Draft Public Procurement (international trade agreements) (amendment) regulations 2021
Julia Lopez Excerpts(2 years, 10 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Public Procurement (International Trade Agreements) (Amendment) Regulations 2021.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Pritchard. This statutory instrument will ensure that domestic public procurement regulations give legal effect to the UK’s international procurement obligations—specifically, those covered in the UK third party international trade agreements signed with non-EU countries that had an agreement with the EU before exit day, 31 January 2020. Therefore, when contracting authorities carry out public procurements, that could be covered by an international agreement. If so, suppliers from those countries are required to be treated no less favourably than suppliers in the UK. It also means that UK businesses will continue to benefit from access to public procurement markets overseas.
We have an agreement with the devolved Administrations for this instrument to be laid on behalf of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. That will ensure legislative efficiency and consistency across the four nations.
We are implementing this change because the UK Government, following our exit from the EU, have, as far as possible, committed to providing continuity of existing trade and investment relationships with our existing international partners. We have already helped to ensure a continuation of global procurement through the World Trade Organisation’s Government procurement agreement, following the UK’s accession to the agreement as an independent member, and we have laid separate legislation to implement that. Without this instrument, the UK would not be able to implement its international procurement obligations in trade agreements with third countries. That would leave the UK Government open to legal challenge and damage our reputation as an international trading partner.
This instrument will be made using powers set out in section 2 of the Trade Act 2021. The instrument will create within existing procurement regulations a new schedule listing the international agreements signed by the UK. It will be limited to UK trade agreements with countries that had a preceding agreement with the EU before exit day. Of the agreements in effect, those with substantive procurement provisions and to be listed in the schedule are with Albania, the Andean countries, Canada, the CARIFORUM states—the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States—central America, Chile, Georgia, Israel, Japan, Kosovo, Mexico, Moldova, North Macedonia, the Republic of Korea, Serbia, Singapore, the Swiss Confederation, Ukraine and Vietnam. This instrument is uncontroversial, each of those agreements having already been scrutinised via the procedure set out in the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.
Furthermore, parliamentary reports have voluntarily been laid alongside each continuity trade agreement. They explained our approach to delivering continuity with each partner as the UK left the EU. If we have made any significant changes to the trade-related provisions of our existing agreements through entering into the new ones, we have explained those in the reports.
Further affirmative statutory instruments will need to be laid, using the powers in section 2 of the Trade Act, each time that the UK signs a new trade agreement with a third country, or any of the agreements mentioned here are updated, in order to give them legal effect. Future trade agreements with countries where there was no free trade agreement with the EU before exit day—that could include Australia and New Zealand—are not covered in the Trade Act and would require separate legislation.
I commend this instrument to the Committee.
Julia Lopez
I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s comments. I am glad she agrees with us on the importance of social value in procurement. She mentioned some of the challenges we faced in procuring PPE during the crisis. I set out in Westminster Hall in quite some detail some of the challenges. I was trying to be as transparent as possible about those challenges, so that we can understand the true lessons rather than go on a wild goose chase about cronyism, which, from what I understand about how things were operating, is a misplaced concern.
I agree very much that we need a better system for procurement, and we are introducing one. We have a very ambitious Green Paper, which she will have seen, and the relevant Bill was introduced in the Queen’s Speech. We have a very good free trade agreement with the EU, so I hope that her businesses are now benefiting from that.
The reason why the draft regulations are introduced today is that the provisions were covered by other legislation, but that expires at the end of the year. That is why we have introduced this statutory instrument now that the Trade Act has had Royal Assent.
Legislation and scrutiny of new trade agreements will take place on the Floor of House. That will be led by my trade colleagues rather than the Cabinet Office. We will make sure that any new procurement regime that we put forward will be compliant with WTO rules. In having our own seat at the table now, separate from the EU, we will have our own unique voice on some of the debates about public procurement. I am sure that it will be an area where we will make our voice heard.
The hon. Lady mentioned digital. We are very keen to work with states such as Singapore and Australia to advance the digital agenda, which has stalled in recent years.
She mentioned some very important issues on supply chains and social value. There is a lot we want to try to do in this area, including making sure that we are procuring with firms that are employing apprentices, taking on disabled employees and adhering to high environmental standards. The hon. Lady mentioned human rights and made a particular suggestion. I am happy to take that away and look into it if she would like to write to me in further detail.
I hope that colleagues will join me in supporting the draft regulations, which I commend to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.
Government Consulting Hub
Julia Lopez Excerpts(2 years, 11 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
My noble Friend, the Minister of State for Efficiency and Transformation, Lord Agnew of Oulton, has today made the following written statement.
I am pleased today to formally launch the new Government Consulting Hub, a centre of expertise for Her Majesty's Government on management consultancy. As the Minister for Efficiency and Transformation in the Cabinet Office and Her Majesty’s Treasury, I am aware of the enormous potential that the civil service has, and I am committed to ensuring that the work of the civil service offers public value and upholds the highest standards of performance. As our centre of excellence for consultancy, the Government Consulting Hub will establish new approaches to knowledge generation and sharing and to training in partnership with the Government Skills and Curriculum Unit. It will drive up capacity and the capacity to work jointly across Departments to reuse thinking and work, and to be our own experts where is it reasonable to do so. These core elements will provide the civil service with a powerful resource, helping to reduce the amount spent on consultancy, maximise value where consultants are needed, and support the growth and use of the civil service’s internal capability to deliver consultancy type work and to deploy consultancy type skills. This is not just a savings exercise. This is a real opportunity to invest in the future of the civil service, to build capability, skills and experience, and to have a much greater impact in the work that is delivered. An overview of the work of the Government Consulting Hub has been published today on gov.uk.
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GOV.UK Verify: Digital Identity Assurance
Julia Lopez Excerpts(3 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
I would like to update the House on the GOV.UK Verify programme and the development of a new cross-Government single sign-on and digital identity assurance pilot. This update follows the written statement in April 2020 made by my colleague the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, my right hon. Friend the Member for Surrey Heath (Michael Gove).
Building on our experiences of Verify, and as we announced in last year’s spending review, the Government Digital Service is collaborating with other Departments to develop the first phase of a new system that will make it easier for people to access Government services online. This will enable people to find and access Government services more quickly, allow citizens to prove their identity only once—without needing to re-enter information multiple times—and protect people’s privacy throughout.
People rightly expect from the Government a personalised, seamless and intuitive online service of the kind they get from their favourite online retailers. This pilot is an important step in that direction. Work is well underway and we have started the co-design with services and Departments across Government.
