Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish a list of (a) organisations and (b) individuals invited to participate in the Information Rights User Group.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
This Government is committed to transparency and we want to strengthen how the Freedom of Information Act works across the entire public sector. The Information Rights User Group is being established following a commitment made in the Open Government Partnership Network Action Plan 5. Further details of this commitment can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-national-action-plan-for-open-government-2021-2023/uk-national-action-plan-for-open-government-2021-2023#commitment-8-freedom-of-information
The final membership of the Group is yet to be finalised. Groups representing journalists, local authorities, campaign groups, think tanks, civil society, academics and the Information Commissioner’s Office were present at its inaugural meeting held on 4 July 2023.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what criteria his Department has in place for appointing personnel to Pay Review Bodies.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The pay review bodies are listed in the Schedule to the Public Appointments Order in Council. Appointments to these bodies are therefore regulated under the Order in Council and should be made in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments published by the Cabinet Office. This has been the case under successive administrations.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department is taking steps to prevent public contracts being awarded to companies that blacklist workers.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 prohibit the compilation, usage, sale or supply of blacklists. The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 contain exclusion grounds which allow contracting authorities to exclude suppliers from procurements where their tender does not comply with labour law or where the supplier is guilty of grave professional misconduct. A breach of the Blacklists Regulations on a particular tender would render the supplier liable to exclusion and a breach more widely may amount to grave professional misconduct.
In all cases, individual departments and other public sector bodies are responsible for their own decisions on these matters
The Procurement Bill introduced by the Government, currently in the final stages of debate in Parliament, builds on and clarifies the exclusions measures in the existing regime. This includes specific measures enabling the exclusion of suppliers for labour market misconduct and professional misconduct.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the grants awarded under the Reducing Veterans Homelessness programme in 2023-24, how much and what proportion of the funding allocated to the Launchpad Organisation will be spent on each of the four areas.
Answered by Johnny Mercer
As part of this Government’s drive to end veterans homelessness this year, Launchpad received over £800,000 through the Reducing Veteran Homelessness Programme to deliver addiction and mental health psychotherapy, intensive training and employment support to veterans.
Whilst a geographical breakdown of spend is not yet available, the Programme is expected to go live in September, and will report over the following months.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department has taken to assess the impact of the data breach of Capita systems in March 2023 on Government Departments; and whether any Government data was compromised by the data breach.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Cabinet Office, the Financial Conduct Authority and the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) have been working with Capita to understand any risks to government data following the incident in March. Capita has acknowledged that some data was exfiltrated from less than 0.1% of its server estate; our understanding to date is that this includes a very limited impact to public sector data.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2023 to Question 185568 on Mining: Industrial Disputes, whether he plans to take steps to change the record keeping practices of his Department to help improve (a) accessibility and (b) preservation of historical documents.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Cabinet Office is committed to complying with the Public Records Act 1958 and has released records to The National Archives (TNA) up to 2002.
Records listed on TNA’s online catalogue Discovery include details to reflect exemptions, if they have been applied, to closed or retained records. If paper files that are open at TNA contain minor redactions, details to reflect exemptions being applied are included on a Dummy Card, which replaces the closed or retained extracts within the record. A process is in place to re-review closed and retained records at the 10-year point or when the agreed closure or retention period is about to expire.
The most recent Information Management Assessment published by The National Archives (https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cabinet-office-ima-reassessment-report.pdf) gave the Cabinet Office an assurance rating of Green. There are no plans to change the record keeping practices of the Department.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2023 to Question 185568 on Mining: Industrial Disputes, when his Department last made an assessment of whether retained documents relating to the miners’ strike should be place into the public domain.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Cabinet Office is committed to complying with the Public Records Act 1958 and has released records to The National Archives (TNA) up to 2002.
Records listed on TNA’s online catalogue Discovery include details to reflect exemptions, if they have been applied, to closed or retained records. If paper files that are open at TNA contain minor redactions, details to reflect exemptions being applied are included on a Dummy Card, which replaces the closed or retained extracts within the record. A process is in place to re-review closed and retained records at the 10-year point or when the agreed closure or retention period is about to expire.
The most recent Information Management Assessment published by The National Archives (https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cabinet-office-ima-reassessment-report.pdf) gave the Cabinet Office an assurance rating of Green. There are no plans to change the record keeping practices of the Department.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2023 to Question 185568 on Mining: Industrial Disputes, if he will take steps to (a) publish all documents relating to the miners strike and (b) place those documents in the national archive.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Cabinet Office is committed to complying with the Public Records Act 1958 and has released records to The National Archives (TNA) up to 2002.
Records listed on TNA’s online catalogue Discovery include details to reflect exemptions, if they have been applied, to closed or retained records. If paper files that are open at TNA contain minor redactions, details to reflect exemptions being applied are included on a Dummy Card, which replaces the closed or retained extracts within the record. A process is in place to re-review closed and retained records at the 10-year point or when the agreed closure or retention period is about to expire.
The most recent Information Management Assessment published by The National Archives (https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cabinet-office-ima-reassessment-report.pdf) gave the Cabinet Office an assurance rating of Green. There are no plans to change the record keeping practices of the Department.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2023 to Question 185568 on Mining: Industrial Disputes, whether his Department maintains a record of the reasons for which they have not disclosed documents under the thirty-year rule.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Cabinet Office is committed to complying with the Public Records Act 1958 and has released records to The National Archives (TNA) up to 2002.
Records listed on TNA’s online catalogue Discovery include details to reflect exemptions, if they have been applied, to closed or retained records. If paper files that are open at TNA contain minor redactions, details to reflect exemptions being applied are included on a Dummy Card, which replaces the closed or retained extracts within the record. A process is in place to re-review closed and retained records at the 10-year point or when the agreed closure or retention period is about to expire.
The most recent Information Management Assessment published by The National Archives (https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cabinet-office-ima-reassessment-report.pdf) gave the Cabinet Office an assurance rating of Green. There are no plans to change the record keeping practices of the Department.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 May 2023 to Question 185568 on Mining: Industrial Disputes, whether his Department plans to create a register of retained documents to help improve responses to requests for information.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Cabinet Office is committed to complying with the Public Records Act 1958 and has released records to The National Archives (TNA) up to 2002.
Records listed on TNA’s online catalogue Discovery include details to reflect exemptions, if they have been applied, to closed or retained records. If paper files that are open at TNA contain minor redactions, details to reflect exemptions being applied are included on a Dummy Card, which replaces the closed or retained extracts within the record. A process is in place to re-review closed and retained records at the 10-year point or when the agreed closure or retention period is about to expire.
The most recent Information Management Assessment published by The National Archives (https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cabinet-office-ima-reassessment-report.pdf) gave the Cabinet Office an assurance rating of Green. There are no plans to change the record keeping practices of the Department.