Mary Creagh

Cabinet Office records show that the Department has not awarded a commercial contract to, or purchased digital services from Anomaly LLP or Anomaly UK London Ltd in the last six months.

Records of central Government contracts above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search

Records of central Government contracts above £10,000 and information on how they are awarded are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is implementing end-to-end performance monitoring so that GOV.UK can be designed to ensure that people can access the information and services they need as easily as possible. Government departments are enabling GDS to centrally collect data on site usage across the GOV.UK estate, to provide an end to end, anonymised view of how people interact with government online. In developing this project, we have taken into account both the data protection regime and other guidance like the Government’s Data Ethics Framework.

We are using clear and robust Memorandums of Understanding to set out the terms of the project. The MOUs outline the responsibilities of both the GDS and departments in a number of areas, including handling the relevant data to ensure there is no unauthorised access, loss, misuse, modification or disclosure.

The MoUs were sent to the following departments: the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), the Department for Education (DfE), the Department for Exiting the European Union (DExEU), the Department for Transport (DfT), the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Home Office, HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), HM Treasury (HMT), the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), the Ministry of Defence (MoD), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Department for International Trade (DfID), the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), the Cabinet Office (CO) and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). We have received signed MOUs from all Departments apart from FCO, CO, DWP and DCMS as we are still working through some points of detail, to facilitate their response.

The MoUs will be regularly updated in line with the government’s commitment to continuous improvement in digital services and best practice in data and privacy standards. It is a long standing policy of the Government Digital Service to operate in the spirit of full transparency, and we plan to publish the document in due course.

In law, the UK is set to leave the EU on 31 October 2019. “Get Ready for Brexit” is a public information campaign providing the facts citizens and businesses need to know about the preparations they need to take to be ready for when the UK leaves the EU.

The campaign is a cross-government campaign using national advertising including TV, radio, press, digital and outdoor advertising. It also includes direct engagement and local elements including business preparedness events, ministerial visits and local authority activity.

The cost of the public information campaign will be published monthly on a rolling basis, as part of routine government transparency.

For maximum economies of scale, media for all Government campaigns is bought centrally through a new Crown Commercial Service framework with Manning Gottlieb OMD. The framework maximises value for the UK taxpayer through robust pricing guarantees that are defined for the life of the contract and rates which are benchmarked against other public and private sector organisations.

I apologise for the delay in replying to the letter from the hon. Member and can assure her she will receive a response as soon as possible.

In law that the UK is set to leave the EU on 31 October 2019. “Get Ready for Brexit” is a public information campaign providing the facts citizens and businesses need to know about the preparations they need to take to be ready for when the UK leaves the EU.

The campaign is a cross-government campaign using national advertising including TV, radio, press, digital and outdoor advertising. It also includes direct engagement and local elements including business preparedness events, ministerial visits and local authority activity.

In law the UK is set to leave the EU on 31 October 2019. “Get Ready for Brexit” is a public information campaign providing the facts citizens and businesses need to know about the preparations they need to take to be ready for when the UK leaves the EU.

The campaign is a cross-government campaign using national advertising including TV, radio, press, digital and outdoor advertising. It also includes direct engagement and local elements including business preparedness events, ministerial visits and local authority activity.

The cost of the public information campaign will be published monthly on a rolling basis, as part of routine government transparency arrangements.

We take the protection and privacy of personal data very seriously. The Government Communication Service adopts the highest professional standards, including complying with data protection legislation. We have GDPR clauses in our contract with our media buying agency to help ensure compliance.

A Data Protection Impact Assessment is only required when the processing of personal data is likely to result in a high risk to individuals. For the Get Ready for Brexit campaign, we did not use personal data to target advertising, and only bought media space using contextual placements (for example, buying media space in the travel or business sections of papers or websites).

We are regularly engaging with the ICO to ensure that our campaign activity continues to meet best practice and is fully compliant with the data protection standards.

It has not proved possible to respond to the hon. Member in the time available before Prorogation.

All the paid for elements of the campaign are competitively procured through a tender to ensure we get value for money. The procurement of the required services is done using frameworks set-up by Crown Commercial Service, the biggest public procurement
organisation in the UK.

In addition to internal governance and assurance procedures, the Cabinet Office have contracted external auditors to conduct a comprehensive analysis of media buying spend. Ebiquity will provide real time and post campaign assessments of cost effectiveness to
ensure a high quality and value for money service is provided by agencies.

