Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate HMRC has made of the number of companies that have stopped trading in the European Union since the end of the Brexit transition period; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 14 October is attached.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions (a) Ministers and (b) senior officials in his Department had on the 1984 Cammell Laird shipyard dispute with (i) other Government departments, (ii) the GMB trade union and (iii) other stakeholders between 1997 and 2007; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary
The Cabinet Office does not hold any documents on the 1984 Cammell Laird dispute. Records created in 1984 have been transferred to The National Archives, as required by the Public Records Act 1958. We cannot answer what discussions were had over the 10 year period, as answering would produce disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department holds documents on the 1984 Camell Laird dispute; and whether he will make a statement.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Cabinet Office does not hold any documents on the 1984 Cammell Laird dispute. Records created in 1984 have been transferred to The National Archives as required by the Public Records Act 1958.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has had any (a) financial contract and (b) meetings with (i) Clifford Chance LLP, (ii) FTI Consulting and (iii) Fenchurch Advisory Partners in the last five years; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Cabinet Office has not identified records of any live financial contracts with Clifford Chance LLP, FTI Consulting or Fenchurch Advisory Partners within the department in the last five years.
Details of ministerial meetings are published quarterly and can be found on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information he holds on the number of occurrences civil servants in his Department raised concerns regarding the price paid for personal protective equipment from February 2020 to August 2020; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Suppliers’ offers were taken through a number of review stages by the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) team made up of civil servants. At various stages of the review process offers were declined as a result of prices being too high. HM Treasury put in place measures with which the Department of Health and Social Care had to comply in order to protect the taxpayer from mispricing. Measures included comparing the latest spot prices for each offer against market prices and benchmarking prices to make sure the Government was not overpaying.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the compliance with the Special advisers: code of conduct of Ms Munira Mirza in respect of the award of contracts to Pharmaceuticals Direct; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The award of contracts to Pharmaceuticals Direct was subject to a legal challenge that was set aside by the High Court in June 2021. The Government believes that the case was without merit and is contesting an appeal in relation to that decision, so it would not be appropriate to comment further on the matter at this time.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many complaints his Department has received from companies complaining that they were unable to get the attention of officials with respect to the supply personal protective equipment from February 2020 to August 2020; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Michael Ellis
We rapidly processed over 24,000 offers of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) from over 15,000 suppliers who approached the National PPE Sourcing team via the online portals the Government established in March 2020. The webform ensured that offers of support were recorded effectively and taken forward as necessary.
Offers were triaged and those which could potentially deliver significant quantities of high-quality PPE quickly were prioritised. All offers then went into exactly the same Technical Assurance, Closing (i.e. contract negotiation) and Procurement (i.e. contract award) process, managed by officials. This process led to the award of 339 contracts by the Department of Health and Social Care. A high number of offers were rejected at different stages of being taken through this process for different reasons.