John Spellar

The catering service, alongside the Parliamentary procurement team, is working to increase availability of UK products. It sells regional products, promoting where availability allows and collaborating with suppliers. As an example, in the last year we have introduced a range of craft UK gins. I shall write to the hon. Member with more information.

The parliamentary estate is largely heated by burning natural gas in boilers.

The Restoration and Renewal (R&R) Programme will consider the energy source options for the Palace of Westminster in the long run. Under the Parliamentary Buildings (Restoration and Renewal Act) 2019, the Corporate Officers of the Houses have a statutory duty to have regard to the need to protect the environment and to contribute to achieving sustainable development in exercising their functions. Before R&R commences a number of small projects have been completed to reduce natural gas consumption, including the replacement of steam boilers with more efficient condensing gas boilers for hot water and providing localised heating sources in some areas using air source heat pumps and local electric boilers.

A portfolio of projects known as the Commons Building and Infrastructure Portfolio (CBIP) is undertaking feasibility work for the majority of the remaining buildings on the Parliamentary Estate. This work is evaluating the use of electrically powered heat pumps to heat the buildings with natural gas boilers provided as an extra form of resilience.

The Parliamentary Digital Service is taking steps to improve and enhance the user experience of parliamentary voice services.

A new Voice Programme commenced in June 2022 to help establish a reliable and resilient service in a way that supports current and future user needs. This is expected to include procurement of a new streamlined solution with a less complex support model. In addition, tactical solutions will be provided to address repeat issues experienced by specific users, including with handsets, to help ensure continuity of service until a stable long-term option is implemented.

Resolution speed of major telephony incidents will continue to depend on third parties until the existing telephony infrastructure is replaced. PDS will continue to strengthen third party relationships to mitigate the risk of protracted disruption.

Before moving to its current location in March 2019, IPSA consided sites in Milton Keynes and Croydon, as well as Stratford and Canary Wharf. At that time, before the Covid-19 pandemic, a central London presence was deemed best placed to offer support to MPs and enable employees working from the office to attend meetings in Parliament at short notice. Going forward, IPSA will once again approach its future needs in a careful and considered way to ensure that its premises are conductive to offering a high-quality service to MPs and their staff, in addition to delivering good value for money for the taxpayer.

Average attendance at the London office has been monitered carefully be IPSA and is calculated by working days in the calender month (and is only based on current office-based staffing numbers (66)). This does not, however, include a number of IPSA people based on home-base contracts who make regular journeys into the office, particularly when based a short distance from the London region. It should be noted at the outset too that the discovery and surge of the Omicron variant, which necessitated public health advice to work from home, will have had an impact on the data from at least last Autumn 2021 to Spring 2022. For nearly the entire time period requested in the question, a significant number of desks were unavailable for use in the IPSA office to maintain appropiate social distancing in the context of IPSA's office layout. As only 32 of the possible 81 desks were available for use from 201 to the end of September 2022, this further materially reduced capacity within and attendance at the office. Noting the desks available and the number of staff available on office-based contracts, the general figures are below:

• October 2021: 9% (This should be read as the average office-based contract employee spendin 9% of their working month in the office in October 2021 and so on for the following months). This constituted 18% of available desks.
• November 2021: 9%. This constituted 20% of available desks.
• December 2021: 7%. This constituted 15% of available desks.
• January 2022: 5%. This constituted 9% of available desks.
• February 2022: 8%. This constituted 17% of available desks.
• March 2022: 7%. This constituted 14% of available desks.
• April 2022: 8%. This constituted 16% of available desks.
• May 2022: 8%. This constituted 16% of available desks.
• June 2022: 6%. This constituted 13% of available desks.
• July 2022: 7%. This constituted 14% of available desks.
• August 2022: 6%. This constituted 13% of available desks.
• September 2022: 7%. This constituted 14% of available desks.
• October 2022: now that all the desks are available for use, the desk booking system upon which the data above is based is no longer operative, so this figure cannot be produced.

