Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many applications the Law Officers' Department has received for (a) internal loans and (b) secondments from civil servants in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Law Officers’ Departments are committed to the benefits that can be brought for the taxpayer in the delivery of Government objectives from interchange and is always looking for opportunities to develop arrangements which further the delivery agenda of the Department.
It is the policy across the Civil Service that where individuals transfer temporarily between our department and another department they move on a loan basis.
A temporary move to, or from, an organisation outside the Civil Service is referred to as a Secondment and must be for a minimum of 12 months and normally not exceed two years. Therefore, secondment applications, by definition, will not be received from existing civil servants.
The information requested is only available for the CPS from 2014/15 when the current civil service recruitment system was introduced.
Number of applications received for internal loans from civil servants:
Financial year | Civil servant applications |
2014/15 | 90 |
2015/16 | 46 |
2016/17 | 130 |
2017/18 | 68 |
In the years since 2010 the SFO has had the following numbers of civil servants on loan from and to other government departments.
| Number of staff on loan from other government departments | Number of SFO staff on loan to other government departments |
2010/11 | 5 | 8 |
2011/12 | 1 | 4 |
2012/13 | 3 | 5 |
2013/14 | 3 | 9 |
2014/15 | 5 | 6 |
2015/16 | 4 | 5 |
2016/17 | 2 | 9 |
2017/18 | 1 | 9 |
In relation to the Attorney General’s Office (AGO), the Government Legal Department (GLD) and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI), the following table shows the number of applications for posts that have been advertised to be filled on loan within the Civil Service since April 2012, which is the earliest date for which records are available. GLD specifically does not hold information prior to 1 April 2014 as information on individual recruitment exercises is not required to be held for more than two years.
| AGO | GLD | HMCPSI |
2012/2013 | 21 | No information available | No information available |
2013/2014 | 78 | No information available | 17 |
2014/2015 | 145 | 9 | 0 |
2015/2016 | 241 | 6 | 0 |
2016/2017 | 124 | 11 | 21 |
01/04/2017 to date | 211 | 8 | 1 |
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of requests for consultancy and temporary staff for the Law Officers' Departments were approved via a resource board.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
During 2016/17 no requests for consultancy or temporary staff for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) have been considered by a ‘resource board’.
The SFO also does not approve any expenditure for consultants or temporary workers via a resource board.
The Government Legal Department (GLD) engages temporary staff through Civil Service contractual arrangements to cover short term vacancies and to secure specific specialist legal and support skills that are not available in-house. It does not use a resource board to approve this form of appointments. Rather, the department’s annual budget for staffing is agreed each year by the GLD Board and formal delegations are made to individual budget holders who then have responsibility for the recruitment and deployment of staff (including temporary staff, where appropriate) within central guidelines. The approval mechanism for consultancy spend at the GLD is not via a resources board although a request for consultancy would need to be accompanied by a business justification. However, there was no consultancy spend in GLD during the last financial year.
The AGO have not employed any consultancy or agency staff during 2016/17.
Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) discusses and authorises all requests for consultants or temporary staff at their strategic board.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, in which of the last 10 years the Law Officers' Departments have submitted a strategic asset management plan to the Government Property Unit.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Government Property Unit (GPU) has commissioned Strategic Asset Management Plans (SAMPs) from departments on an annual basis since 2014. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and Serious Fraud Office (SFO) are covered as part of the Ministry of Justice’s asset plan.
The AGO, GLD and HMCPSI are smaller government departments with limited property assets. As such, they have not been commissioned to prepare a SAMP. Information about their property interests is available in their Annual Reports and Accounts and recorded on the GPU property database (EPIMS).
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, whether the principle set out in paragraph 5.3.6 of the Government's Cyber Security Strategy that everyone who works in government has a sound awareness of cyber risk applies to members of staff employed by contractors doing work procured by the Law Officers' Departments.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The policy set out in paragraph 5.3.6 of the National Cyber Security Strategy applies to everyone employed by the Law Officers’ Departments, including contractors. The Law Officers’ Departments are committed to ensuring that contractors and their staff have a sound awareness of cyber risk matters and they take all necessary safeguards to protect the department’s information.
