Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of making a renewed Government commitment to resolving disputes across Departments through mediation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
It is a long-standing convention that we do not disclose publicly specific details on the processes of Cabinet collective decision-making, to protect the safe space for collective decisions. This Government is taking a missions-led approach to governing, bringing departments together to deliver the Plan for Change.
In the case of individual employees the Government is committed to offering mediation as a form of dispute resolution. This is already widely offered to Civil Servants by Departments across the Civil Service as a means to resolve workplace conflict promptly and effectively.
Departments have their own policies and guidance on handling disputes in line with the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures. Mediation is a recommended method of dispute resolution within the ACAS guidance.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has had recent discussions with relevant stakeholders on the introduction into Government procurement contracts of mandatory mediation in case of dispute.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office has published three standard contracts for use by government departments, and many other public sector organisations, as part of their commercial activity. Mediation clauses are included in these contract templates as part of dispute resolution, but this provides for mediation where both parties agree to it. The Cabinet Office has not had any recent discussions with relevant stakeholders on the introduction of mandatory mediation clauses in Government contracts in case of disputes.
Asked by: Julian Smith (Conservative - Skipton and Ripon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to tackle websites which charge for free Government services.
Answered by Nick Hurd
We take the issue of misleading websites very seriously. Most people encounter them though advertisements on search result pages, so we are working with Google to help them identify and remove those adverts. We have also made more money available to support the National Trading Standards Board to investigate this issue