Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many reports of (a) uncompleted cleanliness tasks and (b) rodents were reported to Interserve at his Department's headquarters in each month from April 2019 to November 2019.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Facilities Management Client Unit measure the delivery of key areas of Interserve performance in line with contracted service standards.
For reactive cleaning requests we measure the performance against the initial response time and the rectification time. The cleaning figures attached represent the number of occasions where Interserve failed to meet the contracted standard and the representative percentage based on the total number of tasks reported. The level of cleaning performance is generally within contracted tolerances and is monitored on a monthly basis as part of contractual governance procedures. Where failures exceed tolerances, these are assessed and actions taken with the Service Provider to address them. Where rodents are reported, visits are made to the rooms to ensure adequate prevention methods are in place and that no food is left out overnight.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many planned preventative maintenance issues were missed by Interserve at his Department's main building in each month from April 2019 to November 2019.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Facilities Management Client Unit measure the delivery of key areas of Interserve performance in line with contracted service standards.
The figures below represent the number of planned preventative maintenance (PPM) tasks that were not delivered in month and in accordance with the contracted standard and the representative percentage based on the total number of PPMs due in the month.
Performance in relation to PPMs is monitored on a monthly basis as part of contractual governance procedures. In the main performance is within contracted tolerances. Where failures exceed contracted tolerances, these are assessed and actions taken with the Service Provider to address them. A new PPM regime was instigated from February 2019 under a new contractual arrangement.
È
|
| PPMs failed | |
|
| No. | % |
2018 | April | 3 | 1.25 |
May | 0 | 0 | |
June | 0 | 0 | |
July | 0 | 0 | |
August | 0 | 0 | |
September | 0 | 0 | |
October | 0 | 0 | |
November | 0 | 0 | |
December | 0 | 0 | |
2019 | January | 0 | 0 |
February | 2 | 1.1 | |
March | 1 | 0.38 | |
April | 1 | 0.4 | |
May | 32 | 4.9 | |
June | 91 | 11.5 | |
July | 56 | 6.3 | |
August | 33 | 4.1 | |
September | 16 | 3.1 | |
October | 30 | 7.4 | |
November | 0 | 0 | |
December | 2 | 0.4 | |
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many incidents of security breaches involving (a) unescorted visitors and (b) visitors with inadequate security clearance in secure areas being used by contracted staff were reported at his Department in each month from April to November 2019.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
a)
| 2018 | | | 2019 | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Oct | Nov | Dec | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
Unescorted visitors | 12 | 11 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 11 | 2 |
b) All those who visit the Foreign and Commonwealth Office without requisite Government security clearance must be escorted. FCO contractors are appropriately security cleared to be able to undertake their duties around the premises. We seek to reduce the number of breaches being committed through targeted communications and training offers including specific briefings to departments with poor breach records.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many and what proportion of staff in his Department would receive an increase in their salary in the event that their hourly pay rate was (a) £8.72, (b) £9.30 and (c) £10.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
All civil servants are paid at least the current statutory National Minimum or National Living Wage rates of £7.70 and £8.21 per hour respectively. The Government is committed to paying people a decent living wage, which is being addressed through the statutory National Living Wage. In April 2020, the National Living Wage increases to £8.72 per hour. By 2024 the National Living Wage will rise to £10.50 per hour, reaching 66% of median United Kingdom earnings. The scope will be expanded to everyone aged 21 and over and is expected to benefit over 4 million low paid workers.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the increase in the National Living wage announced by the Government on 31 December 2019, what discussions he is having with private sector companies undertaking facility management work for his Department to ensure that the cost of wage increases for their employees are not passed on to his Department.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
To date, there have been no discussions with private sector companies undertaking facilities management work for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) to ensure that the cost of wage increases for their employees, as a result of the increase in the Government National Living Wage, are not passed on to the FCO.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many reports he has received from Interserve about a potential break-in at a confidential waste room in his Department's headquarters between June and July 2019.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
There was no break-in at a confidential waste room. The door to a room containing confidential waste was forced in a controlled manner by appropriately cleared Interserve staff. This was the result of the key being misplaced. The room is managed by Interserve in accordance with the delivery of contracted facility management services.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of international co-operation on tackling climate change.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face today, and no country alone can solve the problem. That is why we bid to host the 26th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 26) in Glasgow next year in partnership with Italy. As the first G7 country to legislate for net zero by 2050, the UK is leading the world’s response, and other countries have been following our example.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s 2019 Media Freedom Campaign, what steps he is taking to address Amnesty International concerns about press freedom in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Mark Field
We are committed to building a global environment in which a free and vibrant media can flourish. As part of our leadership on this international agenda, the UK will continue to maintain the highest standards of press freedom, while retaining the right to take lawful and proportionate action to prevent and investigate crime, in accordance with human rights treaties and the Human Rights Act 1998. We are consulting Amnesty International and other civil society organisations on the design of the media freedom campaign.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, as part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s 2019 Media Freedom Campaign, what steps is the Minister taking to address Amnesty International concerns about press freedom being at risk in Northern Ireland due to the arrests of investigative journalists.
Answered by Mark Field
We do not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.