John Cryer

The Cabinet Office does not hold a centralised list of secondments for the dates in question, as historically this data has been held locally. We have, as of January 2022, begun to keep a record of secondments arranged centrally for those below SCS, however this may not include every secondment as there are still circumstances whereby these can be arranged at a local level. Of the data held, no secondments to or from any of the companies asked about have been recorded.

Details of Government contracts awarded from 2011 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder.

Cabinet Office does not hold the historic data centrally as it would involve a disproportionate amount of costs and time to collate the information. A new contract database, Atamis, has been purchased and is now live. This is used to capture all information on current contracts which started on or after January 2022 and all future contracts.

Details of Government contracts awarded from 2011 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder.

Cabinet Office does not hold the historic data centrally as it would involve a disproportionate amount of costs and time to collate the information. A new contract database, Atamis, has been purchased and is now live. This is used to capture all information on current contracts which started on or after January 2022 and all future contracts.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 11 November is attached.

Ofgem is a non-Ministerial Government Department and independent regulator. It is directly accountable to Parliament for the performance of its functions, therefore, the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has no authority to investigate Ofgem’s activities.

The UK approaches the challenge of tackling online IP infringement in an integrated manner through enforcement and public education. There is in place a number of criminal, civil, administrative and voluntary initiatives which provide rights holders and law enforcement with a package of measures to use to tackle online infringement. These vary from relatively non-intrusive such as notice and takedown, to domain removal, website blocking via court orders, police intervention, and more intrusive initiatives such as notifications being sent to repeat infringers.

The IPO has published guidance on how rights holders can protect their intellectual property on e-commerce stores, such as Amazon and eBay.

Details of post-2016 Government contracts above £10,000 can found on Contracts Finder. https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

Information prior to 2016 is not held centrally and can only be obtained disproportionally.

Since 2016, details of government contracts are published on Contracts Finder above £10,000, for the core Department, and above £25,000, for the wider public sector.

Contract information, from 2010 to 2016, is not held centrally in the requested format and it would meet the cost limit to collate the requested data.

Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder.

Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder: www.gov.uk/contracts-finder.

<br/>Details of Core Defra contracts (which include its agencies) from 2010 to 2016 awarded to Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers can be found in the attached spreadsheet.

We are working closely across Government, with representatives of the food supply chain and with local authorities and charities to ensure that everyone including the elderly and vulnerable groups such as those with severe health conditions will have continued access to food.

We are in close contact with representatives across the food supply chain and civil society to discuss further ways to help with their preparations. Supermarkets are recruiting more staff, prioritising delivery slots for those who need them most, and limiting shopping hours so they have more time to restock. They are working hard to deliver a crucial service to us all and have also issued a rallying call for everyone to play their part in the national effort to this response by looking out for their friends, family and neighbours. We will continue to work with industry to discuss any additional support the Government can provide. Retailers are prioritising delivery slots for those who need them most.

The Government is working to ensure that up to 1.5 million people in England identified by the NHS as being at higher risk of severe illness if they contract Coronavirus will have access to the food they need. A new Local Support System will make sure those individuals self-isolating at home and who are without a support network of friends and family will receive basic groceries. The Government is working with a partnership of the groceries industry, local government, local resilience forums and emergency partners, and voluntary groups, to ensure that essential items can start to be delivered as soon as possible to those who need it.

The Government has well-established ways of working with the food industry during disruption to supply situations. Our retailers already have highly resilient supply chains and they are working around the clock to ensure people have the food and products they need. Industry is adapting quickly to any changes in demands, and food supply into and across the UK is resilient.

The Secretary of State is in regular dialogue with industry, including the British Retail Consortium and supermarket chief executives to discuss any additional support the Government can provide. To help supermarkets respond to this unprecedented demand we have already introduced new measures to keep food supply flowing. We have issued guidance to local authorities to allow extended delivery hours to supermarkets so that shelves can be filled up quicker, and we have implemented extensions to drivers’ hours.

We fully recognise the additional pressures on our food supply chain as a result of recent events. The UK’s major supermarkets have last weekend issued a statement to encourage everyone to shop as they normally would and pull together to support those staying at home.

We will continue to work closely with the industry over the coming days and months.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) and UK Export Finance (UKEF) have had the following secondments since 2016, when DIT was formed:

DIT:

• KPMG – less than 5 secondees, February 2021 to January 2022

UKEF:

• Deloitte – less than 5 secondees, February 2022 to March 2022
• Deloitte – less than 5 secondees, December 2022 to March 2023

There have not been secondments from the other firms.

The Department for International Trade (DIT) was established in 2016. Contracts above £10,000 for DIT and its Agency, the Trade Remedies Authority, are published on Contracts Finder.