Campaign activity will be continuously monitored and refined. We will measure changes in public awareness of the campaign and the specific calls to action that direct both citizens and businesses to relevant information. In addition, we will monitor visits made to the dedicated Brexit information pages over the coming weeks. We will also measure public understanding of changes in key issues that will affect both citizens and businesses so that the campaign continues to be responsive to the public's needs.

This will be done through a mixture of online data analysis and in-depth surveys. The campaign will also utilise ongoing polling, metrics and management information from departments in order to ensure that we are reaching the right audiences and that our messages are prompting the required action from individuals and organisations.

The Government has a robust process in place to fact-check all guidance it publishes,
including information relevant for preparing for Brexit. Content that is created by
departments is fact-checked by relevant experts within that department.

All content relating to Brexit is underpinned by policy decisions taken at a departmental
level and drafted with the support of content editors. A dedicated team will ensure
GOV.UK Brexit content continues to meet users’ needs on an ongoing basis.

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

We are actively supporting preparations for the UK voluntary national review.

Cabinet Office officials are working with DFID and other departments across government to ensure that the review fully demonstrates the UK’s domestic and international activity.

During the time-limited implementation period, EU law will continue to apply in the UK subject to the terms set out in the Withdrawal Agreement. After the implementation period, all laws in the UK will be passed by our elected representatives in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London. The Political Declaration recognises that the UK may choose to align with the EU's rules in relevant areas to facilitate trade in goods or security cooperation.

The Official Journal of the European Union publishes upcoming EU legislation for implementation.

Lead Government Departments keep the risk to the critical national infrastructure in their sector(s) under continual review, and report to the Cabinet Office on their plans to manage these risks through annual Sector Security and Resilience Plans. Climate change is a driver for a number of the risks considered by Lead Government Departments. More detail on these risks can be found in the 2017 Climate Change Risk Assessment and the 2017 National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies.

The 2017 Climate Change Risk Assessment is publicly available at: https://www.theccc.org.uk/tackling-climate-change/preparing-for-climate-change/uk-climate-change-risk-assessment-2017/. The 2017 National Risk Register for Civil Emergencies is published on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-risk-register-of-civil-emergencies-2017-edition. A summary of the 2017 Sector Security and Resilience Plans is published on gov.uk at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sector-security-and-resilience-plans-2017-summary

No cups were purchased directly by the Cabinet Office.

The Cabinet Office uses the Government Car Service for vehicle provision. A list of cars provided to Departments by the Government Car Service was included in the return for the Department for Transport. I refer my Hon. Friend to the answer given to PQ122480 on 22^nd January.

Our priority has been to identify and test buildings clad in Aluminium Composite Material (ACM) and which, are either social or private rented housing, or public sector buildings meeting certain height thresholds.

We are continuing to receive and analyse data on the wider public sector estate. There are range of public sector buildings currently being checked including hospitals, schools, prisons and probation facilities, care homes, military accommodation and other buildings used for overnight accommodation.

Where screening tests indicate that ACM samples would not meet the limited combustibility requirements of the current Building Regulations guidance, the Government will inform the building owner and notify the fire and rescue service and local authority of the test result. Clear guidance has been issued to ensure the safety of buildings and occupants. Where appropriate, organisations are working with the fire and rescue service to put in place precautionary safety checks and measures.

We are not providing a running commentary on individual buildings being tested. We have a process underway to collect information and undertake testing on priority buildings across the public sector estate. Where appropriate, organisations are working with the fire and rescue service locally to put in place precautionary safety checks and measures.

Updated Single Departmental Plans will be published on gov.uk by the end of May 2017, once the formal business planning process across government has concluded.

Government officials routinely meet with a wide range of parties in the normal course of business. The detailed information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Details of meetings held by the most senior officials are published on Gov.uk on a quarterly basis.

The Government will bring forward legislation in the next session that, when enacted, will repeal the European Communities Act 1972 and ensure a functioning statute book on the day we leave the EU. This ‘Great Repeal Bill’ will end the authority of EU law and return power to the UK. The Bill will convert existing European Union law into domestic law, wherever practical.

The Government will set out the content of the Bill and its implications in due course.

We intend to publish the responses received to the Consultation alongside the Government’s response, which will be published in due course.