While this new system is being developed, many users and connected Government services continue to rely on GOV.UK Verify, as has been the case during the pandemic. The Government have therefore decided to extend the current Verify service, enabling new users to sign up until April 2022 and existing users to sign in until April 2023. During this time the Government will continue to update the House on the progress of our pilot.
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Lobbying of Government Committee
Julia Lopez Excerpts(3 years ago)
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The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
I thank all right hon. and hon. Members who have taken part in this afternoon’s debate for their very valuable contributions and for speaking with such passion on issues that affect us all in public life. The care with which we spend taxpayers’ money matters very deeply to public confidence in Government. The respect that we demonstrate for rules and regulations is rightly a benchmark for trust. The systems and structures of governance in this country must at all times serve, and be seen to serve, those whom we are elected to represent, and not be exploited for narrow, private interest. It is right that we in Parliament probe and scrutinise any concerns raised on such matters and, to be candid, it is in the Government’s interest, as much as anyone else’s, to be able to provide robust assurances. As my hon. Friend the Member for North East Derbyshire (Lee Rowley) said, if there is an issue, let us uncover it. It is for that reason that my hon. Friend the Minister for the Constitution and Devolution set out the existing framework for safeguarding and assuring the public interest. It should be restated that that existing framework, much of which has been brought in since 2010, has largely been very effective.
On the questions raised by the hon. Members for Argyll and Bute (Brendan O’Hara) and for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) this afternoon about the interactions between Greensill and the Treasury, as the Chancellor set out in a letter to the hon. Member for Oxford East (Anneliese Dodds), the matter was referred by him to the relevant Treasury officials, and following proper scrutiny, Greensill’s requests were turned down. It was through transparency returns and declaration processes that meetings between Greensill and officials were highlighted. In other words, the system in that instance worked as it should, but it would be disingenuous to suggest that this existing framework has not been tested by the extreme circumstances of the pandemic and that the broader issues raised in recent days about Greensill have not posed questions that we are as keen as anyone to probe. Indeed, my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jackie Doyle-Price) highlighted that the scrutiny work has long ago begun.
Out of necessity and urgency, the Government have, over these past 12 months, interacted with thousands of individuals and organisations offering help. All claim to have had something to offer. Some do and some do not. Some have been referred by Conservative Members; others have been referred by Labour MPs, peers or those from other parties. Some are genuinely public-spirited; others only purport to be. Ministers and officials have had to take decisions that, at times, prioritise swift and decisive action over fulfilling the usual standards on timely and transparent contract publication, but we have been working extremely hard to rectify that latter shortcoming, about which I will say a bit more in a moment.
I also wish to assure you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that we have not been waiting around for the Opposition to table a motion on these important issues before making improvements to our existing propriety and transparency regime. We are currently conducting post-legislative scrutiny of part 1 of the lobbying Act, consulting a variety of stakeholders to get their views on the scope and effectiveness of the legislation. I welcome the contribution from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose) and his practical proposals.
Bob Seely
Does my hon. Friend understand that many of us want the Government to do the right thing, and are grateful to them for doing the right thing, but understand that the lobbying Act, both for domestic and foreign lobbying, needs to be much broader? We need to take in the law firms involved, the reputation managers and the PR companies. It is not just about a narrow definition of lobbying, but all this lobbying industry that we seem to have built up in this country.
Julia Lopez
I thank my hon. Friend for his question. It is important to understand that we are putting forward a package of things. Some of the changes that need to be made are not necessarily through the lobbying Act, and we are looking at some of the issues of foreign intervention that he has rightly highlighted today.
We are already working with the chairman of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments, my noble Friend Lord Pickles, to improve the business appointments regime, which applies lobbying bans to former Ministers and civil servants. The committee has been actively seeking to increase the efficacy of the system by introducing a framework for the risk-based consideration of cases, greater transparency and better reporting of breaches of the rules. Members should note that some of the issues discussed in relation to Bill Crothers stem from the transparent publication of our correspondence with ACOBA on gov.uk.
On procurement—to reassure the hon. Member for Sheffield, Hallam (Olivia Blake)—we have published an ambitious Green Paper with legislation to be included in the Queen’s Speech, setting out how we will provide commercial teams with much greater choice in an emergency. It needs to be understood that, at the moment, the options are a direct award, which exposes us to the kinds of claims of cronyism that have been peddled today, or full fact procurement, which takes far too long to turn around in an urgent situation. In relation to this, last autumn, we commissioned an independent expert review into Cabinet Office procurement processes led by Nigel Boardman, probing particular contracts that were raised in the NAO’s report on this subject. The subsequent Boardman report was forensic in its analysis and very hard-hitting in its recommendations, and the Cabinet Office committed to taking forward all of them in full. Meanwhile, I set out with candour in a Westminster Hall debate the challenges that the Government had to navigate at the height of the pandemic and what went well and what, undoubtedly, could have been done better during the period in question. I recommend that debate to those hon. Members who have today raised concerns about the so-called VIP lane. It might make for a more compelling Labour press release to suggest that the story of procurement during the emergency has been one of Tory corruption, but I believe that it is vital that we understand what really happened so that we do not overlook what needs to change.
Far from being a secret referrals lane, officials dealing with the thousands of PPE leads coming in set up a separate mailbox to triage them. It allowed more credible leads to be sifted and it helped manage the correspondence that was coming in from Parliamentarians of all colours who themselves were being contacted by companies and individuals offering help. The Opposition like to suggest that those going through this mailbox were 10 times more likely to secure a contract. The most important thing to note, however, as the NAO does in its report, is that all PPE offers, no matter from where they came, went through the same eight-stage assurance checks. It should also be said that of the more than 400 offers handled by the high-priority inbox, only 47 were awarded contracts, which means that 90% were not.
In relation to the activities of Greensill, Mr Boardman has been commissioned by the Prime Minister once again to apply his scrupulous and dispassionate eye to the role of Greensill Capital. I am very glad to say that the letter from Lord Pickles regarding Bill Crothers will now also be considered. It is right that I do not seek to prejudge his findings. However, I want to address two assertions that have been made: that it will be too narrow in scope and therefore requires a broader Committee-led inquiry; and that Mr Boardman himself is a Government yes man. To those criticisms, I first say that it would be wrong to view this investigation in isolation. It is one work strand of several, which we hope, when pulled together, will make for a much more robust framework. Secondly, I have seen how effective Mr Boardman’s previous Cabinet Office review has been in spurring improvements and I have no doubt that any recommendations from his work on Greensill will not only be unsparing but lead to meaningful change should it be necessary.
