June 2022; how much of that money has subsequently been repaid to his Department as a result of individuals (A) rejecting the payment or (B) returning to new roles; and in how many cases where individuals were in post for (I) 0-3 months, (II) 3-6 months, (III) 6-12 months and (IV) more than 12 months has their full severance payment been retained as of 2 November 2022.
Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)
The Provision of severance payments for Ministers is set out in legislation. Details of the severance payments made to ministers when leaving office are published in departments’ annual reports and accounts.
Similarly, the provision of severance payments for special advisers is set out in the Model Contract, which is available on gov.uk, including provisions for repayment of severance if reappointed. The cost of severance payments made to special advisers across government is published annually by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, on how many occasions the provision of mandatory training for her Departmental staff regarding their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 has been cited by her Department as a defence against Section 109 proceedings since the commencement of that Act.
Answered by Baroness Prentis of Banbury
The Department does not hold this information centrally and to provide it would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many payments were fraudulently charged to her Department’s budget using electronic purchasing cards in the financial years (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21, and (c) 2021-22; and what was the total value of fraudulent payments (i) made and (ii) recovered in each of those years.
Answered by Julie Marson
There were no fraudulent payments charged during (a) 2019-20, (b) 2020-21, and (c) 2021-22. Pre- and post- payment checks, along with additional compliance checks by budget holders are done on a monthly basis and have not identified any fraudulent payments.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against her Department's budget as of 31 March 2022.
Answered by Guy Opperman
As of 31 March 2022, there were 251 live Government Procurement Card accounts that could be used to make purchases against the Department’s budget.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 15 June 2022 to Question 13668 on Department for Work and Pensions: Media, whether all payments over £25,000 made by her Department to Manning Gottlieb OMD under the invoice cost centres (a) Comms Spare 1 and (b) Comms External Campaigns between November 2018 and May 2022 took place under the Media Buying framework agreement RM6003.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The media buying framework RM6003 was the only media buying framework available at that time.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the (a) procurement reference, (b) start date, (c) end date and (d) maximum value, inclusive of VAT, is of the contract that her Department has agreed with Manning Gottlieb OMD for the provision of strategic media activation services under the terms of the Crown Commercial Service's media services framework agreement reference RM6123.
Answered by Guy Opperman
The procurement has taken place via Crown Commercial Framework RM 6123 (Lot 1).
(a) Procurement reference: Project_24904
(b) Start date: 22/06/2022
(c) End date: 21/05/2025
(d) Maximum value, inclusive of VAT = £54m. VAT is recoverable