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Written Question
General Elections: Subversion
Tuesday 27th February 2024

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he is taking steps to counter the potential use of (a) AI and (b) other means to influence the (i) operation and (ii) outcome of the next general election.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government is committed to safeguarding the UK’s elections and already has established systems and processes in place, to protect the democratic integrity of the UK.

The Government has established the Defending Democracy Taskforce, which has a mandate to safeguard our democratic institutions and processes from the full range of threats, including digitally manipulated content. The Taskforce ensures we have a robust system in place to rapidly respond to any threats during election periods, including novel threats from AI.

The Online Safety Act places new requirements on social media platforms to swiftly remove illegal misinformation and disinformation - including artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes - as soon as they become aware of it.

The new digital imprints regime, introduced by the Elections Act 2022, will also increase the transparency of digital political advertising (including artificial intelligence-generated material).

The threat to democracy from artificial intelligence was discussed at the AI Safety Summit in November 2023, reinforcing the Government’s commitment to international collaboration on this shared challenge.

Additionally, the Elections Act 2022 strengthened financial transparency and controls against foreign spending at elections. Since its introduction, the Government has restricted foreign campaign spending at elections and introduced a new requirement on political parties to declare their assets and liabilities when registering with the Electoral Commission. Foreign donations (and channelling foreign money) are already illegal.

Government passed the National Security Act in 2023 which creates a range of new tools and powers to tackle evolving state threats. Parts 1-3 of the Act came into force in December 2023. This includes a new foreign interference offence which will give our law enforcement and intelligence agencies significant new powers to detect, deter and prosecute those who seek to interfere in our democracy. Part 4 of the Act, containing the Foreign Influence Registration Scheme, will come into force later in 2024. This will require the registration of political influence activity conducted at the direction of foreign powers.


Written Question
Ministers: Training
Monday 29th January 2024

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Ministers (a) were entitled to participate and (b) took part in the programme of eight masterclasses for new Ministers in the last 12 months.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

Since 1 January 2023, three masterclasses have been delivered, all focused on legislating as a minister. All serving ministers have been eligible to participate in the sessions. Seven ministers have attended, representing six different departments.


Written Question
Public Buildings: Concrete
Tuesday 23rd January 2024

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what data his Department holds on (a) the progress of each Department in confirming the presence or absence of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete in public buildings and (b) which Departments have completed this work.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

Substantial progress has been made across government Departments to identify any instance of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) across their public building portfolios.

Departments are progressing with their final identification surveys, and are implementing remediation action plans.

As per the guidance from the leading professional body, the Institution of Structural Engineers: following appropriate surveys, where RAAC is identified it is either monitored, reinforced, or replaced. Government Departments continue to follow this guidance.

Each Department owns and maintains the data relating to specific locations, identification and remediation plans within their estate.


Written Question
Fraud: Telephone Services
Tuesday 16th January 2024

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost was of (a) establishing and (b) operating the covid fraud hotline in the period since October 2020.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government Counter Fraud Function COVID-19 Fraud Intelligence Team (now part of the Public Sector Fraud Authority Intelligence Hub) established the Covid Fraud Hotline in October 2020 in partnership with Crimestoppers. It ended on 30 June 2023.

Its creation led to 5,124 referrals of potential fraud being disseminated to public bodies.

The figures provided below do not include Intelligence Team staff costs.

  1. The set up cost for the Covid Fraud Hotline with Crimestoppers was £105,000 excluding VAT.

  1. Following this, the operating costs of the Hotline between October 2020 and on 30 June 2023 was £114,940 excluding VAT

In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180m of savings to the taxpayer. The PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. In its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.


Written Question
Government Departments: Cybercrime
Monday 11th December 2023

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what risks to (a) employees and (b) the wider population were identified following cyber crimes against Government departments in the last 12 months.

Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office

This Government is committed to protecting citizens and public services from the ever-evolving cyber threat.

As set out in the 2023 National Risk Register, cyber attacks on the UK’s transport, health and social care, and telecommunications systems were identified amongst the most serious risks currently facing the UK. In addition, in this year’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Annual Review, data theft - either through ransomware or the exploitation of vulnerabilities in public-facing apps - and cyber-enabled fraud remain some of the most acute cyber threats facing UK businesses and citizens. For example, between September 2022 and August 2023, the NCSC received 297 reports of ransomware activity and 327 incidents involving the exfiltration of data.

