Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to his Department's portfolio of major projects, how much public money has been spent on (a) internal staff costs and (b) external consultancy relating to delivery of the projects on (i) Planning Reform and (ii) Electoral Integrity from the outset of each project to the end of October 2022.
Answered by Lee Rowley
As regards the Planning Reform programme, contracts covering external consultancy are published on Contracts Finder and Digital Marketplace.
The DLUHC spend on external consultancy on the Electoral Integrity Programme, in the time since the Project transferred to DLUHC and October 2022 was £0.
Staff costs are met from within existing departmental budgets and the Department’s workforce management information is published monthly here.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 8 November to Question 77346 on Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Redundancy Pay, how many special advisers working in his Department had their employment terminated, after their appointing minister ceased to hold office, from 29 June to 9 November 2022; at what pay band each was employed; and whether each had been in post for (a) 0-3 months, (b) 3-6 months, (c) 6-12 months or (d) more than 12 months.
Answered by Dehenna Davison
Information on Special Adviser numbers and costs, including pay bands, is published annually as per the requirements of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, 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 Lee Rowley
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 Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, on how many occasions the provision of mandatory training for his Departmental staff regarding their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 has been cited by his Department as a defence against Section 109 proceedings since the commencement of that Act.
Answered by Lee Rowley
The cross-government learning curriculum, which is curated by the Government Skills and Curriculum Unit (GSCU), includes an 'Inclusion in the Civil Service' e-learning module, which has been included DLUHC's mandatory learning requirement and references the Equality Act 2010. We are unable to confirm whether officials' obligations under the Equality Act 2010 have been used as defence in legal proceedings brought against the Department since the commencement of that Act as the information is not held centrally.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many people held electronic purchasing cards that allowed them to make purchases against his Department's budget as of 31 March 2022.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
As of 31 March 2022, there were 17 live Government Procurement Card accounts that could be used to make purchases against the Department of Levelling up, Housing and Communities budget.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether all payments over £250 made by his Department to Manning Gottlieb OMD between November 2018 and May 2022 and categorised under Level 2 of the Public Sector Procurement Expenditure Survey as (a) Advertising and (b) Communication Services took place under the Media Buying framework agreement RM6003.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
All services supplied during that time were under Media Buying Framework RM6003.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the maximum value, inclusive of VAT, is of the contract that his 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 Eddie Hughes
Spending on campaigns are published regularly on the gov.uk website as part of the department’s transparency data made publicly available.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what total cost to the public purse, inclusive of VAT, was incurred by his Department between May 2018 and May 2022 for media buying services provided under the Crown Commercial Service's media buying framework agreement reference RM6003.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The total cost incurred by the Department between May 2018 and May 2022 for media buying services is not readily available and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to publish the framework and guidance provided by his Department to the UK’s new freeports on compliance with the programme’s monitoring and evaluation requirements.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to the answer I gave to question UIN 11601 on 08/06/2022.
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-06-01/11601
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, to publish (a) the baseline studies, (b) key performance indicators and (c) data sources that will be used by his Department to evaluate progress against the objectives for the UK Freeports Programme.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
The Freeports Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) strategy sets out our high-level approach to evaluation of the Freeports Programme. The Department is currently defining the M&E framework in detail, including data indicators and data analysis methods required, in close collaboration with Freeports and stakeholders. Once confirmed, work will start on gathering relevant baseline data to inform the evaluation. To support data collection activities, guidance and templates will be developed for Freeports to be able to gather data in a consistent way.