Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much his Department has allocated to (a) London boroughs and (b) the Mayor of London for traffic management schemes in each of the last two years.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government has not provided funding to TfL or London boroughs for traffic management programmes.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to improve the profitability of the Post Office.
Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Government is clear that the Post Office should be a valuable social and economic asset for communities and businesses for years to come. To ensure the Post Office is fit for the future, the Government is engaging with stakeholders regarding the challenges facing the post office network and postmasters, resulting from the changing retail landscape and increased costs.
We have provided over £2.5 billion in funding to support the Post Office network over the past decade and is providing a further £588 million for the Post Office between 2022 and 2025. This includes a £50 million annual subsidy to safeguard services in the uncommercial parts of the network.
The Government also recognises that there are concerns about central costs, and we have been clear that Post Office must do more to cut central costs where possible.
The Post Office network is a crucial component of the UK's long-term provision of cash and banking services. That is why we have encouraged Post Office to be ambitious in their negotiations with banks for the next iteration of the Banking Framework agreement to ensure that both Post Office and Postmasters receive proportionate remuneration for the vital services they are providing.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how much funding his Department plans to provide to local authorities for active travel plans in the (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport is currently providing £70 million of dedicated funding to local authorities in 2023-24, for developing and delivering local infrastructure schemes and to boost capability and enable higher levels of walking and cycling. Funding for local authorities in 2024-25 is subject to final Departmental business planning decisions.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make a comparative estimate of the average contribution to air pollution of (a) vehicles on the M4 and (b) air traffic at Heathrow.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Department for Transport has no plans to make a comparative estimate of the average contribution to air pollution from vehicles on the M4 and from air traffic at Heathrow.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether there are controls on external recruitment of (a) new and (b) replacement (i) civil servants and (ii) other public sector administrators.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There are specific statutory provisions in place that control all appointments to new and replacement Civil Service roles arising from external recruitment.
The Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 requires that selection to the Civil Service must be on merit, on the basis of fair and open competition. The Civil Service Commission has a statutory duty to ensure that the merit requirement is upheld and is not being undermined. The Commission’s interpretation of this statutory requirement is outlined to Civil Service departments in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles 2018.
The Aliens’ Employment Act 1955 outlines the eligibility for employment in the Civil Service on the grounds of nationality. The Cabinet Office has published the Civil Service Nationality Rules on Gov.uk to support departments in the interpretation of this statutory requirement.
The Civil Service Management Code delegates authority to individual departments to determine their recruitment approach within the scope of these statutory requirements. Additional policy provisions can be applied such as the Civil Service Recruitment Framework. Since January 2016, the Framework has been committed to opening up all Senior Civil Service (SCS) vacancies by advertising them externally to the public by default. In May 2022, this commitment was strengthened, requiring departments to obtain approval from the responsible minister when seeking to limit an SCS vacancy to existing civil servants only.
For other public administrators outside of the Civil Service, it would be down to their respective organisations to comment on whether they have such controls in place.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent civil service personnel there were in (a) 2019 and (b) 2024.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
National Statistics on the number of civil servants are published each quarter by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of their Public Sector Employment statistical release. The latest available statistics were published 12 December 2023 and showed the number of civil servants as at 30 September 2023. The next ONS publication is scheduled for release on 12 March and will show the number of civil servants as at 31 December. Statistics for 2019 and all previous and upcoming releases can be found on the ONS website at https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent non-civil service public sector administrators there were in (a) 2019 and (b) 2024.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Information on the number of non-civil service public sector administrators is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce energy bills across government.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office supports departments and coordinates across government to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs. The 2022-2030 Government Property Strategy sets out how the estate will be transformed to become more efficient and sustainable.
The Government Buying Standard for Construction requires new build developments to meet BRE’s Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) ‘Excellent’ or equivalent standards, while refurbishment projects have a target of ‘Very Good’, ensuring new and upgraded properties meet high standards of energy efficiency.
In addition, Crown Commercial Services has developed an energy procurement strategy that has delivered significant commercial benefits from aggregation of government buying power and hedging future demand on commodity markets.
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much was spent on consultants across Government in the financial year 2022-3.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Government Departments draw on the advice of external specialists for a range of services. Consultancy includes staff who provide objective advice relating to strategy, structure, management or operations of an organisation and may include the identification of options with recommendations.
Departments' total spend on consultancy in 2022/23 can be found on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/annual-reports-and-accounts-for-central-government-departments
Asked by: John Redwood (Conservative - Wokingham)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent estimate he has made of the level of funding his Department will provide to the rail industry in the 2023-24 financial year.
Answered by Huw Merriman - Minister of State (Department for Transport)
The Central Government Supply Estimates 2023-24, presented to the House of Commons and published on 27 February 2024 (see link below), details the funding provided to the Department for Transport across a large number of different areas. The value associated with all rail and rail related lines is £33.029 billion, across both Departmental Expenditure Limit and Annually Managed Expenditure. More than half of the total value is associated with Network Rail, with other areas including but not limited to High Speed 2, Crossrail and support for passenger rail services. The numbers in the Central Government Supply Estimates take account of technical accounting adjustments and are not necessarily reflective of cash that will be required.