Like many organisations in the publice sector, IPSA recognised many benefits for its people and performance in continuing with a hybrid approach to work despite a lifting of formal coronavirus restrictions and other government public health advice. IPSA functions, such as payroll accuracy and the speed of reimbursement, have not been adversely impacted by such a model, and IPSA has instead been able to build a more inclusive and diverse workforce based accross the U.K. by bringing forward plans to create a more representative, hybrid, and flexibe organisation to reflect the nations, regions and constituencies MPs serve. The geographical spread of IPSA staff, new hybrid approach to working, and importance of value for money for the public purse will be central considerations for IPSA when it explores the locations and size of any office premises (in London or elsewhere) which it may require in future to continue to discharge its statutory duties efficiently, cost-effectively, and transparently.

(a) Where possible Parliament follows Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) guidelines for temperature standards in offices to ensure a comfortable working environment. When rooms have temperature controls for the user, there is a small threshold of which temperature can be raised or lowered to ensure rooms are not over cooled/heated.

There are many differing levels of temperature control across the parliamentary estate, with some areas having no temperature control at all.

We review the setpoints for heating and cooling regularly.

(b) Parliamentary authorities take energy efficiency very seriously as part of its commitment to reducing its environmental impacts. Parliament has reduced its electricity consumption by 16.8% and gas consumption by 25.3% since 2008/09.

The Building Management System has been upgraded recently to enable better control of the building services, such as resetting manual temperature changes every night to a CIBSE recommended setpoint.

The Environmental Sustainability Team monitor and report performance energy and water use monthly, and report annually in the sustainability section of the Commission Annual Report.

The delay in providing responses to Questions 6697, 33681, 42245 and 45520 was due to an administrative error in the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

The delay in providing responses to Questions 6697, 33681, 42245 and 45520 was due to an administrative error in the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

IPSA incurred costs of 508k on rent, rates, and service charges in the 2020-21 financial year. In 2021-22, this figure was 367k. IPSA currently has 97 contracted employees, of which 68% (66) are on office-based contracts and (32%) 31 are on home-based contracts. The difficult times brought about by the pandemic brought forward IPSA’s plans to create a more representative national organisation which better reflects the nations, regions, and constituencies our MPs serve. Recruiting staff from across the UK without the necessity of living within commuting distance of central London has delivered a more inclusive and diverse workforce, well-positioned to deliver services locally without the need for lengthy travel from London. Of the 66 employees on office-based contracts, all 66 have worked at some point in the past 12 months at the premises. The data for all 97 staff members, regardless of their contract type, also indicates that 100% of employees have worked from the premises at some point over the last 12 months.

The delay in providing a response to this Question was due to an administrative error in the Speaker’s Committee for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.

We have made the global energy transition from coal to clean power a priority of our COP26 Presidency. I raised this issue most recently during my visit to China on 6 and 7 September with Vice Premier Han Zheng, Chinese Special Envoy for Climate Change Minister Xie Zhenhua and the Head of China’s National Energy Administration, Minister Zhang Jianhua. Additionally, the British Embassy in Beijing regularly engage with their Chinese counterparts on this issue. The Foreign Secretary has also discussed the importance of ambitious action to tackle climate change with his counterpart, State Councillor Wang Yi.

We will continue to engage with China to provide further details on how it will implement President Xi’s commitment at the US Leaders’ Summit on 22 April 2021 to reduce domestic coal consumption. Internationally, we are also working with China, as well as other financiers of international coal, through our COP26 energy transition campaign in collaborating to make renewables more attractive than coal power for all countries. Together with the G7, we have committed to rapidly accelerate the transition away from unabated coal capacity to an overwhelmingly decarbonised power system in the 2030s; and to end new direct government support for unabated international coal power generation by the end of 2021.

IPSA staff are currently working remotely, in accordance with government Covid-19 guidelines. During 2019 - 20 there was an average of 83 full-time equivalent staff working for IPSA, based in 85 Strand.

IPSA incurred costs in 2019 - 20 of £524K on rent, rates and service charges. The equivalent figure for 2020 - 21 will be published after the end of the financial year in IPSA's 2020 - 21 annual report and accounts.

The Public Contract Regulations 2015 are UK law and in general they prohibit contracting authorities from specifying the country of manufacture or origin when purchasing goods. This has not changed now that the Brexit transition period has ended.

The wash basin taps in question were supplied through British companies including Dart Valley Systems. This particular supplier has a Swiss parent company (Franke) which operates globally.