It is worth reminding the House that, as soon as any of us are elected to this place, we become all too familiar with the trickiness of handling tactfully uninvited requests of a varying nature from associates, constituents and others. What matters is not necessarily that those requests have been made, but that we reach a decision on them, which is compatible with the principles of public life to which we all must adhere.
There have been claims today that current lobbying laws do not go far enough and should be extended, but I would guard against overly simplistic solutions that risk going too far in clamping down on avenues for interaction between Government and wider society. That point was made very powerfully by my hon. Friend the Member for Bolsover (Mark Fletcher) and others. This is particularly true when we reflect on the current emergency during which some of the most important contributions have come from those working outside Government. Indeed, one of my worries from this past year is that publicly spirited people who want to serve their country in an emergency will look at how the integrity of someone such as Kate Bingham was questioned and think twice before coming forward. What is important always, as I have said before, is that decision makers are able to test and interrogate the credibility of external inputs mindful of their own obligations.
Finally, in relation to the ministerial code, I hope that it will be of reassurance to Members that the appointment to the post of independent adviser on ministerial interests will be announced shortly.
Let me finish by returning to the Opposition motion, which will no doubt shortly be manipulated into a social media campaign that implies that Government Members are pro-cronyism and anti-transparency in imposing their convoluted solution to the issues raised today. There is no point in pushing for the creation of yet another body with a remit to scrutinise the rules on lobbying and, additionally, to look into the Greensill affair when we already have a number of—may I say?—very unforgiving Select Committees, the Boardman review and a whole series of efforts under way to improve our existing framework.
The Government are alive to the sincerely held concerns of part of the public, charities, non-governmental organisations and others about lobbying activities. They are looking precisely at the scope and effectiveness of existing legislation.
In the same vein, it is clearly wasteful for the vital scrutiny that is customarily carried out by PACAC and others to be undertaken by a second Committee. Indeed, my hon. Friend the Member for Hazel Grove (Mr Wragg) has already in this debate applied his sharp and ruthlessly inquiring mind to some of the most vital questions; I thought his contribution was superb. Lord Pickles will appear before my hon. Friend’s Committee tomorrow.
We should focus, as the Government are doing, on strengthening our existing framework to satisfy ourselves and others that the mechanisms in place are sufficiently robust with respect to the conduct of public servants and the stewardship of public resources, and that we uncompromisingly make those decisions in the national interest. Although the Government do not support the motion, today’s contributions have shown the strength of feeling across the House and I thank hon. Members for them.
Beyond the political froth, I do not think that we are in different places on this. We all believe in and want the same thing: transparent government and behaviour in accordance with the seven principles of public life. The Government will continue to engage with parliamentarians of all colours as we set about raising our standards, but we do not need another Committee to do that. That would risk undermining the process and reviews that are already in place and that we should allow to conclude, so I urge the House to reject the motion.
Question put.
Oral Answers to Questions
Julia Lopez Excerpts(3 years, 1 month ago)
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Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
Each year, the Government spend some £290 billion on public procurement. Now that the EU transition period has ended, we aim to make it simpler, quicker and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises to bid for Government contracts, as set out in our ambitious procurement Green Paper. We received over 600 responses to that consultation and the submission from the Federation of Small Businesses welcomed our drive to simplify and diversify public procurement.
Robbie Moore
Across Keighley and Ilkley, we have some of the finest small to medium-sized businesses which are passionate about the products they produce and the services they offer. Many are hungry for growth and expansion opportunities—I think of Wyedean Weaving, which is based in the Worth Valley. However, sometimes small businesses feel disadvantaged in comparison to larger businesses when it comes to bidding and being selected for Government contracts. Can my hon. Friend outline what her Department is doing to ensure that there is no disparity in the process and that small businesses have just as much chance of being selected as larger businesses?
Julia Lopez
I thank my hon. Friend for his question, and I know that businesses in Keighley will really appreciate what a great champion he is for their interests. We are doing a range of things within our new measures. We want to slash 350-plus regulations and put this into a single uniform framework. We want to do things such as reserve contracts below a certain threshold for SMEs, be able to discriminate by virtue of geography and divide contracts up into smaller lots. There is much more that I can talk to him about if he is interested in this subject.
Julie Marson [V]
I thank my hon. Friend for her response. Alongside wonderful small businesses, does the Cabinet Office also look at venture capital companies to enable Government Departments to have the opportunity to support and benefit from our brilliant, innovative venture businesses?
Julia Lopez
We are looking all the time at how we innovate in public procurement. Some of my hon. Friend’s query might be better addressed by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy or Her Majesty’s Treasury, but we hope that the improvements that we are proposing will open up many more opportunities to SMEs. She might also be interested in existing programmes such as the small business research initiative, which funds organisations to conduct challenge-based R&D to develop products or services that address a specific unmet public sector need.
Elliot Colburn [V]
I thank the Minister for her response. May I invite her to come and visit Carshalton and Wallington post pandemic to meet some of the small and medium-sized businesses that are keen to bid for Government contracts, to hear their concerns about the process and to encourage more to look at opportunities to do so?
Julia Lopez
I would be very happy to do so. My hon. Friend understands that the Government have tremendous buying power, which we think we can use to drive the recovery. We want to use our procurement reforms to open up many more opportunities to SMEs. We are doing that in a range of ways, which I have discussed, but we also have a new social value model, which explicitly allows greater weight to be given to those bids that will help to drive the post-covid economic recovery.
Sir David Evennett [V]
The economic success of our country depends on small and medium-sized businesses and their enterprise and entrepreneurial skills. As the UK seeks to rebuild our economy, does the Minister agree that SMEs should be at the forefront of bidding and securing Government contracts?
Julia Lopez
I completely agree. We want to see a much greater variety of companies deliver contracts from every corner of our country, not just because it benefits local economies and communities, but because we think it helps to diversify our risk, creates a more resilient supplier base and delivers some of our critical priorities.
Andrew Jones
Small businesses are often the source of innovation, particularly in the digital economy. It is often through digital investment that productivity is boosted, so how is my hon. Friend ensuring that those responsible for Government procurement and implementation have the skills that they need to take advantage of the opportunities that small businesses are creating?
Julia Lopez
My hon. Friend raises a very important point. Along with our procurement reforms, the Cabinet Office has also created a new Central, Digital And Data Office under expert leadership, and through that, we want to improve digital capability and expertise across Government. We also want to create many more opportunities for tech start-ups and other dynamic digital SMEs to bid for Government work, and the CDDO team is closely engaged in how we can do that through the forthcoming procurement Bill.