Details of the nature and award value of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. Each departmental agency is responsible for their contract data.

The Department for Transport have completed an internal search for the information and can confirm the following spend on consultancy services with the following suppliers:

Please see the attachment provided for a comprehensive list for each of the organisations requested covering the data sets requested in the PQ.

Further Information regarding the contracts can be found on gov.uk’s Contract Finder Service located here.

The Government encourages everyone to have a healthy balanced diet in line with the United Kingdom’s healthy eating model, the Eatwell Guide, which shows that foods high in saturated fat, salt or sugar should be eaten less often or in small amounts.

United Kingdom Government dietary guidelines are based on recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN). SACN is currently carrying out a scoping review of the evidence on processed foods and health and aims to publish its initial assessment in the summer of 2023.

There is currently no universally agreed definition of ultra-processed foods. However, a diet high in foods classified as processed is often high in calories, salt, saturated fat and sugar and low in fibre, fruit and vegetables, which is associated with an increased risk of obesity and developing chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes and some cancers.

The Good Choice badge helps people identify healthier options using the NHS Food Scanner app and when shopping in store and online. The app and wider Better Health tools supports families on their journey towards having a healthier diet, as making the step to the healthiest option may be too far for many people in one move.

This information is not held centrally in the format requested and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Details for all Government contracts above £10,000 post 2016 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search

Information on the value and nature of individual contracts pre 2016 is on archived database systems and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Historic expenditure above £25,000 against individual suppliers since 2010 is available on GOV.UK:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/spending-over-25-000--2#2010-to-2018

The NHS England has recently published in-depth guidance covering a range of scenarios for National Health Service and Public Health England workers, which will be updated as the situation develops, which can be found at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/

NHS England has written to all colleagues recently and a copy of the letter is available at the following link:

https://www.england.nhs.uk/coronavirus/wp-content/uploads/sites/52/2020/03/urgent-next-steps-on-nhs-response-to-covid-19-letter-simon-stevens.pdf

Support for NHS and PHE workers is a high priority for the Government, and it will continually assess the measures required to support them fully.

The Foreign Secretary remains fully committed to ongoing engagement with Parliament, including on the conflict in Israel and Gaza. We will consider future briefing sessions for parliamentarians on topical events as needed.

The UK condemns Iran’s hostile activity in the UK and elsewhere. We continue to work in close cooperation with our international partners to ensure that our collective response is robust and deters the IRGC. In July, the Foreign Secretary announced a new sanctions regime that will give the UK new and enhanced powers to counter Iran’s destabilising activities.

The total number of people seconded between FCDO and the four listed organisations since 2010 is fewer than 10. Detail of individual tasks undertaken is not held centrally.

Action 5 of the Declaration of Government Reform 2021 stated the Government's commitment to: "Develop a pipeline of secondments from the Civil Service into major organisations within the UK and internationally, including other governments, led by professions and departments, with support from Non-Executive Directors, as a core part of talent development".

Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder

Information on the definitions of consultancy spend can be found on GOV.UK at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/987885/Procurement_CAS_Definition_Release_9_v1__2_.pdf

The FCDO's E-sourcing system only goes back to 2016 so we are unable to provide data between 2010/11 and 2015.

We are aware of recent reports that properties were demolished in Uttar Pradesh and we condemn any instances of discrimination because of religion or belief, regardless of the country or faith involved. Where we have concerns, we raise them directly with the Government of India, including at Ministerial level. The British High Commission in New Delhi and our network of Deputy High Commissions will continue to follow these reports closely, while recognising that this is a matter for India. The Foreign Secretary speaks regularly with her Indian counterpart and visited India most recently in March 2022.

The information is not held centrally in the requested format, and could only be provided at a disproportionate cost.

The Government is committed to maintaining transparency about its procurement activity. Since 2010, HM Treasury has published information about its contracts with a value of over £10,000 on the “Contracts Finder” website.

HMRC do not record the requested data.

Information about HMRC’s referrals of suspicious activity to the National Crime Agency, and how HMRC shares information with domestic law enforcement agencies, is set out in its annual anti-money laundering supervision self-assessment report, the latest of which is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hmrc-economic-crime-supervision-annual-assessment-report-2021-to-2022.

HMRC also has a network of intelligence officers embedded with domestic partner agencies to assist with their operational work. 13 officers are embedded with police teams, including Regional Organised Crime Units, and 7 with other law enforcement agencies. In addition, 5 HMRC officers are seconded to the National Economic Crime Centre and 2 are embedded in the United Kingdom Financial Intelligence Unit.

