Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many formal meetings (a) he or (b) Departmental officials have had with representatives of the EU since the Rt hon. Member for Uxbridge and Ruslip became Prime Minister.
Answered by James Duddridge
It has not proved possible to respond to the Hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) Statutory Instruments and (b) Bills on leaving the EU that (i) have not yet be approved by Parliament and (ii) the Government plans to bring forward before 31 October 2019.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The Government has made over 530 exit-related statutory instruments. The necessary preparations are in place to ensure a functioning statute book for exit day, as they were before 12 April. There will be a number of additional statutory instruments laid over the coming months to account for any new updates to EU regulations during the extension period.
The progress of all bills currently before Parliament can be tracked on parliament.uk. We will need to introduce a bill to implement the Withdrawal Agreement if a deal is approved by Parliament.
The Government is confident that we will have all the necessary legislation in place by exit day.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how much his Department has spent on preparing for leaving the EU without a deal since March 2019.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
HM Treasury has allocated over £4.2 billion of funding for all exit scenarios since 2016.
However, given the significant overlap of work across scenarios, the Department does not record costs against specific scenarios. The Department does not therefore hold this information.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department have met with representatives of the Spanish political party Vox.
Answered by Robin Walker
No members of the Department for Exiting the European Union have met with representatives of the Spanish political party Vox on DExEU business or in a Ministerial capacity. During his time as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, the Honourable Member for Daventry met with representatives of Vox in a political capacity. DExEU was not involved in the meeting.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, what assessment he has made of the reasons for the gender pay gap in his Department.
Answered by James Cleverly - Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
The Department for Exiting the European Union is committed to the creation of a diverse and inclusive working environment to ensure staff do not face any barriers to success, and all staff feel supported at work.
At the time of DExEU’s gender pay gap report, women being overrepresented in more junior grades and underrepresented in more senior grades was a significant contributory factor in reporting DExEU’s gender pay gap. This is an issue that we are committed to addressing through our recruitment practices as well as the use of central and local talent management schemes to support the Department’s talent pipeline.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many times he has travelled to Brussels to meet EU officials since his appointment.
Answered by Robin Walker
Since his appointment, The Secretary of State has travelled to Brussels four times to meet with EU officials:
11th February 2019
18th February 2019
21st February 2019
5th March 2019
The Secretary of State also met with EU officials in Strasbourg on two occasions, 12th February 2019 and 11th March 2019.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how officials in his Department have (a) retired, (b) transferred it to a different Department and (c) left the civil service in each year since the Department’s creation.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
The Department for Exiting the European Union was set up as a time limited department and as such the majority of staff are employed on fixed term contracts or are loaned from other Government Departments. Attrition has remained stable at about 3% monthly average for most of the department’s life. These figures are not considered out of line for a department that has a staff profile as above.
Many of those who have left to date have been planned leavers who have moved to other government departments due to their loan or job rotation coming to an end, or have left the civil service following the end of their fixed-term appointment.
Asked by: Jo Stevens (Labour - Cardiff East)
Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :
To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, how many officials in his Department were on long term paid sick leave as of 1 March 2019.
Answered by Chris Heaton-Harris
Health and Wellbeing forms part of the Department for Exiting the European Union’s commitment to making the Department a great place to work. The DExEU Absence Management Policy defines long term sickness as: ‘A continuous period of sickness absence ...reaches 14 consecutive calendar days.’
Due to the small numbers of staff affected, the Department is unable to release this information as disclosure would contravene one of the data protection principles. All staff who are absent are offered various support mechanisms through our Employee Assistance Programme and their line management.