Members of the Independent Expert Panel will be paid, monthly in arrears, a fee of £350 (excluding VAT) for each half-day spent by the Panel member in the provision of their services.

The reintroduction of cash payments in catering outlets will be reviewed by the Catering Service Management team in accordance with any changes to industry guidance provided by the Government. The current guidance encourages contactless payments, where possible, which the House is adopting as part of its measures to manage the risk of COVID transmission on the Parliamentary Estate.

The Downing Street complex is a working building, as well as containing two Ministerial residences. As has been the case under successive administrations, refurbishments and maintenance are made periodically.

Works to the Downing Street estate are overseen by the Cabinet Office. It is not the practice of successive administrations to comment on which officials have been consulted or advised on matters.

Further to the answer to PQ59372 on 22 June 2020, Government Departments have a number of processes in place to ensure users seeking information from Government Departments, including on search engines, are not diverted to fee-charging and misleading websites.

The end of the Transition Period provides an historic opportunity to overhaul our outdated public procurement regime. Cabinet Office undertook an extensive programme of stakeholder engagement during 2019 to identify where improvements could be made and the recently published Green Paper Transforming Government Procurement shapes those findings into concrete proposals.

Published guidance for local authority preparations for Remembrance Sunday can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-preparations-for-remembrance-sunday/local-authority-preparations-for-remembrance-sunday

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

Please note that the UK Statistics Authority is responsible for delivering the Census in England and Wales. The National Records for Scotland and the Scottish Government are responsible for the Scottish Census, and NISRA cover the Census in Northern Ireland.

The Government understands the huge significance of weddings. We recognise that because weddings have not been able to take place in recent months this has caused difficulty and distress for many people. As set out in the Government’s COVID-19 recovery strategy, published in May, the Government has been examining how to enable people to gather in slightly larger groups better to facilitate small weddings. We have worked closely with faith leaders and local government on how best to achieve this. The Prime Minister announced on 23 June that wedding and civil partnership ceremonies will be able to take place in England from 4 July. People should avoid having a large ceremony, and should invite no more than thirty family and friends. Venues should ensure they are COVID-19 secure.

Government Departments have processes in place to ensure users seeking information from Government Departments are not diverted to fee-charging or misleading websites.

We work to ensure that government information and services are correctly listed and rank highly in search engine results so that they are easy for people to find and identify as government information and services.

We also challenge sites that pay for prominent positioning in search returns, by reporting them to the relevant search provider.

If fee-charging websites are operating outside of legal boundaries, we will pursue site owners through trading standards bodies or legal challenge.

GOV.UK is the government's website and online brand. We take steps to ensure people can rely on it as a trusted source for information.

The body referred to in the Hon. Members' questions was one of a number of sub-Committees of the National Security Council. Since July 2019, the National Security Council itself now consider matters relating to national security, foreign policy, defence, international relations and development, resilience, energy and resource security. This includes oversight of the National Security Risk Assessment. This administrative measure simply reflected a wider consolidation of Cabinet Committee sub-Committees.

National Grid Electricity System Operator (NGESO) ensures there is adequate capacity available to meet peak demand in a range of scenarios, including by evaluating the amount of capacity needed to meet future demand. This assessment informs targets for annual Capacity Market auctions, which have already secured the majority of Great Britain’s capacity needs out to 2025/26.

NGESO is responsible for balancing electricity supply and demand in real time, as well as for managing the operation and stability of the system. The Government is confident that NGESO has the tools needed to operate the electricity system reliably.

The Department does not hold data on the total number of trained insulation installers in the wider supply chain. According to the records held by TrustMark, there are 763 TrustMark registered and PAS 2030:2019 certified insulation installer businesses as of 20^th October 2022. In total there are 1,941 TrustMark registered businesses that meet the requirements to participate in government retrofit schemes.

The UK has a working gas storage capacity of 1.5bcm (billion cubic meters). This is equivalent to around 2% of typical total annual gas demand. Based on the Aggregate Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI) figures, as of Tuesday 11 October, GB storage is 100% full.

Centrica closed Rough in June 2017 for commercial reasons. This was not a decision for BEIS or Government ministers.

At the time, external analysis produced by Cambridge Economic Policy Associates (CEPA) found that the closure of Rough had limited to no impact on security of supply or the price of gas.