Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his most recent estimate is of the average time taken to process applications to United Kingdom Security Vetting.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The average time to process a routine application across all vetting activity is 66 days gross as at 25 June 2020. This combines average times across CTC, SC and DV applications. Like many government services, vetting has been impacted by COVID-19. The Vetting Reform Programme is intended to improve performance.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to reduce the average time taken to process applications for security clearance to United Kingdom Security Vetting.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The average time to process a routine application across all vetting activity is 66 days gross as at 25 June 2020. This combines average times across CTC, SC and DV applications. Like many government services, vetting has been impacted by COVID-19. The Vetting Reform Programme is intended to improve performance.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish an updated list of Ministerial responsibilities.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Details of Ministerial responsibilities can be found on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers).
The List of Ministerial Responsibilities was last updated in October 2019.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether impact assessments relating to Government bills are signed off by Ministers before legislation is introduced in Parliament.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Where an impact assessment is published alongside a Government bill it is signed off by Ministers.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which Government contracts have been held with Cambridge Analytica and the SCL Group since 2010.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Since January 2011, details of central government contracts above the value of £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts published prior to 26 February 2015 can be viewed at:https://data.gov.uk/data/contracts-finder-archive
Those published after 26 February 2015 can be viewed at: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.
I am not aware of any current contracts with Cambridge Analytica, or with the SCL group.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the total cost to the public purse of renaming Government Departments following the Cabinet reshuffle.
Answered by David Lidington
This information is not centrally held. Individual departments will hold their own information on any actions they may be required to take in light of a renaming, and any necessary costs required.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of the level of procurement of British steel by local authorities in the UK.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Government has not made an assessment of the level of procurement of British steel by local authorities in England and it does not collect or hold this information centrally.
Last year Government issued guidance across central government, which sets out how government buyers should source steel for major projects in a more strategic and transparent way. This is underpinned by more detailed guidance explaining how Government departments should take into account the social impacts of competing suppliers as well as environmental factors for certain procurements involving steel.
In April 2016, Government announced that the guidance on procuring steel would be extended to the wider public sector. We are working with key stakeholders to take this forward so that we can maximise take-up of the guidance across the wider public sector.
As local government procurement policy is a devolved matter, it is for the devolved administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales to determine how they will conduct any assessment for their local authorities.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the value was of publicly-procured British steel in the UK in each of the last 10 years.
Answered by Matt Hancock
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Clacton on 4 May to UIN: 35702.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of goods manufactured in the UK were exported in each of the last five years.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the mean annual gross pay was for jobs in (a) manufacturing, (b) services and (c) the whole economy in each of the last five years for which data is available.
Answered by Rob Wilson
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.