Rachael Maskell (York Central) (Lab/Co-op)
Stephen Morgan (Portsmouth South) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
The port infrastructure fund is granting £200 million of public funding to ports to build facilities required for border controls, which will now come into effect on 1 January 2022, while checks on live animals, low-risk plants and plant products will come in from 1 March next year. The delay to the introduction of controls announced this month allows more time for accreditation in operational testing of those facilities.
Stephen Morgan [V]
Ministers continue to withhold vital funds needed for Portsmouth International Port to build post-Brexit livestock inspection points, yet other inland sites have been fully funded by Government. The absence of this control post threatens trade worth £10 million per year to local authority-controlled ports. Can the Minister tell the House why she is picking winners when it comes to post-Brexit trade and whether she will deliver on the long overdue promise to explore alternative funding?
Julia Lopez
We are not picking winners on the issue of facilities. The port infrastructure fund is an investment that ports do not have to make themselves, and Portsmouth has received £17 million. The hon. Gentleman may interested to know that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is undertaking a review of facilities that will be needed at border control posts, including facilities for live animals, in advance of March next year to see whether the size and scope of the facilities have changed. We will continue to engage with Portsmouth, as I have been. I have had several meetings with representatives there, but with the change in import controls, there will now be more time to deliver and build these facilities, and we hope that this time proves useful.
Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)
Karl Turner (Kingston upon Hull East) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
The overarching principle in all public procurement is to secure the best value for money for the taxpayer, and that principle lies at the heart of our plans in the procurement Green Paper. Simpler procurement procedures will drive increased competition and innovation in public procurement, ultimately saving taxpayers’ money. We are also due to publish version 3 of the “The Outsourcing Playbook” in spring ’21, which includes 11 key policies that help Government and industry to work better together to deliver quality public services and value for money, and our new approach to social value will help to secure wider public benefit, allowing us to contract with firms that deliver more apprenticeships, local growth opportunities and environmental benefits.
Karl Turner [V]
I thank the Minister for her answer, but she will not be surprised to know that taxpayers in east Hull expect Government contracts to be awarded responsibly and fairly, and not with a nod and a wink and a text message between Secretaries of State and pub landlords. Does she want to say something about that to my constituents and perhaps apologise?
Julia Lopez
I think that the particular thing the hon. Gentleman is referring to relates to personal protective equipment, which I know has attracted a lot of interest. I wish to assure the House that although there has been a lot of discussion about the high-priority lane, it was effectively an email inbox that triaged the thousands of suggestions that were coming in for particular contracts. Even if people got through that—90% of people from that process were rejected—the contracts then went through the same eight-stage process. I wish to assure him that there have been no corners cut.
Fleur Anderson (Putney) (Lab)
From the start of this pandemic, the Government chose to use a centralised, privatised approach to contact tracing through a handful of large companies, rather than putting local public health teams in charge. While a growing number of councils have now had to establish their own systems on a shoestring, it is a completely different set of affairs for the expensive management consultancies. Last night, we learned that as well as the Government paying Deloitte £323 million for its role in the Test and Trace system, it is even paid to draft Ministers’ parliamentary answers defending the indefensible. This is a Government who appear even to have outsourced themselves. What will the Minister do to end this practice, or do I need to write to Deloitte to find out?
Julia Lopez
I thank the hon. Lady for highlighting that interesting piece of information. It is not something I am aware of. I appreciate the concerns that have been raised about the use of consultants in relation to some of the work that has been done during the pandemic. We had to surge our capacity very quickly, but I appreciate the concerns that have been expressed about the cost of contracting. We are doing various things to improve the capability and expertise of the civil service. We are looking at secondments for senior civil servants, and we are looking at having our own in-house consulting hub, but I am very happy to look into this idea that consultants are drafting responses for Ministers. It is not something I am aware of.
Fleur Anderson
It surprised some attendees of the recent OECD global anti-corruption and integrity forum that the Government’s anti-corruption champion defended the Government’s handling of public contracts. That role is occupied by the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose). As well as being a Conservative MP, he has, of course, a very close family interest in the Government’s pandemic response. Does the Minister agree that the post of anti-corruption champion must be independent from party politics to avoid the growing conflicts of interest within Government?
Julia Lopez
I thank the hon. Lady for her concerns, but I have no questions or concerns about the integrity of my hon. Friend the Member for Weston-super-Mare (John Penrose).
Grahame Morris (Easington) (Lab) [V]
The Minister will be aware of recent mergers and acquisitions of outsourcing companies, some with substantial public contracts worth many millions of pounds, including Mitie, Interserve and, most recently, G4S. Can the Minister tell the House what steps the Cabinet Office is taking to ensure that, in such circumstances, the public interest is protected and does not play second fiddle to the interests of capitalism and greed, as referred to by the Prime Minister a few days ago?
Julia Lopez
The Prime Minister was asserting the importance of capitalism in being able to get the best answers when finding solutions to difficult problems, and I do not think we should doubt his intentions on that particular matter. I am happy to look into any concerns the hon. Gentleman has about the G4S merger, which I have not looked into personally, but I would be happy to do so. Our officials have regular conversations with key outsourcing providers and often have assurances on the work they undertake.
Civil Service Delegated Pay Remit Guidance
Julia Lopez Excerpts(3 years, 1 month ago)
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The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
Today we publish this year’s civil service pay remit guidance. This document provides a framework for setting pay for civil servants throughout the civil service, including Departments, non-ministerial departments and agencies, as well as for public sector workers in non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) and other arm’s-length bodies for the 2021-22 pay remit year.
Public sector pay context
In November 2020, the Chancellor announced at the spending review that the public sector workforces, excluding the NHS, would be subject to a pay pause for the 2021-22 pay year. The exception to this policy are organisations in legally binding pay deals, including those in multi-year deals.
This pay pause is necessary in order to help protect public sector jobs and protect investment in public services as well as ensuring fairness between the private and public sectors in this time of crisis. Performance pay, overtime, pay progression where it is in place, and pay rises from promotion will continue. Departments may continue to utilise existing allowances.
To protect the lower paid staff earning below the national median, those on full-time equivalent base pay of under £24,000 pa, excluding overtime and allowances, will receive a consolidated increase of £250. For those who will be receiving an increase to the new national living wage rate of £8.91 an hour, which from April 2021 will be extended to individuals aged 23 years and over, they will receive the national living wage increase or £250, whichever is greater.
Civil servants benefit from a competitive employment offer including access to one of the best pension schemes available and flexible working arrangements in managing work and family life.
