Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
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 the Answer of 9 March 2022 to Question 132391 on civil service staff networks, what information he holds on (a) FTE staff time and (b) budgets available to recognised staff groups within his Department in each of the last three years.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Across the Civil Service, employee networks provide a valuable support structure for staff.
(a) All staff networks are entirely voluntary. A Network Business Deal introduced in February 2021 provides all network chairs/deputy chairs of networks up to 25% of their contracted hours to conduct activities aimed at running the network and delivery of their business plans. This is subject to the business need and agreement with line management. It also allows that Employee network executive team members who volunteer alongside the Chairs, Co-Chairs, and Deputy Chairs can be allocated up to 10%
(b) In each of the last three financial years a staff network budget of £20,000 per annum has been controlled by Human Resources. This covers all the networks listed below:
The Department currently recognises 15 staff network groups and unless stated otherwise all have been running over the last three years. They include the following: BAMENet, Carers, Disability, EU Nationals, Fair Treatment Ambassadors (from 2021), Gender Equality, Health and Wellbeing, Jobshare, LGBT+, LGBT+ Allies, Neurodiversity, Social Mobility, Working Parents, 50+, Inclusion Allies (from 2022). The Department also recognises the following three faith network groups: Group Christian Fellowship, Jewish Network, Network for Muslims.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
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 the Answer of 9 March 2022 to Question 132391, what recognised staff groups have been running in his Department over the last three years.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
The Department currently recognises 15 staff network groups and unless stated otherwise all have been running over the last three years. They include the following: BAMENet, Carers, Disability, EU Nationals, Fair Treatment Ambassadors (from 2021), Gender Equality, Health and Wellbeing, Jobshare, LGBT+, LGBT+ Allies, Neurodiversity, Social Mobility, Working Parents, 50+, Inclusion Allies (from 2022). The Department also recognises the following three faith network groups: Group Christian Fellowship, Jewish Network, Network for Muslims.
Asked by: Gareth Bacon (Conservative - Orpington)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the impact of Tower Hamlets Council’s decision not to publish the costs of its town hall project; and what statutory powers he has to help ensure that public expenditure on public projects of £100 million and over are published.
Answered by Kemi Badenoch - Leader of HM Official Opposition
Local authorities are autonomous public bodies responsible to their electorate for the decisions they take. The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities is responsible for the oversight of local government and is interested in understanding issues around financial viability, leadership and standards of corporate governance, however, central government and ministers do not have a remit to intervene in the day-to-day affairs of a council, except in exceptional circumstances of most serious concern.
Transparency is the foundation of local accountability. The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 introduced a localised audit regime for local authorities in England, which included mandatory transparency requirements for principal councils to improve local accountability together with the ability for local people to better hold their councils to account.
Electors are entitled to inspect the accounts and other documents – including audit opinions and can ask questions of, and make objections to, the local authorities’ external auditor, who is required to respond. Details of this process can be found in the Local Authority Accounts: A guide to your rights, published by the National Audit Office: https://www.nao.org.uk/code-audit-practice/council-accounts-a-guide-to-your-rights/.