Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the total value has been of contracts held by their Department with (a) G4S, (b) Serco and (c) Capita in each year since 2020.
Answered by Edward Timpson
In the period in question The Attorney General’s Office has had no contracts with any of the listed firms.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, which public appointments he is responsible for.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The public appointments that the department is responsible for making are set out in the Schedule to the Public Appointments Order in Council 2019: https://publicappointments.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-Public-Appointments-Order-In-Council.pdf
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much time off in lieu has been taken by staff in his Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Attorney General’s Office offers a flexi time policy to support time off in lieu on an individual basis. Flexi time is individually agreed with line managers to maintain working hours in line with the Working Time Regulations 1998. As there is no central record of working hours, the Attorney General’s Office has no accurate way to estimate the amount of time off in lieu taken by staff in each of the last five years without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what estimate he has made of the amount of unpaid overtime worked by staff in his Department in the last 24 months.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The Attorney General’s Office does not pay overtime, however the department does offer a flexi time policy to support time off in lieu on an individual basis. Flexi time is individually agreed with line managers to maintain working hours in line with the Working Time Regulations 1998. As there is no central record of working hours, the Attorney General’s Office has no accurate way to estimate any potential unpaid overtime worked by staff in the last 24 months without disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, pursuant to the corrected Answer of 22 January 2019 to Question 206251, how many civil servants in his Department were working part or full-time on projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio in (a) June 2016 and (b) December 2018.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Attorney General’s Office had no civil servants working part or full time on projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio in June 2016 or December 2018.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether his Department holds data on the proportion of contracts issued by (a) his Department and (b) contractors to his Department that include provisions to impose that any payment due to a subcontractor be made no later than 30 days from the date on which the relevant invoice is regarded as valid and undisputed as required by the Public Contract Regulations 2015.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) keeps a central database of contracts it issues. All contracts issued since 2015 that permit subcontracting have contained such provisions.
The Government Legal Department (GLD), Attorney General’s Office (AGO), HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) do not centrally hold this data. To calculate or estimate this would involve a manual check of contracts held and this would incur disproportionate cost.
For future exercises with an anticipated contract value above £5 million per annum, the CPS will apply the requirements of Procurement Policy Note 04/18 (published 29 November 2018). This requires departments to include ‘prompt payment’ questions in the selection of future suppliers.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of contracts issued by his Department and contractors include provisions to impose, as between parties to the subcontract, that any payment due from the contractor to a subcontractor under the contract is to be made no later than the end of a period of 30 days from the date on which the relevant invoice is regarded as valid and undisputed, as required by the Public Contract Regulations 2015.
Answered by Robert Buckland
Wherever possible the Attorney General’s Office and the Law Officers Departments (the Crown Prosecution Service, the Serious Fraud Office, The Government Legal Department and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate) let contracts over £10,000 using call-off contracts from frameworks procured by the Crown Commercial Service (CCS). These frameworks include provision for payments to sub-contractors within 30 days of receipt of undisputed invoice.
Central records are not held for procurements partially, or fully, managed outside the procurement service. To confirm that these contracts include provisions for prompt payment of sub-contractor invoices would require a manual check of all procurement records, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how much his Department has spent on consultancy fees relating to the UK leaving the EU since July 2016.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Attorney General’s Office has not incurred any spending on consultancy fees relating to the UK leaving the EU since July 2016.
The Attorney General’s Office publishes spend over £25,000 on a monthly basis as part of its transparency data routine publication which is accessible here.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many of his Department's invitations to tender have received no bidders in the last two years.
Answered by Robert Buckland
The Government Legal Department (GLD), Attorney General Office (AGO) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HM CPSI) engage a centrally managed procurement service in procurements of more than £10,000. For 2016-17 and 2017-18, an examination of records held by the centrally managed procurement service indicated that there were no instances of an invitation to tender where bids were not received.
Similarly, during the financial years 2016-17 and 2017-18 no invitations to tender by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) or the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) exceeding OJEU thresholds received no bidders.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many leak enquiries his Department has undertaken in the last two years.
Answered by Robert Buckland
It has been the policy of successive Governments not to comment on security matters other than in exceptional circumstances when it is in the public interest to do so.
The leak of any Government information or material is not acceptable and the Government takes such incidents very seriously.