In addition to this our ambition is for the civil service to be the most inclusive employer in the country, offering opportunities and a chance to progress in challenging roles delivering vital public services across the country.
Strategy for civil service modernisation
The covid-19 pandemic has posed a huge challenge to the civil service over the last year and to civil servants at all levels both through the work required in response, but also through the significant changes to working practices individuals have faced, as well as the impact on their personal lives. The significant task of tackling the pandemic, as well as EU exit transition, has placed an immediate pressure on resources. The civil service has been increasing its capacity and capability to meet this challenge, bringing on its own talent, investing in specialist skills and sourcing external support where necessary. Frequently this has meant the necessary redeployment of staff across and within Departments, as well as the creation of and recruitment to new posts within Departments at both junior and senior grades.
We intend to learn from the experience of both EU exit transition and the covid-19 pandemic, modernising government to respond to the big challenges facing the country and deliver our ambitious agenda. We will ensure that our people are closer to citizens and have the skills and experience to meet the needs of those we serve. We will put innovation at the core of how we work and seize the power of digital systems and data to improve our services. We will ensure the whole of government works together with a common purpose to deliver outcomes for citizens rigorously and efficiently, improving the delivery of our major projects.
The Government have committed to level up across the UK, including relocating roles to the regions and nations of the UK. The places for growth programme within Cabinet Office is driving the necessary planning within Departments and public bodies, with a commitment to relocating a minimum of 22,000 civil service roles over the next decade, with the majority of these in the regions and nations of the UK.
By 2030, large numbers of civil service roles and public bodies will be moved out of London and south-east England, moving whole organisations, and business units and functions of larger bodies and Departments, with a view to reducing our central London footprint but also to:
Strengthen the Union;
Support levelling up of the regions and nations;
Ensure that the civil service and administration of government is better connected with communities across the UK;
Tackle the recruitment and retention challenges of a London-centric civil service;
Reduce costs overall, especially estate and people costs.
A more regionally dispersed workforce has significant benefits for the UK civil service. Places for growth is working closely with Departments on their plans to relocate a number of civil service roles to the regions and nations, providing opportunities for civil servants to progress and build sustainable career paths.
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Draft Representation of the People (Proxy Vote Applications) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021
Julia Lopez Excerpts(3 years, 1 month ago)
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The Chair
Before we begin, I remind hon. Members to observe social distancing and sit in the places that are clearly marked. I also remind Members that Mr Speaker has stated that masks should be worn in Committee while Members are not speaking. Our Hansard colleagues would be most grateful if Members could send their speaking notes to hansardnotes@parliament.uk.
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Representation of the People (Proxy Vote Applications) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hosie. The statutory instrument brought forward today will make sensible provision to support the effective administration of elections. Democracy should not be cancelled because of covid. The Government have confirmed that the elections scheduled for May will go ahead and have made a firm commitment that the Government will support the sector to deliver them. The Government have put forward a package of measures to support statutorily independent returning officers to deliver these elections successfully and with the right precautions in place. Those measures are set out in a delivery plan, published by the Government on 5 February.
The draft Representation of the People (Proxy Vote Applications) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 will temporarily change the eligibility criteria for emergency proxy applications, so that electors who are self-isolating because of coronavirus on election day have an additional option to vote remotely. The provisions in the SI will also allow those with an existing proxy to change the person acting as their proxy if their original proxy is affected by coronavirus.
The last opportunity to make a routine proxy application is at 5 o’clock, six working days before election day. After that deadline, the only other option to create a new absent voting arrangement is to apply for an emergency proxy vote. Under current regulations, there are strict eligibility criteria for emergency proxy applications, which, as I shall outline, are not optimal during this pandemic. Usually, emergency proxy applications on medical grounds are required to be attested by a medical professional. Not everyone will be able to seek such attestation; an example is those who become symptomatic too late to take a test. The SI will remove that requirement for those affected by covid, and removing the requirement for attestation will also avoid putting more pressure on already busy medical professionals.
Under current provisions for emergency proxy applications, applicants are not eligible if they were aware of their change in circumstances when they could still have made a routine proxy application—for example, if they broke their leg two weeks before polling day and could no longer walk to the polling station, but did not apply for a proxy vote before the six-working-days deadline. If someone contracted covid in the days before the usual proxy deadline and did not apply for a routine proxy on time, that could lead to infectious persons being ineligible for any absent voting arrangement. Furthermore, if an elector were informed that a member of their household had tested positive for coronavirus, but they were unable to evidence that they also had the virus then, under current regulations, the elector would be ineligible to apply for an emergency proxy vote even though they ought to remain at home.
The SI will remove those limitations for people affected by covid-19 and provide a more flexible approach for those who ought to remain at home on election day. The changes proposed in the SI mean that if an elector believes that their particular circumstances would lead to an increased risk of transmission of coronavirus to themselves or others in a range of circumstances, they are eligible to apply for an emergency proxy vote. For example, an elector who has been made aware that they may have been exposed to the virus at home or at work in the days leading up to the election can apply for an emergency proxy vote even if they are not yet showing symptoms.
Beyond the removing of attestation, the usual security measures for absent voting applications—such as the signature requirement, the provision of date of birth and the requirement that electors declare that they understand all the information provided is true and that providing false information to an electoral registration officer is illegal—remain in place.
Those electors who are granted emergency proxies will be included in the absent voting lists, and those lists are available to candidates and agents on request for the express purposes of ensuring scrutiny and integrity.
These temporary changes are both necessary and proportionate to ensure that those who are affected by coronavirus are still able to exercise their right to vote. The SI does not affect the regulations regarding any other route for emergency proxy applications. Almost all provisions in this SI will expire at the end of February next year and therefore will not apply to any regularly scheduled elections in May 2022. The only permanent provisions in the SI simply clarify and add certainty to the existing position that those electors with long-term proxy arrangements, such as those with a disability, can replace the person acting as a proxy without having to go through the entire application process again. Going through the full application process would require an elector to prove their eligibility for a long-term proxy vote again, simply to change the person who is their proxy, and that should not be necessary.
The SI has been considered by both the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments and the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, which have not drawn the attention of the House to it. We have consulted the Electoral Commission, which is supportive of the proposed changes. We also shared a draft of the SI with the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, and officials in the Welsh Government.
There is broad support among stakeholders for the proposed changes set out in the instrument. I note that both the Welsh and Scottish Governments have also put in place similar measures for polls on 6 May for which they are responsible. It is important that we are able to offer voters a consistency of approach wherever possible, and I am pleased that all three Governments are working to support the voters in that way. I commend the instrument to the Committee.
