Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 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 John Penrose
No civil servants in my Department were working part or full-time on projects in the Government Major Projects Portfolio in (a) June 2016 and (b) December 2018.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of contracts issued by her 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 Shailesh Vara
The Northern Ireland Office includes, as standard, a payment clause in all contracts involving subcontractors, requiring payment to be made to contractors within 30 days and that these terms apply to any subcontractors they may have.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how much her Department has spent on consultancy fees in relation to the UK leaving the EU since July 2016.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Department has spent £16,902 on consultancy fees since July 2016 for work related to the UK leaving the EU. This work covered research into many aspects of the economy in Northern Ireland, and only a portion of this work related directly to the impact of EU Exit.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what apps her Department has approved for use on mobile phones issued by her Department.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
Due to national security concerns it would be inappropriate to publicly supply a list of applications approved for use on mobile phones issued by the Department, as to do so facilitates attacks against official systems by hostile actors.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many of her Department's invitations to tender have received no bidders in the last two years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
My Department uses two centres of procurement excellence for all procurement action who manage the tender process on behalf of the client. Details on returning tenders are not held by the department.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, how many IT systems which her Department uses are more than (a) three, (b) five and (c) eight years old; and what steps she is taking to ensure that all his Department's IT systems are updated promptly.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
My department has no IT systems which are over three years of age.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what discussions she has had with key infrastructure providers on the steps they are taking to protect themselves from cyber-attack.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
Government Departments and the National Cyber Security Centre have regular discussions with key infrastructure providers on their management of cyber risk.
Ensuring the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure is secure and resilient against cyber attack is a priority for the Government as set out in the National Cyber Security Strategy. This is supported by a significant programme of work to provide advice, guidance and support to infrastructure providers and develop effective regulatory frameworks.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2018 to Question 132223, on Northern Ireland Office: Buildings, what the annual cost to the public purse is of the use of each of those sites by her Department.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The annual cost to the public purse of the use of the buildings identified in the previous answer to question 132223 is shown below:
Building | Annual Cost (£) |
Horse Guards Road | 859,774 |
Stormont House | 693,683 |
Hillsborough Castle | 311,328 |
This cost is based on expenditure incurred in the most recent complete financial year.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of her Department's estate is (a) rented, (b) owned and (c) occupied through any other type of agreement.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Northern Ireland Office has three areas of estate. The 1 Horse Guards Road holding is occupied via a lease with HMT. A further holding in Stormont Estate, Belfast is occupied via a Memorandum of Terms Of Occupation with the Northern Ireland Civil Service.
The third area of holding relates to a contract for Hillsborough Castle. Some accommodation and a small office for ministers are also available at Hillsborough Castle, however, responsibility for the management and day to day running of Hillsborough Castle rests with the charity Historic Royal Palaces.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Normanton and Hemsworth)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, which members of her Department's board are responsible for ensuring the proper application of the business appointment rules for former Ministers and senior civil servants.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The Northern Ireland Office’s Audit and Risk Committee, which is chaired by the department’s lead non-executive board member, is responsible for monitoring the application of the Business Appointment Rules for senior civil servants SCS2 and SCS1. The application of the rules for former Ministers and the most senior levels of the civil service is a matter for the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.