The Government takes data protection very seriously and we understand that data breaches are a matter of great concern to those whose data may have been exposed in a cyber attack. It is the responsibility of organisations affected to meet their statutory obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding notifying the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the individuals affected of certain personal data breaches.

It would not be appropriate to comment on specific cyber incidents for national security reasons. However, the Government has already taken significant steps to reduce the risks identified and to strengthen our cyber defences.

The Government Cyber Security Strategy 2022 sets out our plans to significantly harden the Government’s critical functions against cyber attack by 2025, with all organisations across the public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities by 2030. Alongside this, the National Cyber Strategy 2022 sets out our approach to tackling cyber threats against the wider population, including by better detecting, disrupting and deterring malicious cyber actors and embedding good cyber security practices and protections at national, organisation and citizen level.


Written Question
Movement Assistance Scheme and Trader Support Service
Wednesday 6th December 2023

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent staff are employed in (a) implementing and (b) monitoring the (i) Trader Support Service and (ii) Movement Assistance Schemes.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Trader Support Service (TSS) and Movement Assistance Schemes (MAS) are both important schemes that provide support to traders.

The Movement Assistance Scheme is operated by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA). Across DEFRA and APHA a combined 24.75 FTE staff are employed in the implementation and monitoring of the scheme.

The TSS is overseen by HMRC and operated by a Fujitsu-led consortium. There are currently 378 FTE staff employed by the consortium. Additionally, there are 39.4 FTE staff within HMRC working on the implementation of the service.


Written Question
Prime Minister: Correspondence
Monday 27th November 2023

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Prime Minister, if he will take steps to confirm receipt of written correspondence from an East Londonderry constituent of 16 June 2023 on water fluoridation policy; and when he plans to respond to that correspondence.

Answered by Rishi Sunak - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service, and Minister for the Union

Searches by my Office have not identified such correspondence. If the hon. Member would like to provide a copy, my Office will arrange for a reply to be sent.


Written Question
Civil Servants: Training
Friday 20th October 2023

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the objective of the Government Consulting Hub to grow the Civil Service’s internal capability, how many officials have participated in civil service learning programmes for the purposes of equipping them with the skills to deliver work commonly undertaken by consultants.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

The Government Consultancy Hub (GCH) ran from May 2021 to 31 January 2023. One of the unit’s goals was to grow the Civil Service’s internal capability and confidence to frame and/or address its strategic questions, to be a strong customer of consultancy, and to redeploy knowledge and experience.

Since May 2021 until September there have been a total of:

- 36 cohorts, with 576 places, of the GCH sponsored Core Consulting Skills programme

- 3 cohorts, with 48 places, of the contextualised IPA Core Consulting Skills programme.

- 15 people completed a Senior Leaders Consulting Skills programme.

In addition, 18 people in DWP completed Leadership Capability team development – core capability developments on how to consult and identify needs.


Written Question
National Security and Investment Act 2021
Wednesday 18th October 2023

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how often action has been taken against third parties under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 in the last two years.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

The Government has powers under the National Security and Investment Act 2021 (NSIA) to scrutinise and, where necessary, intervene in acquisitions of control over entities and assets in or linked to the UK that may pose national security risks. We will not hesitate to use our powers to protect national security where we identify concerns.

The National Security and Investment Act Annual Report 2022-23 shows that in the period April 2022- March 2023, 65 cases were called in for scrutiny and 15 final orders were made. 2 final orders have been made since March 2023.

The 2022 Annual Report, covering January 2022 to March 2022, shows that over that time period 17 acquisitions were called in for scrutiny and no final orders were made.

In both reporting periods, no penalties were issued, and no criminal penalties were sought.

Figures for the financial year 2023-24 will be published in the next Annual Report.


Written Question
Civil Servants: Social Media
Thursday 7th September 2023

Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when his Department last updated guidelines on the use of social media by civil servants.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

At the end of August 2023, GCS published a new guide for communicators working in the digital discipline, which includes specific references to appropriate and ethical use of social media channels: https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/guidance/digital-communication/#propriety.

All of this guidance complements the Civil Service code, which lays out the behaviours expected of civil servants, available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-code/the-civil-service-code.