Julia Lopez
I thank the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood for her insightful contribution, particularly on the experiences from abroad in Newfoundland. Elections have been taking place during this period, particularly in Scotland, where proxy voting has worked at a time of high covid rates.
I am grateful for the hon. Lady’s support for the measures. We have provided additional resource, as she will know, for covid-secure voting facilities in councils and polling stations. As she will know, some of the issues that she has raised will require primary legislation to implement, which would be difficult at this particular time.
We want people to have the ability to vote by proxy, in person and by post. We wish for that to continue, and would not want to move to an all-postal system. We do not have plans, as yet, to introduce digital aspects to elections, but we may look at things such as moving proxy vote applications for absent voters online, but again, that might require primary legislation.
We are working with the Electoral Commission to sort through some of the concerns that have been raised by local authorities. We will provide updated guidance as we get nearer to polling day. Broadly, the instrument before the Committee makes sensible changes to support the effective administration of elections. It would give electors who must remain at home on election day the option either to cast their vote remotely if they are affected by covid, or to replace a proxy who has been affected by covid if they had already made arrangements to vote remotely.
Question put and agreed to.
Draft Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Coronavirus, Nomination of Candidates) (Amendment) Order 2021
Draft Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Welsh forms) Order 2021
Julia Lopez Excerpts(3 years, 2 months ago)
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The Chair
Before we begin, I remind Members to observe social distancing and only sit in the places that are clearly marked. I also remind Members that Mr Speaker has stated that masks should be worn in Committee at all times unless you are speaking. Hansard would be most grateful if Members sent their speaking notes by email to hansardnotes@parliament.uk.
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Coronavirus, Nomination of Candidates) (Amendment) Order 2021.
The Chair
With this it will be convenient to consider the draft Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Welsh Forms) Order 2021.
Julia Lopez
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Ghani.
The orders make sensible provision to support the effective administration of elections. The draft Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Coronavirus, Nomination of Candidates) (Amendment) Order 2021 temporarily changes the nomination process to reduce the number of signatures that candidates are required to collect at police and crime commissioner, combined authority and single authority mayoral elections, other than the London mayoral election. The Government have long been clear that there should be a very high bar for delay to the elections due to be held on 6 May this year, but it was responsible to keep the situation under review to take into account the views of the electoral community and of public health experts. Having considered those views, the Government confirmed on 5 February that the range of polls scheduled for 6 May, including local council and mayoral elections in England and police and crime commissioner elections in England and Wales, will go ahead as planned.
The Government are providing a package of measures to support statutorily independent returning officers to deliver the elections successfully and with the right precautions in place. The measures are set out in a delivery plan, published on 5 February. The order makes changes concerning the nominations process and forms part of that package of measures. It reduces the number of signatures required on a nomination paper for a candidate in PCC, combined authority and single authority mayoral elections. The proposed change retains the important process of ensuring that a candidate has some level of local support before being formally nominated but will reduce the amount of movement and person-to-person contact that might otherwise be necessary as part of the nominations process and therefore reduce the risk of exposure to and transmission of coronavirus.
The draft Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Welsh Forms) Order 2021 makes changes concerning police and crime commissioner elections and sets out Welsh language versions of certain forms, and certain forms of words, to be used at PCC elections in Wales. Currently, only Welsh versions of the ballot paper and the nomination form for candidates at PCC elections in Wales are provided for in legislation; other forms are not covered. The practice at PCC elections has been for other forms to be produced locally in Welsh by returning officers using powers in the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections Order 2012 supported by guidance from the Electoral Commission. We have heard the concerns of electoral administrators in Wales and of Welsh language groups in relation to the provision of Welsh forms at PCC elections in Wales, and the order seeks to address them. It will also ensure consistency with other elections held in Wales, such as UK parliamentary elections, which have their own discrete set of Welsh forms set out in secondary legislation.
I turn to the detail of the proposed changes. The Mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Coronavirus, Nomination of Candidates) (Amendment) Order 2021 amends the Local Authorities (Mayoral Elections) (England and Wales) Regulations 2007, the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections Order 2012 and the Combined Authorities (Mayoral Elections) Order 2017. The purpose of the order is to reduce the number of signatures required on a nomination paper for a candidate in police and crime commissioner, combined authority and single authority mayoral elections and is intended to reduce the need for person-to-person contact ahead of the May elections given the specific context of the current pandemic. Similar provisions relating to local councillor and London mayoral elections have been made in a separate order.
In making the changes, we have taken the approach that a candidate should obtain subscribers on the basis of two per local authority area, whether for a poll within a single local authority or for electoral areas that contain a number of local authorities. The order provides that the following numbers of subscribers will be required. Single local authority mayoral candidates must obtain signatures from two electors instead of 30. Candidates for PCC elections must obtain signatures from a number of electors that is twice the number of local authority areas within the police area, instead of the current requirement of 100 electors. For example, under the changes, for the Devon and Cornwall police area, which has 12 local authority areas, a candidate will need to obtain 24 signatures.
Combined authority mayoral or metro mayoral candidates must obtain signatures from a total number of electors that is twice the number of the local authority areas within the boundary of the mayoral area. For example, the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority has six authorities, so the total number of signatures needed is 12. Those signatures must be obtained from two electors registered to vote in each local authority within the mayoral area. Currently, at least 100 electors in total are required at a combined authority mayoral election.
In making these changes, the Government have responded to the concerns of the electoral sector, candidates and political parties that the need to collect a high number of signatures for nomination as a candidate in some types of poll was encouraging an unhelpful and unnecessary amount of interaction, as well as complexity, for candidates. While it is essential that candidates in a poll can demonstrate a clear amount of local support, we must balance the importance of democracy with the need to protect people in these unique circumstances.
As I have explained, we are not removing the signature requirements completely, because we think it is important that there remain some level of democratic checks and balances for candidates to demonstrate a degree of local support from local electors in their area. These provisions will remain in force until 28 February 2022, to support candidates in any by-elections that may occur in the coming months as we emerge from the pandemic. The elections in May 2022 will automatically revert to the standard rules.
I am grateful to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments for drawing this instrument to the attention of the House. The Joint Committee considers that there are some points where the drafting of the instrument and its explanatory note could have been clearer in certain respects. We welcome the views of the Joint Committee, and are particularly interested to note its thoughts on the question of how best to assist readers in understanding which provisions in an instrument apply in different parts of the UK.
We consider that the instrument takes a proportionate approach to a temporary rule change introduced to reduce the number of face-to-face contacts required during the pandemic. I am grateful that the Joint Committee has agreed that the Cabinet Office’s response to its request for a memorandum has provided some additional clarity.
