Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the net earnings were from direct investment in UK companies in each year since 2010.
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, how much was received in the UK in net earnings from direct investment in companies based outside the UK 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, if he will make it his policy to develop a standardised methodology for measuring SME spending by government departments which can be used as a baseline over the next five years.
Answered by Matt Hancock
We have developed our methodology over time, starting in 2010 when there was no reliable estimate for spend with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We now have much better data than before 2010 and we are continuing to improve our understanding of spend. The Government exceeded its target of 25% of central government procurement spend going to small and medium businesses by 2015, achieving over £12 billion (27.1%) of spend with SMEs by the end of the last Parliament.
The Government standardised its methodology for collecting data on direct spend with SMEs in 2011-12; data on direct spend published since that point is comparable. Data on indirect spend for 2013-14 and 2014-15 is also comparable. This is an area of continuous improvement and we intend to standardise our methodology again during 2016-17.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what value and proportion of central government procurement was made by each department in each year since 2010.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Total central government procurement spend is published as part of the annual reporting of spend with small and medium-sized businesses at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/central-government-spend-with-smes-2014-to-2015
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 proportion of (a) domestically produced and (b) imported steel that was procured by each government department in each year since 2010.
Answered by Matt Hancock
This information is not held centrally.
All departments are now required to implement the new guidelines, published on 30 October last year, which set out how government buyers should source steel for major projects so that the true value of UK steel is taken into account in major procurement decisions.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) number and (b) proportion of civil servants will be affected by the Government's proposed exit payment cap.
Answered by Matt Hancock
To remain the best in the world, the Civil Service needs to respond to both the challenges and opportunities of our times. The Civil Service continues to require new and different skills to respond to the fiscal environment, global competition and changes in technology, whilst at the same time delivering better services more efficiently: in short, doing more for less.
The numbers of civil servants affected by the Government’s action to end six figure pay outs in the public sector will depend upon the terms applicable when the staff leave and which staff are exited.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which 100 constituencies have the highest proportion of public sector employees.
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 guidance his Department issues on conducting public consultations during the summer recess.
Answered by Oliver Letwin
Cabinet Office publishes Consultation Principles, which it expects all government departments to follow. They were most recently updated on 14 January in response to feedback from the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee.
Principle G includes the line:
‘When the consultation spans all or part of a holiday period, consider how this may affect consultation and take appropriate mitigating action, such as prior discussion with key interested parties or extension of the consultation deadline beyond the holiday period’.
The Principles also make clear that formal consultation should only form part of the engagement process and that departments should make use of new digital tools and consider whether an iterative approach is appropriate.
The Principles can be found online on gov.uk and a copy can be found in the House of Commons Library.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the public sector exit payments cap on morale in the Civil Service.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Civil Service has successfully changed the way it operates and become more efficient - it is now delivering far more, for less, than it did before 2010. The Government has delivered a range of policy changes over the last five years to modernise the Civil Service and save taxpayers money. During this time employee engagement rates have actually increased.
Asked by: Kevin Brennan (Labour - Cardiff West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what consideration he has given to adopting a Welsh language policy for his Department.
Answered by Lord Maude of Horsham
The Cabinet Office manages the GOV.UK website, through which UK citizens can access government information and digital services. We are working closely with the Wales Office to ensure that the Welsh language content on GOV.UK is underpinned by high quality user research that provides a simpler, clearer and faster service for users.
GOV.UK links to all Welsh-language government transactions (via https://www.gov.uk/cymraeg), and has Welsh-language content for a number of commonly-used services, such as information on car tax and bank holidays. The site also gives government departments the ability to publish Welsh-language content in line with the requirements of their individual Welsh Language Schemes.