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 (Education)
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 (Education)
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.
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 Clause 16 of the Elections Bill, what assessment he has made of the costs or savings of removing the prosecuting function of the Electoral Commission.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Electoral Commission has to date never brought criminal prosecutions. The measures in the Elections Bill simply maintain the status quo.
The Elections Bill clarifies that the Electoral Commission should not bring criminal prosecutions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and provides that this should remain the responsibility of the Crown Prosecution Service and Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland which are already experts in this domain. Having the Commission perform this function would risk wasting public money by duplicating the work of the prosecution authorities. We are committed instead to supporting the police and prosecution authorities as necessary to enforce electoral regulation proactively and effectively.
As a result, the Government does not anticipate that this measure will result in any impact on prosecution rates or any costs.
The Bill makes no changes to the Commission’s investigatory powers. The Electoral Commission will continue to have a wide range of investigatory and civil sanctioning powers available to it and, as is currently the case, it will continue to be able to refer matters to the police and the prosecution authorities.
More generally, the Government will invest an additional £80 million per year in the Crown Prosecution Service by 2025. This will allow for the recruitment of additional frontline staff to deal with all types of casework, including electoral offences.
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 systems to ensure collaboration between the Crown Prosecution Service and Electoral Commission in prosecuting those who break electoral law relating to parties and campaigners (a) are currently in place and (b) will come in place when the Elections Bill comes into effect.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Electoral Commission has to date never brought criminal prosecutions. The measures in the Elections Bill simply maintain the status quo.
The Elections Bill clarifies that the Electoral Commission should not bring criminal prosecutions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and provides that this should remain the responsibility of the Crown Prosecution Service and Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland which are already experts in this domain. Having the Commission perform this function would risk wasting public money by duplicating the work of the prosecution authorities. We are committed instead to supporting the police and prosecution authorities as necessary to enforce electoral regulation proactively and effectively.
As a result, the Government does not anticipate that this measure will result in any impact on prosecution rates or any costs.
The Bill makes no changes to the Commission’s investigatory powers. The Electoral Commission will continue to have a wide range of investigatory and civil sanctioning powers available to it and, as is currently the case, it will continue to be able to refer matters to the police and the prosecution authorities.
More generally, the Government will invest an additional £80 million per year in the Crown Prosecution Service by 2025. This will allow for the recruitment of additional frontline staff to deal with all types of casework, including electoral offences.
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 Clause 16 of the Elections Bill, whether the Electoral Commission will maintain its investigatory powers into the breaking of electoral law relating to parties and campaigners when the Bill comes into effect.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
The Electoral Commission has to date never brought criminal prosecutions. The measures in the Elections Bill simply maintain the status quo.
The Elections Bill clarifies that the Electoral Commission should not bring criminal prosecutions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and provides that this should remain the responsibility of the Crown Prosecution Service and Public Prosecution Service Northern Ireland which are already experts in this domain. Having the Commission perform this function would risk wasting public money by duplicating the work of the prosecution authorities. We are committed instead to supporting the police and prosecution authorities as necessary to enforce electoral regulation proactively and effectively.
As a result, the Government does not anticipate that this measure will result in any impact on prosecution rates or any costs.
The Bill makes no changes to the Commission’s investigatory powers. The Electoral Commission will continue to have a wide range of investigatory and civil sanctioning powers available to it and, as is currently the case, it will continue to be able to refer matters to the police and the prosecution authorities.
More generally, the Government will invest an additional £80 million per year in the Crown Prosecution Service by 2025. This will allow for the recruitment of additional frontline staff to deal with all types of casework, including electoral offences.