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 he has made of the range of savings from the centralisation of communication project.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Reshaping Government Communication Service programme will further strengthen and unify the Government Communication Service (GCS), to be an even more effective and efficient service. Cabinet Office is leading the programme and working closely with ministerial departments and other public sector bodies. The programme has completed its discovery phase and is in its design phase, both of which will contribute to the outline business case and will help to identify the potential savings.
All communications staff are considered to be in scope for the RGCS programme. Last year, we received some initial data from departments and Arms Length Bodies, however more work will be done over the coming months to gather the necessary data to inform decision making.
The Cabinet Office has confirmed that its intention is for departments to have core teams for press, social media and rebuttal. We are working with departments to consider what a streamlined service could look like, in order to support statutory, operational or programme delivery.
Cabinet Office is continuously tracking and reviewing spending on cross-government campaigns, to ensure our communications are efficient. We will not spend more than is needed to be effective. Cabinet Office publishes expenditure on government communication spend, including our national campaigns, on a rolling monthly basis on gov.uk as part of routine government transparency arrangements at the link below:
www.gov.uk/government/collections/cabinet-office-spend-data.
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, how many military veterans have died from suicide in each of the last five years.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
Historically, governments have relied on specific studies relating to the cause of death, including suicide, amongst veterans’ cohorts from specific campaigns, such as the 1982 Falklands campaign and the 1990/1991 Gulf conflict. There are currently two studies which will provide important data on suicide within the veteran community. The MoD is finalising a study to track causes of deaths, including suicides, in all personnel who have served in the UK armed forces since 2001 and all future veterans. The study will be updated on an ongoing basis to provide near real-time monitoring of suicides in veterans. This will be complemented by a study being conducted by Manchester University, funded by MOD and NHS England & Improvement, looking at the antecedents to suicide in both serving personnel and veterans focusing on the year prior to the death. The study will include all suicides between 1995-2017 and is due to complete in August 2022.
We recognise the importance of accurately measuring suicide within the veteran community, in order to help inform support and interventions aiming to prevent suicide. In addition to the above ongoing studies, we are working on developing a new and robust method for measuring suicide within the veteran community. This is as part of our broader commitment to improve data collection and analysis, to ensure the Government has the insights needed to provide the support and services our veterans deserve.
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, how much and what proportion of the cost to the public purse of errors with civil service pensions has been recovered by the Government from pensions scheme administrator MyCSP.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
In the last full financial year (19-20), £605,000 was paid by MyCSP to Cabinet Office in lieu of erroneous overpayments. MyCSP and Cabinet Office have an agreement whereby Cabinet Office is refunded for overpayments arising from a MyCSP error.
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 take steps to ensure that legal action will not be taken against the pensioners affected by inaccurate payments by civil service pension scheme administrator MyCSP in cases identified by the Internal Control Framework Review.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Pension schemes are only allowed to make payments that are “authorised payments” (those payments that members are legitimately entitled to under the scheme).
Any other payments made from the scheme that are not ‘authorised’ are referred to as ‘unauthorised payments’ and are potentially subject to unauthorised payment tax charges of up to 55% for members and the scheme. In most cases, overpayments would be considered unauthorised payments if not recovered.
Any potential recovery is carefully considered, including the cost effectiveness of doing so (e.g. the relative costs of recovering very small amounts). Members have the opportunity to submit evidence should they believe that either recovery should not take place or where they might require a longer repayment plan. Members overpaid and identified by the Internal Controls Framework Review (ICFR) were treated in the same way as other members where overpayments had occurred as part of business as usual.
We do not have a separate record for the total value of pension underpayments under the ICFR as these formed the majority of the rectifications needed, and members received topped up pensions accordingly as part of business as usual activities, rather than as part of a separate project to recover any amounts due.
To date £20,610 has been paid in compensation awards through the Internal Dispute Resolution process to pensioners affected by overpayments identified during the ICFR.
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 the monetary value is of the underpaid pensions by civil service pension scheme administrator MyCSP in cases identified by the Internal Control Framework Review.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Pension schemes are only allowed to make payments that are “authorised payments” (those payments that members are legitimately entitled to under the scheme).
