Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will ensure that the inquiry into the Government's handling of the covid-19 pandemic is accessible to allow disabled people to participate.
Answered by Michael Ellis
On 12 May, the Prime Minister confirmed that a public inquiry into COVID-19 will be established on a statutory basis, with full formal powers and that it will begin its work in spring 2022. A chair will be appointed by the end of the year. More details, including the terms of reference for the inquiry, will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will ensure that disabled people are referenced in the Terms of Reference of the inquiry into the Government's handling of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Michael Ellis
On 12 May, the Prime Minister confirmed that a public inquiry into COVID-19 will be established on a statutory basis, with full formal powers and that it will begin its work in spring 2022. A chair will be appointed by the end of the year. More details, including the terms of reference for the inquiry, will be set out in due course.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the (a) Written Statement by the Prime Minister of 4 February 2021 on the Ministerial and Other Maternity Allowances Bill, HCWS765, and (b) oral contributions of the Paymaster General of 11 February 2021, Official Report, col. 559 and 1 March 2021, Official Report, col. 60, when the Government plans to present a report to Parliament setting out considerations and proposals on adoption and parental leave, absences for sickness and other reasons, and unpaid roles.
Answered by Michael Ellis
I refer the honourable member to the Written Ministerial Statement made by my honourable friend, the Member for Norwich North (Chloe Smith), on 15 July 2021.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the proportion of people who died from covid-19 who were (a) disabled and (b) not disabled.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have, therefore, asked the Authority to respond.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he last met representatives of Barclays to discuss the closure of the Barclays Identity Service; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Barclays entered into a contract with the Cabinet Office in April 2017 to provide an identity verification service to support GOV.UK Verify. As scheduled, this contract expires on 23rd March 2021. Cabinet Office officials have been in regular contact with Barclays to ensure a good level of service is maintained until the end of their contract.
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office have not met Barclays to discuss this contract expiry.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what equality impact assessment his Department has undertaken on the potential (a) legal and (b) socioeconomic effects of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on different groups with protected characteristics.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster made a statement under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998 regarding the provisions of the European Union (Future Relationship) Bill. This Bill, now Act, implements the Trade and Cooperation Agreement. Further to this, relevant requirements of the Equality Act 2010 and other relevant legislation have been followed.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, when (a) Ministers and (b) officials in his Department last met with representatives of each of the devolved Administrations to discuss the implementation of the 10 year Veterans Strategy.
Answered by Johnny Mercer - Minister of State (Cabinet Office) (Minister for Veterans' Affairs)
The 2018 Strategy for our Veterans is the UK’s commitment to those who have served in the Armed Forces. Each nation in the Union is responsible for delivering the outcomes for veterans contained in the Strategy.
Officials regularly engage with counterparts in the Devolved Administrations to discuss progress made on the delivery of their respective Strategy action plans and wider veterans matters. I have also met ministerial counterparts from the Scottish and Welsh Government this year to discuss veterans issues including the Strategy.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Prime Minister, if he will appoint a new Special Envoy on Freedom of Religion or Belief before the Open Doors World Watch List launch event to be held in January 2021.
Answered by Boris Johnson
An appointment will be announced in the usual way.
All Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office Ministers raise concerns about human rights violations and abuses, including on Freedom of Religion or Belief, where appropriate. As the UK Minister for Human Rights, my Hon Friend Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon also champions and leads on Freedom of Religion or Belief as part of his wider responsibilities and through multilateral fora including the United Nations.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the National Audit Office report, Investigation into Verify, published on 5 March 2019, HC1926, what assessment he has made of the findings in paragraph 2 on page 5 on the Infrastructure and Projects Authority's report that the Verify platform has been an innovative technical success and is performing to specification, but it is not producing the promised benefits.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
GOV.UK Verify and Government Gateway provide millions of citizens with access to essential government services. The number of users can be accessed publicly at any time through the GOV.UK Verify performance dashboard, and is updated weekly. Currently, 7.2 million users use their GOV.UK Verify identity accounts to access 22 government services across 9 departments. HMRC has 25.1 million unique individual users who have confirmed their identity and who have accessed their personal tax account, with a total of 96 million authentication credentials. For Government Gateway these include individual, business and agent users.
GOV.UK Verify keeps its accessibility under review and has consistently reduced barriers to make access to services simpler, focusing on the customer's end-to-end experience, and ensuring members of the public can access online government services simply and securely.
We are constantly looking to balance the need of inclusion and demographic coverage of government services with the need for strong digital identity assurance to reduce the risk of fraud. Both GOV.UK Verify and Government Gateway use ongoing user research, user testing and service monitoring to improve, simplify and reduce friction in users’ experience of these services. Offline channels and support are offered to users unable to use either GOV.UK Verify or Government Gateway identity verification services.
Government Gateway is currently used to access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). CJRS claimants (employers or their authorised agent) can log into the claims service and see the claims made and the date they were sent for payment, and SEISS claimants (employers or their authorised agent) can log into the claims service and see the claims made and the date they were sent for payment.
GOV.UK Verify can be adapted to reflect requirements relating to name changes to support departmental service requirements, provided there is suitable evidence of their change in name. Government Gateway Identity Verification allows online service access where sufficient confidence can be gained on a user’s identity and the ownership of the name in question.
The National Audit Office (NAO) report recognised that the Verify programme has delivered on three of its four original objectives. The Verify programme has successfully developed world-leading standards that are used by governments across the world. It has also developed a secure technical platform and a procurement framework for identity services.
Asked by: Kirsten Oswald (Scottish National Party - East Renfrewshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how (a) GOV.UK Verify and (b) Government Gateway identity verification systems reflect the different legal systems operating in the UK and the associated variation in statutory provisions regarding name changes.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
GOV.UK Verify and Government Gateway provide millions of citizens with access to essential government services. The number of users can be accessed publicly at any time through the GOV.UK Verify performance dashboard, and is updated weekly. Currently, 7.2 million users use their GOV.UK Verify identity accounts to access 22 government services across 9 departments. HMRC has 25.1 million unique individual users who have confirmed their identity and who have accessed their personal tax account, with a total of 96 million authentication credentials. For Government Gateway these include individual, business and agent users.
GOV.UK Verify keeps its accessibility under review and has consistently reduced barriers to make access to services simpler, focusing on the customer's end-to-end experience, and ensuring members of the public can access online government services simply and securely.
We are constantly looking to balance the need of inclusion and demographic coverage of government services with the need for strong digital identity assurance to reduce the risk of fraud. Both GOV.UK Verify and Government Gateway use ongoing user research, user testing and service monitoring to improve, simplify and reduce friction in users’ experience of these services. Offline channels and support are offered to users unable to use either GOV.UK Verify or Government Gateway identity verification services.
Government Gateway is currently used to access the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) and Self-Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). CJRS claimants (employers or their authorised agent) can log into the claims service and see the claims made and the date they were sent for payment, and SEISS claimants (employers or their authorised agent) can log into the claims service and see the claims made and the date they were sent for payment.
GOV.UK Verify can be adapted to reflect requirements relating to name changes to support departmental service requirements, provided there is suitable evidence of their change in name. Government Gateway Identity Verification allows online service access where sufficient confidence can be gained on a user’s identity and the ownership of the name in question.
The National Audit Office (NAO) report recognised that the Verify programme has delivered on three of its four original objectives. The Verify programme has successfully developed world-leading standards that are used by governments across the world. It has also developed a secure technical platform and a procurement framework for identity services.