Cyber security awareness, the need to ensure contractual compliance with Information Assurance standards such as ISO 27001:2013 certification and “Cyber Essentials/ Plus” is included in contract specifications and reviewed as part of the evaluation process. Contractors must comply with the department’s IT security policies and procedures.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what estimate he has made of the number of new arms-length bodies the Law Officers' Departments plan to establish once the UK has left the EU.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The UK’s relationship with the EU's agencies upon exit will be evaluated in light of delivering the twelve objectives outlined by the Prime Minister to achieve a deep and special partnership between the UK and the EU. The UK’s future relationship with the EU's decentralised bodies after leaving the EU is a matter for the negotiations.
Prior to any decisions on establishing new agencies, the Government will, however, always look to minimise disruption and costs, which will include considering alternative options.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of consultancy assignments procured by the Law Officers' Departments are paid at a daily rate.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The HM Procurator General and Treasury Solicitor Annual Report and Accounts 2016-17 which covers the expenditure of GLD, AGO and HMCPSI, discloses that expenditure on consultants has been kept to a minimum, with spend in 2016-17 of £7k. This figure relates to the cost of professional advice provided to HMCPSI, which was all on a daily rate.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has not employed any consultants within the past financial year or during the current year.
The CPS has not procured consultancy services during 2016/17 or during 2017/18 to date.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of public procurement contracts the Law Officers' Departments awarded through framework agreements in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Government Legal Department (GLD), Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) do not hold central records of the number of bids received for each contract (3982). In addition, while it is their policy to use frameworks (e.g. those established by the Crown Commercial Service, government departments or public sector bodies) either through direct award or through a mini-competition, we do not hold a central record that would enable us to determine the proportion of purchases/contracts made through these framework agreements (4012). We are therefore unable to provide the information without examining the detail of each contract award/purchase made and this could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Similarly, the information requested (3982 and 4012) is not collated centrally at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and could only be obtained through a manual search of records, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not keep a consolidated central record of the number of bids received for each contract (3982) or of which contracts are awarded via framework agreements (4012). To answer both these questions would involve separately checking all contracts awarded since 2010 and would incur disproportionate cost (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, part 2, clause 9).
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what the average number of bids received for each contract put out to tender by the Law Officers' Departments was in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Government Legal Department (GLD), Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) do not hold central records of the number of bids received for each contract (3982). In addition, while it is their policy to use frameworks (e.g. those established by the Crown Commercial Service, government departments or public sector bodies) either through direct award or through a mini-competition, we do not hold a central record that would enable us to determine the proportion of purchases/contracts made through these framework agreements (4012). We are therefore unable to provide the information without examining the detail of each contract award/purchase made and this could only be achieved at disproportionate cost.
Similarly, the information requested (3982 and 4012) is not collated centrally at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and could only be obtained through a manual search of records, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not keep a consolidated central record of the number of bids received for each contract (3982) or of which contracts are awarded via framework agreements (4012). To answer both these questions would involve separately checking all contracts awarded since 2010 and would incur disproportionate cost (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, part 2, clause 9).
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many contracts put out to tender by the Law Officers' Departments have been (a) cancelled and (b) re-tendered in each year since 2010.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
The Government Legal Department (GLD), Attorney General’s Office (AGO) and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) do not specifically record information centrally on those contracts that have been cancelled and retendered, but the procurement team are not aware of any contracts that have been cancelled and re-tendered since 2010.
According to Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) records held centrally, there have been no contracts that have been cancelled and re-tendered since 2010. The CPS is a devolved organisation, however, and it is possible that contracts have been awarded locally and subsequently cancelled. To collate any such contracts would involve checking large numbers of records across a number of CPS offices and would incur disproportionate cost (Code of Practice on Access to Government Information, part 2, clause 9).
The information requested is not collated centrally at the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and could only be obtained through a manual search of records, which would incur a disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, how many lawyers in the Government Legal Department provide services to the Department of Exiting the European Union; how many of those lawyers have been seconded from outside the Civil Service; and from which firms those lawyers have been seconded.
Answered by Jeremy Wright
At present the Government Legal Department (GLD) has 39 lawyers in its Division advising the Department for Exiting the European Union. None have been seconded from outside the civil service. This figure does not include lawyers in GLD who provide litigation, employment or commercial services to DExEU from time to time.