Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 8 December 2022 to Question 902659 on Prison officers: retirement, for what reasons this question was transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Ministry of Justice.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Terms and Conditions of Prison Officers, including any proposals to change their retirement provisions, are matters on which the Ministry of Justice lead.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is taking steps to require Government departments to (a) undertake equality impact assessments in relation to proposals to reduce staff and possibly services as part of the plan to reduce the Civil Service by 91,000 posts and (b) consult unions as part the process of drafting those assessments.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Departments have been asked to consider the key equalities impacts when setting out their initial scenario plans for workforce reductions, which will include departments completing equality impact assessments, should proposals be agreed following a robust assessment. Civil Service bodies in developing their plans were also reminded that early and continuing trade union engagement should be taking place. Alongside that, Civil Service HR will continue to update unions at the national level.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to ensure that the private security firm, Definitive PSA, contracted by P&O Ferries to remove UK seafarers from ferries docked in the UK on 17 March 2022 does not benefit from publicly funded contracts.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The grounds for exclusion of bidders from public procurement procedures are set out in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015, and allows for the exclusion of suppliers from bidding for procurements where they have been convicted of, or there is evidence of, bribery, fraud, money laundering and tax evasion.
Procurement Policy Note 04/21 provided supplementary guidance in relation to applying exclusions and managing conflicts of interest. It is for individual contracting authorities to consider whether suppliers must or may be excluded from each procurement.
The Procurement Bill, introduced to Parliament on 11 May, broadens and strengthens the exclusion grounds. We are increasing the time period within which misconduct can lead to exclusion from 3 years to 5; bringing subsidiary companies into scope of exclusion; and making the rules clearer so that contracting authorities can undertake exclusions with more confidence.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister of the Cabinet Office, how many energy rebate applications a local authority is able to submit to the Government's verification tool each day.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Government has not placed any restrictions or limits to the number of energy rebate applications that may be submitted for bank verification.
The Government’s due diligence risking tool has no limit to the number of applications councils are able to check per day.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister of the Cabinet Office, for what reason the Government is limiting the number of energy rebate applications that councils can submit to the verification tool per day.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Government has not placed any restrictions or limits to the number of energy rebate applications that may be submitted for bank verification.
The Government’s due diligence risking tool has no limit to the number of applications councils are able to check per day.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, whether (a) he and (b) his staff have had discussions with representatives of (i) DP world or (ii) their subsidiaries in each of the last 12 months.
Answered by Boris Johnson
Details of ministerial meetings with external organisations and individuals are published on the gov.uk website.
More generally, I refer the Hon. Member to the response by my Rt Hon Friend, the Transport Secretary of Official Report, 21 March 2022, Col. 43.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what dates the Government held COBRA meetings in respect of Storm Arwen.
Answered by Michael Ellis
As a matter of policy, the Government does not comment on matters related to COBR.
However, we can confirm that Ministers and officials from across government took several measures in response to Storm Arwen.
The Defence Secretary oversaw the deployment of 297 military personnel to support civil authorities in the response. These personnel helped two Local Resilience Forums in the provision of welfare in northeast England, and assisted the Scottish Government in their response in the Grampian region.
The Prime Minister spoke to the chief executive of Northern Powergrid to discuss the ongoing work to restore power in the affected areas. He also spoke with local community leaders in Northumbria, Durham and Darlington, and Lt Col Mark Steed, who coordinated the military involvement in the response in northeast England.
Further to this, The Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy gave a statement to Parliament at the time and The Minister for Energy, Clean Growth and Climate Change responded to an Urgent Question on 6 December.
Last week, the Government published an interim report on Storm Arwen review: Government publishes interim report on Storm Arwen review - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will create a red weather alert protocol to co-ordinate resources and place on standby military aid to the civilian powers in advance of extreme weather events.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The UK has access to some of the most advanced weather forecasting systems in the world.
An established three-tier weather warning system is used by the Met Office. Government departments will often use the warning system to determine and activate a proportionate crisis management response posture, including consideration of military support.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) employees, (b) limb (b) workers, and (c) independent contractors, broken down by region.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
Asked by: Grahame Morris (Labour - Easington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to ensure that the proposed pay changes announced as part of the Government Property Agency’s 10 South Colonnade Facilities Management contract in May 2021 comply with the Cabinet Office’s Principles of Good Employment Practice with regards to employee engagement.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government Property Agency contracts with Mitie for the provision of Total Facilities Management services for some of the Whitehall estate and London, 10 South Colonnade.
The Government Property Agency has not currently undertaken a formal assessment of Mitie’s internal policies nor specifically raised concerns about Mitie’s treatment of their staff. Mitie has assured us that they are consulting with their employees and recognised representatives about the proposed changes and that a solution can be found through negotiation and agreement.
An informal assessment indicates that Mitie holds an annual all employee engagement survey and local activities such as staff newsletters, town halls and engagement forums. They have consulted with their employees working at 10 South Colonnade on the proposed pay harmonisations and held meetings with those affected. This is consistent with principle six of the Cabinet Office Principles of Good Employment Practice.
GPA has a Social Value Plan in development that will, amongst other things, ensure social value is properly taken into account in the award of new GPA contracts.