Any other payments made from the scheme that are not ‘authorised’ are referred to as ‘unauthorised payments’ and are potentially subject to unauthorised payment tax charges of up to 55% for members and the scheme. In most cases, overpayments would be considered unauthorised payments if not recovered.
Any potential recovery is carefully considered, including the cost effectiveness of doing so (e.g. the relative costs of recovering very small amounts). Members have the opportunity to submit evidence should they believe that either recovery should not take place or where they might require a longer repayment plan. Members overpaid and identified by the Internal Controls Framework Review (ICFR) were treated in the same way as other members where overpayments had occurred as part of business as usual.
We do not have a separate record for the total value of pension underpayments under the ICFR as these formed the majority of the rectifications needed, and members received topped up pensions accordingly as part of business as usual activities, rather than as part of a separate project to recover any amounts due.
To date £20,610 has been paid in compensation awards through the Internal Dispute Resolution process to pensioners affected by overpayments identified during the ICFR.
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, with reference to overpaid pensions by civil service pension scheme administrator MyCSP in cases identified by the Internal Control Framework Review, what assessment has been made as to the (a) sums involved, and (b) cost-effectiveness of recovering those sums.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Pension schemes are only allowed to make payments that are “authorised payments” (those payments that members are legitimately entitled to under the scheme).
Any other payments made from the scheme that are not ‘authorised’ are referred to as ‘unauthorised payments’ and are potentially subject to unauthorised payment tax charges of up to 55% for members and the scheme. In most cases, overpayments would be considered unauthorised payments if not recovered.
Any potential recovery is carefully considered, including the cost effectiveness of doing so (e.g. the relative costs of recovering very small amounts). Members have the opportunity to submit evidence should they believe that either recovery should not take place or where they might require a longer repayment plan. Members overpaid and identified by the Internal Controls Framework Review (ICFR) were treated in the same way as other members where overpayments had occurred as part of business as usual.
We do not have a separate record for the total value of pension underpayments under the ICFR as these formed the majority of the rectifications needed, and members received topped up pensions accordingly as part of business as usual activities, rather than as part of a separate project to recover any amounts due.
To date £20,610 has been paid in compensation awards through the Internal Dispute Resolution process to pensioners affected by overpayments identified during the ICFR.
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, with reference to overpaid pensions by civil service pension scheme administrator MyCSP in cases identified by the Internal Control Framework Review, how much has been paid in compensation awards to affected pensioners through Internal Dispute Resolution to date.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Pension schemes are only allowed to make payments that are “authorised payments” (those payments that members are legitimately entitled to under the scheme).
Any other payments made from the scheme that are not ‘authorised’ are referred to as ‘unauthorised payments’ and are potentially subject to unauthorised payment tax charges of up to 55% for members and the scheme. In most cases, overpayments would be considered unauthorised payments if not recovered.
Any potential recovery is carefully considered, including the cost effectiveness of doing so (e.g. the relative costs of recovering very small amounts). Members have the opportunity to submit evidence should they believe that either recovery should not take place or where they might require a longer repayment plan. Members overpaid and identified by the Internal Controls Framework Review (ICFR) were treated in the same way as other members where overpayments had occurred as part of business as usual.
We do not have a separate record for the total value of pension underpayments under the ICFR as these formed the majority of the rectifications needed, and members received topped up pensions accordingly as part of business as usual activities, rather than as part of a separate project to recover any amounts due.
To date £20,610 has been paid in compensation awards through the Internal Dispute Resolution process to pensioners affected by overpayments identified during the ICFR.
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 proportion of drug-related deaths registered in 2019 involved combinations of cocaine with (a) opiates, (b) fentanyl and (c) other synthetic opiates.
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, how many civil service jobs are based in London.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Cabinet Office published Civil Service Statistics 2020 on 26 August. This is available on 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, pursuant to the Answer of 21 September 2020 to Question 88289 on Veterans: Suicide, if he will make representations to the Secretary of State for Justice on amend guidance to help ensure that (a) coroners reports and (b) death certificates record whether deceased served as a member of the armed forces.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The Government takes the issue of suicide among the Armed Forces community very seriously. As set out in the previous answer, we are exploring how improvements could be made in recording of veterans suicide, to inform support services and interventions aimed at prevention. Officials at the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) and the Ministry of Justice are working to identify possible options.