We consider that it is clear from the context of the regulations themselves when and to which elections they apply. To further aid clarity and certainty, we have published a note on gov.uk on the regulations and their effect, particularly on the numbers of signatures required, and to assist candidates and their supporters and those administering elections.
The note includes tables that set out the number of subscribers needed for candidates standing at combined authority and London mayoral elections in England, and elections of police and crime commissioners in England and Wales. These are polls where the election is for an area covering a number of local authority areas, and the tables set out the total number of subscribers that candidates will need in those areas and whether a specific number is required from each constituent authority.
I turn now to the Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Welsh Forms) Order, which introduces a set of prescribed forms and forms of words translated into Welsh, in respect of the range of other forms already in use in English at PCC elections. These are in addition to the Welsh versions of the ballot paper and nomination form for candidates that are already provided. The forms and forms of words prescribed by this instrument are for use in any PCC election that takes place in Wales.
The Welsh forms in the instrument cover various stages in the electoral process and include poll cards issued to electors, the postal voting statement completed by postal voters, the declaration to be made by the companion of a voter with disabilities, guidance for voters and forms completed by candidates and their agents. Some forms are in Welsh only and others are bilingual in Welsh and English.
The forms that are prescribed in Welsh and English, for example poll cards and postal voting statements, are to be used in this bilingual form in place of the English versions. The forms that are prescribed in Welsh only, for example the candidate’s consent to nomination form and the candidate’s declaration about election expenses, are to be made available in Welsh where the person completing the form, such as a candidate, prefers to communicate in Welsh rather than English. The order also provides a Welsh version of the forms of words setting out guidance for voters that appears in polling station voting compartments.
The effect of the order is that the form of words appropriate to the number of candidates standing in a particular election will be displayed in polling compartments in Welsh alongside the corresponding English version. The instrument also prescribes a Welsh version of the questions to be put to voters when issued with a ballot paper in polling stations, for use in respect of voters who prefer to communicate in Welsh rather than English.
We have consulted the Electoral Commission on both orders and the commission is supportive of them. We have also had support for the changes to the nominations process from the Association of Electoral Administrators and in discussions with political party representatives via the Parliamentary Parties Panel. We have also shared a draft of the PCC Elections (Welsh Forms) Order with the Welsh Language Advisory Group, the Association of Electoral Administrators, the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives, and officials in the Welsh Government.
There is broad support among stakeholders for the proposed changes set out in these two instruments. I commend them to the Committee.
Julia Lopez
I thank the hon. Lady for her support in this matter, and the constructive way in which she always conducts herself in this House.
As to her comments about there not being an adequate plan, extra funding has been provided for local authorities. We appreciate that they are in a difficult situation this year. Something like £90 million of funding is available, which is an extra £31 million on top of what is normally provided. We are cognisant of the troubles that authorities will have in making sure that there is social distancing at the count, for instance. The Electoral Commission has already provided some guidance in that area. However, we anticipate that there will be an extra level of guidance coming through, because there are still some questions that need to be answered.
I appreciate what the hon. Lady says about being able to digitise, and so on. She must understand the constraints that we are under, in our ability to change some of those things in such short order. I imagine that some of the challenge would be in changing primary legislation. I do not want to go beyond my remit, as I am not the answerable Minister, and start to talk about some of the ways in which we hope to modernise the system in future.
Hopefully we have a clear plan, which was placed last Friday, for campaigning. I think that it is sensible and clear guidance for candidates, allowing a good two-month window to start some level of campaigning that strikes the right balance between giving the voters proper scrutiny and choice in candidates while maintaining the distances required in these rather exceptional circumstances.
I believe that the statutory instruments before the Committee make sensible changes to support the effective administration of elections, and I am grateful to everyone for their time this afternoon.
Question put and agreed to.
DRAFT POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER ELECTIONS (WELSH FORMS) ORDER 2021
Resolved,
That the Committee has considered the draft Police and Crime Commissioner Elections (Welsh Forms) Order 2021.—(Julia Lopez.)
Oral Answers to Questions
Julia Lopez Excerpts(3 years, 2 months ago)
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Caroline Ansell (Eastbourne) (Con)
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
The UK spends £290 billion on public procurement each year. Now that we have left the EU transition period, we aim to make it simpler, quicker and cheaper for small and medium-sized enterprises and social enterprises to bid for Government contracts, as set out in our ambitious procurement Green Paper. We have already introduced a policy that will allow below-threshold contracts to be reserved for smaller UK suppliers, and we hope our new approach to social value will secure wider public benefit by allowing us to contract with firms that deliver more apprenticeships, local growth opportunities and environmental benefits.
Stephen Metcalfe [V]
I know that my hon. Friend will agree that our small and medium-sized businesses are the bedrock of our economy. I am sure that she will also agree that giving them the opportunity to bid for Government contracts will give them a significant boost and help them recover from what has been a very tough year. Will she lay out exactly how the Government will be promoting this opportunity to SMEs, so that businesses in Basildon and Thurrock can start to bid immediately?
Julia Lopez
I agree with my hon. Friend that the opportunities in this space are huge, and we think that our reforms will play a huge role in our post-covid recovery. For too long, complex and opaque procurement rules have benefited bigger and less innovative firms. Our reforms will simplify the current framework of over 350 regulations into one uniform set of rules, and move from seven procurement procedures to three. Our free-to-use digital platform, Contracts Finder, should make it easier for businesses in his constituency to find relevant opportunities. We want to make supply registration far simpler, so that data has to be submitted only once to qualify for any public sector procurement.
Miriam Cates [V]
Small businesses in my constituency would like the opportunity to bid for more Government and council contracts, but the current procurement rules are too complex and inevitably favour big firms. Can my hon. Friend assure me that we will be using our new freedom from EU procurement rules to deliver more commercial opportunities to innovative, dynamic SMEs in Penistone and Stocksbridge?
Julia Lopez
Absolutely. I know that my hon. Friend, as someone who has run a business herself, understands the bureaucratic frustrations that too many of her constituency businesses come up against. We want public buyers to divide contracts into more accessible lots and allow them to reserve contracts under a certain threshold for small, innovative firms. We are also pushing ambitious targets on prompt payment, and we aim to simplify the bidding process so that it does not favour big firms, which inevitably have greater resources to devote to form-filling and box-ticking.
