Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to prevent cyber attacks; and what data his Department holds on the number of cyber attacks against Government infrastructure in the last 12 months.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
I refer the honourable member to my answer from 2 September, (2302) and would add that the UK Government does not comment upon operational security matters.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has data on the number of people awaiting infected blood compensation in Northern Ireland; and if he will take steps to ensure that compensation is received as a matter of urgency.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government is committed to working with Devolved Administrations and delivering compensation to people who are infected and affected as soon as possible.
As of 30 June 2024, 109 individuals in Northern Ireland have received interim compensation payments. This comprises 85 individuals infected with contaminated blood or blood products, and 24 bereaved partners of infected individuals who have sadly passed away. While the Statistical Expert Group, established by the Infected Blood Inquiry, has provided valuable insight into the numbers of infections from blood and blood products in the UK between 1970 and 1991. Due to the nature of the Infected Blood scandal there is uncertainty over the number of people, especially those affected, who might be eligible for compensation. The final number of eligible people will ultimately depend on the number of victims who come forward. The Government will compensate people who have been infected and affected by the infected blood scandal, and we expect the Infected Blood Compensation Authority to begin making payments by the end of the year.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of taking steps to increase the number of civil servants working from the office.
Answered by John Glen
Research into workplace practices across all sectors was undertaken which confirmed the clear benefits of face to face, workplace based collaborative working, which led to agreement across government for such an approach. That's why I set out the expectation for staff to be in the office at least 60% of the time, and I believe that our senior civil servants need to set an example as leaders.
There are significant benefits from spending time working together in person, either within teams, with colleagues from the same department or – in Government hubs – with colleagues from other departments. These include collaboration, innovation and fostering a sense of community. We know that in particular junior colleagues benefit from having time face to face with senior leaders and that those early in their careers find working face to face with their peers and managers makes them more effective more quickly.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of how many construction workers killed themselves in each of the last three years for which data is available.
Answered by John Glen
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon Members Parliamentary Question of 27th February is attached.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had discussions with the Police Service of Northern Ireland on lessons learned from data breaches.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is devolved and has operational independence. It is for the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB) to monitor and provide oversight of PSNI performance.
The PSNI and the NIPB commissioned an independent review into the data breach and a report was published on 11 December 2023.
The Government’s focus following the data breaches of August 2023 was on providing specialist support and expertise to the PSNI in its handling of this issue. Officials in the Cabinet Office chaired regular operational meetings - initially daily - bringing together the PSNI, Government Departments and the Security Services, to ensure that their collective skills, including cyber-expertise, were brought to bear in supporting the PSNI.
The Government published on 14 December 2023 technical guidance relating to the approach to be taken by FOI practitioners across central government when a requestor asks for disclosure in a spreadsheet format.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to (a) find and (b) remove Chinese surveillance technology from national security infrastructure.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The UK takes its national security extremely seriously and has taken robust action to secure and protect its national security infrastructure.
Following Royal Assent of the Procurement Act on 26 October 2023 the Government committed to publishing a timeline for the removal of surveillance equipment supplied by companies subject to the National Intelligence Law of China from sensitive sites within six months.
To meet this commitment, the Cabinet Office has been working with departments to identify any such equipment on their sensitive sites, and will publish a timeline for when the removal process will be complete, by 26 April 2024.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what data his Department holds on trends in the level of theft in rural areas in the last five years.
Answered by John Glen
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 21 November is attached.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has taken recent steps to (a) increase efficiency in Government Departments and (b) reduce the number of civil servants.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Government is committed to increasing efficiency in Departments. The Cabinet Office and HM Treasury continue to deliver the efficiencies identified through the Efficiency and Savings Review undertaken earlier this year, building on the 5% efficiency challenge set at Spending Review 2021.
This summer the Cabinet Office published £4.4bn of savings generated by the government functions in 2021/22 as part of an ongoing programme. The Government also published the Government Efficiency Framework to drive efficiencies through more accurate reporting and appropriate oversight to track delivery.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a cap to the Civil Service's expansion, putting in place a plan to reduce its numbers to pre-pandemic levels and to increase public sector productivity.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions he has had with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland on fraudulent or incorrect payments paid out by public bodies in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
The UK Government does not hold this information and is a matter for the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
However, we are committed to combatting fraud through prevention, detection and taking action against those who commit it.
The Cabinet Office worked with HM Treasury to launch the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA) in August 2022. The PSFA is the government’s centre of expertise and works with ministerial departments and public bodies to understand and reduce the impact of public sector fraud. The PSFA provides counter fraud data analytics capability through the National Fraud Initiative (NFI) to public bodies including those in Northern Ireland. Between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2022, the NFI achieved £4.4 million of counter fraud savings through the prevention or recovery of fraud in Northern Ireland.
The Rt Hon. Jeremy Quin MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and HM Paymaster General, has not had any meetings on the subject of fraudulent or incorrect payments paid out by public bodies with the Department of Finance in Northern Ireland.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if his Department holds data on the number of sick days taken by Northern Ireland civil service staff in 2022.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Cabinet Office does not hold this information and I refer the Hon Gentleman to the Northern Ireland Civil Service.