If any referrals are adopted by these investigating agencies, it is a decision for them, in tandem with the relevant prosecuting authority to pursue a criminal prosecution for money laundering offences.

HMRC can and does investigate money laundering, linked to its assigned matters, as well as criminal breaches of the Money Laundering Regulations. Since 2011/12, HMRC opened 358 investigations involving money laundering or breaches of the Money Laundering Regulations and 301 individuals have been prosecuted for either offence over the same period.

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities lead on homelessness and rough sleeping. They reviewed the legislation in relation to rough sleeping and determined that the Vagrancy Act required repeal, they consulted on replacing the outdated Vagrancy Act, undertook extensive engagement and published their response to that consultation.

The Home Office has additionally engaged with police, local authorities, Police and Crime Commissioners and other organisations on this topic.

The Vagrancy Act 1824 criminalises begging and some forms of rough sleeping and the Government agreed in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 to repeal this outdated legislation and replace it with a package fit for modern usage. We outlined those plans in the Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plan published by this Government in March this year and are now bringing forward these provisions in the Criminal Justice Bill which is currently before Parliament.

As the Government has always made clear, the repeal of the Vagrancy Act will be brought into force once this replacement legislation is in place to ensure local authorities and police have the powers they need to support vulnerable individuals and keep communities safe.

The Data Protection Act 2018 requires large organisations such as the Home Office to ensure that we protect the individual rights and freedoms of the individuals (data subjects) whose information we process. We are not able to provide personal information as defined by the Data Protection Act 2018 to third parties, including sponsors with the explicit consent of the applicant. We therefore ask that sponsors provide letters of authority showing they have the applicant’s consent before providing personal information.

Article 4 (11) of the GDPR defines consent and further conditions for consent are listed in Article 7.

To retrieve historical information on secondments would require a manual search of local records as only current secondments are held centrally by the Home Office.

Therefore, this information can only be obtained by disproportionate effort.

Details of Government contracts from 2016 above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder.

The information is not centrally held and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Since 2010, the Ministry of Defence has placed almost 500 contracts with the specified companies. As such, a full departmental response could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Providing a breakdown of contract value by year would also result in double counting due to contracts being open over multiple years. However, the table below provides total payments to each named accountancy firm by financial year from 2010-11 to 2021-22:

It should be noted that the composition of the totals has varied over time. For example, the payments by procurement card are included from 2011/12 onwards, and expenditure by DSTL and the UK Hydrographic Office is included from 2013-14 onwards.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer to Question UIN 176567 on 21 April 2023.

As with all policies, the Government continues to monitor this situation and the progress of remediation of buildings. The Government is committed to introducing a new scheme to provide funding for the remediation or mitigation of the fire safety risks linked to external wall system defects on medium-rise buildings (11-18m) where a responsible developer cannot be identified, traced, or held responsible. An initial pilot of the scheme opened in November 2022, targeting a small number of buildings that have interim measures or simultaneous evacuation measures in place. Further details will be set out in due course.

The availability of funding for fire safety risks linked to external wall system defects from the Building Safety Fund, and in due course the Cladding Safety Scheme, takes no account of the number of properties owned by leaseholders. Residential properties are bought both as personal residences and commercial investments and Parliament determined that it was appropriate to draw that distinction at the ownership of three properties, when considering this matter in relation to protecting leaseholders, during the passage of the Building Safety Act 2022.

As with all policies, the Government continues to monitor this situation and the progress of remediation of buildings. The Government is committed to introducing a new scheme to provide funding for the remediation or mitigation of the fire safety risks linked to external wall system defects on medium-rise buildings (11-18m) where a responsible developer cannot be identified, traced, or held responsible. An initial pilot of the scheme opened in November 2022, targeting a small number of buildings that have interim measures or simultaneous evacuation measures in place. Further details will be set out in due course.

The availability of funding for fire safety risks linked to external wall system defects from the Building Safety Fund, and in due course the Cladding Safety Scheme, takes no account of the number of properties owned by leaseholders. Residential properties are bought both as personal residences and commercial investments and Parliament determined that it was appropriate to draw that distinction at the ownership of three properties, when considering this matter in relation to protecting leaseholders, during the passage of the Building Safety Act 2022.

In line with Government transparency requirements, since 2016 we have published details of our contracts on Contracts Finder. Further information is available here.

Local authorities have a vital role to play in protecting and supporting their communities during the Covid-19 outbreak.

My Department is in regular contact with the sector about the support they are offering communities. Already the Government is supporting individuals by extending sick pay for those advised to self-isolate and making it easier for them to access benefits. For businesses, we are increasing business rates relief, introducing a new guarantee loan scheme, and developing more bespoke arrangements for firms to repay outstanding tax liabilities.