Danny Kruger [V]
I welcome the recent Green Paper setting out the freedoms that the UK now enjoys to create a new framework for public procurement, including a new exceptional power for public bodies to commission for wider public benefit. Does my hon. Friend agree that we need to go further and make this exception the norm, ensuring more joined-up services and better overall outcomes for the public? Otherwise, we will be getting only half the Brexit dividend that we could in the field of procurement, with freedoms but not the actual implementation.
Julia Lopez
My hon. Friend is quite right. Our proposed procurement reforms will not in themselves deliver change unless commercial teams across the public sector actually understand how to deploy them to greatest effect. That is why we are introducing a programme of training for contracting authorities. On the matter of wider public benefit, I refer him to our social value model. We do not want to award only to those that make the cheapest bid; we also want to award to firms that offer value for money in a much broader sense, including to the community in which the service is being delivered. I know that is something he cares very passionately about, given his thoughtful review on a new social covenant.
Caroline Ansell [V]
I so welcome all that my hon. Friend has said on this. I am mustard-keen to see Government contracts open up and work for businesses and charities in Eastbourne. The latest feedback from one of my manufacturers, which has just ventured into this arena with a bid to the Ministry of Defence, highlights the absence of a published timeline on decision making for the contract, which the manufacturer says is essential information to allow it to plan for success, build capacity and ensure that it delivers for all its customers. Will she look at this situation, to ensure that the whole process is as transparent and as small business-friendly as possible?
Julia Lopez
I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting this; she raises an important point. I am happy to look into the specifics of the case and take it up with officials, or she might want to look at the public procurement review service. All Departments, including the MOD, are actively supporting the SME agenda, and one of the ways we hope to encourage more bids from SMEs is by publishing contract pipelines well in advance, so that they have much more time to plan and resource bids, and shorten the time in which contracting bodies make decisions.
Lia Nici (Great Grimsby) (Con)
Kate Osborne (Jarrow) (Lab)
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
The end of the transition period provides an historic opportunity to overhaul our dated public procurement regime. We undertook an extensive programme of stakeholder engagement to identify where improvements could be made, and the recently published Green Paper sets out those long-planned proposals. The changes put value for money and transparency at the heart of the new approach and will cut red tape and unleash wider social benefits from public money spent on procurement.
Kate Osborne [V]
Private providers of public services are excluded from freedom of information requests, which means that, for example, Serco does not have to reveal the 29 different businesses to which it has outsourced contracts. Does the Minister support the expansion of the Freedom of Information Act to the private providers of public services, or does she think that it is okay that that information should be kept hidden from the public eye?
Julia Lopez
Serco is an approved supplier on the Crown Commercial Service contract centre framework and gained a place on that through fair and open competition, but I accept what the hon. Lady says about freedom of information requests and I am happy to look into that further for her.
Saqib Bhatti (Meriden) (Con)
The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
The civil service will launch its new apprenticeship strategy next year. The first phase will have delivered 30,000 apprenticeships by next April, but going forward I want to focus not just on numbers, but on the quality of training on offer, so that Departments get much better at growing their own talent and plugging skills gaps. To that end, we recently published the curriculum and campus for Government skills, with the goal of setting the highest standard in vocational training for all civil servants, including apprentices.
Saqib Bhatti [V]
As it is National Apprenticeship Week, will she please explain to the House what is being done to make the civil service apprenticeship scheme accessible to all, including my constituents in Meriden, who she will find are some of the most talented and hard-working in the whole country?
Julia Lopez
I commend my hon. Friend on his promotion of his constituents. I have spoken previously about our ambitions to move more and more civil service roles, including apprenticeships, out of London and to the regions. That programme is moving apace, but we have already created 1,911 apprenticeships in the west midlands over the past five years. I encourage the good people of Meriden to apply for some of the live vacancies that are on offer right now. We have also got a new relationship with the Birmingham local enterprise partnership that works with schools and colleges across the west midlands to help talented, dynamic people to understand just what an exciting and fulfilling career they could have in the civil service.
Stuart Anderson (Wolverhampton South West) (Con)
National Fraud Initiative: Data Matching Purposes and Code of Data Matching Practice
Julia Lopez Excerpts(3 years, 2 months ago)
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The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Julia Lopez)
The Cabinet Office is looking to consult on widening the national fraud initiative (NFI) data matching powers and updating the NFI code of data matching practice. The powers are embedded within the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. The powers are:
to assist in the prevention and detection of crime (other than fraud);
to assist in the apprehension and prosecution of offenders;
to assist in prevention and detection of errors and inaccuracies; and
to assist in the recovery of debt owing to public bodies.
Currently, the NFI can only match the data it collects for the purposes of detecting and preventing fraud1. These proposals focus on increasing NFI’s operational efficiency and value for the public sector by widening those purposes. Early estimates suggest that by better utilising data already collected by NFI, supplemented by additional data collection where appropriate, enactment of these powers could deliver early efficiency savings (within the first three years) of at least £10 million a year to key public sector organisations. We would expect savings to be far greater over a longer period. Critically, research shows that there are clearly important wider outcomes for citizens overall: that the data matching powers would help
the police solve crimes other than fraud, or find offenders more efficiently than is currently the case;
local authorities and Government Departments to reduce debt owed to public bodies while adhering to the fairness in debt management principles; and
agencies or departments to reduce any errors that might exist in official data records, thereby helping to deliver more effective services or to ensure citizens receive the benefits they are entitled to.
Operating within a strong governance framework since 1996, the NFI already collects over 8,000 datasets, 300 million records of data from over 1,300 participant organisations2. To date it has already enabled participants to prevent and detect fraud and overpayments across the UK worth £1.9 billion through data matching. The powers were embedded into the Act in 2014 when the NFI transferred to the Cabinet Office and are not part of the current covid-19 emergency response or legislation. Our work to date shows that the powers will create longer term efficiency savings that will help public services. This aligns with the Cabinet Office role of creating efficiencies across Government and the Government’s manifesto commitment to improve the use of data in the process of government. We are committed to transparency on these proposals. Work to enact the powers was one of the five key objectives set out in the NFI strategic delivery plan 2018-2022. The results of this consultation will be instrumental in determining the way forward. The consultation documents are available on gov.uk and will be open for responses until 10/03/2021.
1Data matching compares data to identify anomalies that might represent a fraud. The NFI is not permitted to identify patterns and trends in an individual’s characteristics or behaviour which suggest nothing more than the individual’s potential to commit fraud in the future.
2The NFI has both mandatory and voluntary participants. Participants include all local authorities, NHS trusts, police authorities, passenger transport executives (PTEs), fire and rescue services and combined authorities in the UK. Government Departments and private sector organisations can participate on a voluntary basis.
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