The Government is reviewing the Furniture and Furnishings (Fire)(Safety) Regulations 1988 to ensure they respond to developments in furniture design, innovation, manufacturing processes and environmental and health concerns while maintaining fire safety protections.

We have also developed scientific and technical expertise within the Office for Safety and Standards and are taking account of the body of relevant scientific research, including engaging with environmental scientists and commissioning research from external sources. We have sought expert and scientific advice from a range of sources, including from leading fire safety experts, Government Chief Scientific Advisors, and British Standards Institution technical standards committees.

The Companies Act 2006 requires companies to include a description of their principal risks, and how they are managed, within their strategic reports. Such risks may include those related to climate change.

The Government has endorsed the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). The TCFD encourages companies to consider climate-related issues in relation to their business and recommends that climate-related financial risks are disclosed within annual reports. The Task Force has also made recommendations to promote more informed understanding of such issues and opportunities by both the producers of such disclosures and by the recipients of the reports, namely investors.

Under the existing regulatory framework, the auditor must state whether the information given in the strategic report and the directors’ report is consistent with the financial statements; whether such reports have been prepared in accordance with the law; and whether, in the light of the knowledge and understanding of the company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, any material misstatements in the reports have been identified.

As of 9 November, the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) led on 46 EU legislative files that remain under negotiation.

It is not possible to say which files will be implemented in UK law; this will depend on a range of factors including the nature of any future EU-UK relationship and the details of the final agreed texts of individual files including any transposition deadlines.

Analysis of private rented housing data indicates that approximately 72,000 properties will receive packages of measures costing between £2,500 and £3,500 under amended Minimum Energy Efficiency Standard Regulations. On average, tenants benefitting from improvements under these regulations will see their energy costs fall by £180 per year.

Due of the comparatively small sample size used to model those private rented sector properties with F and G energy efficiency ratings, we are unable to reliably break the above subset of properties down by region or council authority area.

Following consultation in November 2016 we have confirmed our commitment to regulate the closure of unabated coal power generation units by 2025. We published our policy detail in the consultation response of 5 January 2018, which set out that unabated coal power stations will need to close by 1 October 2025 unless they invest to reduce their emissions significantly to 450gCO2 per kWh, and that we will prepare the required legislation in good time before the capacity market auctions of 2021/22 (for delivery in 2025/26).

The provisional agreement reached on the Effort Sharing Regulation (ESR) in December 2017 does not set out emission reduction targets for each sector of the economy. Rather, the ESR sets an overall commitment to reduce emissions across the EU by 30% on 2005 levels by 2030 in the sectors covered by ESR; this includes the transport, waste, agriculture and buildings sectors. Each Member State’s actual target for their ESR sectors will vary as the effort needed to meet the EU target is allocated to Member States according to their GDP with an adjustment for cost effectiveness (e.g. the UK’s ESR target is a 37% reduction).

Under the UK’s Climate Change Act (2008) the UK has more stringent emission reduction targets than its EU target. The UK has already succeeded in reducing its emissions by 42% since 1990 while growing the economy by two thirds. The recently published Clean Growth Strategy set outs how the Government will build on this progress into the 2020s. It notes the progress to date in reducing emissions from waste and outlines a number further initiatives including; our ambition for zero avoidable waste by 2050, publishing a new Resources and Waste Strategy and exploring new and innovative ways to manage emissions from landfill. Further information can be found in the Clean Growth Strategy.

The contribution of the waste sector to meeting the UK’s 2030 emission reduction target will depend on the implementation of the detailed policies the UK adopts to meet its targets.

Whatever our future relationship with the EU, the UK’s commitment and leadership role in tackling climate change remains undimmed and working closely with the EU on this global challenge will remain important. Leaving the EU will not change any of our statutory commitments to reduce our emissions according to the Climate Change Act (2008) which is more ambitious than the UK’s EU target.

UK Climate Investments has so far has completed one investment, in a partnership platform alongside UK solar company Lightsource BP to fund the development, acquisition and ownership of large scale solar power generation assets in India. The construction of an initial 60MWp project in the Indian state of Maharastra is underway.

UK Climate Investments has earmarked up to £30m in aggregate for this project and for a broader partnership with Lightsource to develop and construct up to a total of 300MW of PV projects. Just over £5.2m has been spent to date by UK Climate Investments on this project, including due diligence and other transaction costs.