Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made of the cost to the NHS of unused personal protective equipment during the covid-19 pandemic; what steps her Department is taking to reclaim those costs; and how much has been reclaimed as of 29 November 2023.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
In the face of an unprecedented global pandemic, we had to rapidly increase the volume of personal protective equipment (PPE) and change how we bought it in order to protect the National Health Service, including frontline health and care workers, and save lives. The Department’s most recent published annual report and accounts have already disclosed the cost of providing PPE during the pandemic, and are available at the following link:
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2023 to Question 1249 on USA: Military Bases, how many US military personnel are stationed at (a) RAF Alconbury, (b) RAF Molesworth, (c) RAF Croughton, (d) RAF Fairford, (e) RAF Lakenheath, (f) RAF Menwith Hill and (g) RAF Mildenhall.
Answered by James Heappey
The information required to answer the hon. Member's question is not held centrally and will take some time to collate. I will write to him when the information is available and a copy of this letter will be placed in the Library of The House.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Attorney General:
To ask the Attorney General, what discussions she has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) the Scottish Government on the potential impact of the Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill on the Act of Union 1707.
Answered by Robert Courts - Solicitor General (Attorney General's Office)
The Law Officers’ Convention prevents me from disclosing outside Government whether the Attorney General has been asked to provide advice or the contents of any such advice. This is a longstanding principle of Cabinet collective agreement. The Attorney General has not had any discussions with the Scottish Government on this topic.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he has taken to help improve the transparency of government procurement contracts in the last 12 months.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Procurement Act, which recently received Royal Assent, helps deliver this Government’s promise to grow the economy by creating a simpler and more transparent system that will deliver better value for money, reducing costs for business and the public sector.
The Act embeds transparency throughout the commercial lifecycle so that the spending of taxpayers’ money can be properly scrutinised.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to his Department of (a) setting up and (b) running the Public Sector Fraud Authority each year are.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
HM Treasury announced £24.7m funding over three years to support the creation of the PSFA in the Spring Statement 2022. This was added to the £5.7m annual budget that the Centre of the Counter Fraud Function was provided by the Cabinet Office. The additional funding brought the PSFA budget in 2022/23 to £11.25m.
In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180m of savings to the taxpayer. The PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. As it enters its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much her Department spent of the coronation ceremony; and how this money was spent.
Answered by Stuart Andrew - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla was a moment of celebration for the UK and my department was privileged to play its part in this historic occasion.
The Government contributes funding to national state occasions. As with all events of this kind, we will publish costs in due course once all spend has been reconciled.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of how much (a) was lost from the public purse due to fraud during the covid-19 pandemic, (b) of that fraud has been recovered and (c) is irrecoverable.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
During the pandemic, the Government delivered an unprecedented package of economic support to preserve livelihoods and save businesses across the whole United Kingdom.
The Government is committed to transparency in its efforts to tackle fraud against the public sector. The UK is one of the few countries to publish data on fraud and error within the public sector in the Fraud Landscape Report. The Government will continue to be transparent and prioritise its efforts in detecting, preventing and recovering fraud associated with the pandemic.
The Fraud Landscape Report showed that in 2020/21, across government and outside of tax and welfare (so, excluding COVID-19 expenditure in HMRC and DWP), departments reported £88m of recovered fraud and error related to COVID-19.
Since 2021, we have invested in taking action on fraud, to bolster the prevention and recovery of fraud losses in welfare, tax and COVID Business Loans, and prosecute those who have defrauded the public purse - this included the establishment of the Public Sector Fraud Authority (PSFA).
Fraud is a hidden crime and the Government’s focus remains on detecting and recovering as much of it as is possible. That is done by deploying cutting edge tools supported by world leading expertise to find and recover as much fraud as possible.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much Government expenditure lost to fraud has been recovered by the Public Sector Fraud Authority in each year since its establishment.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The PSFA was established in August 2022 - as such we only have audited counter fraud savings up to March 2023 (FY 2022/23).
In 22/23 the PSFA set a target of delivering £180m of savings to the taxpayer. In fact the PSFA far surpassed this within the first 12 months by preventing and recovering £311 million. As it enters its second year, the PSFA has a target of achieving £185 million of savings for the taxpayer.
This shows the Government is delivering its mission to transform the way we fight fraud and safeguard taxpayers’ money. Every pound we save in taking action on fraud reduces the cost of public services and makes taxpayers’ money go further. Better use of data and technology has been key in achieving this.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending health and safety legislation to cover armed forces personnel serving overseas.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
Given the nature of defence operations, our personnel are often asked to work in challenging environments around the world. For this reason, it would not be practical to apply health and safety legislation that has been developed to provide safe working environments within the UK, when overseas. I would like to provide reassurance that the Ministry of Defence (MOD) does seek to comply with local health and safety standards and where these local standards fall below those expected within UK, the MOD applies UK standards so far as it is reasonably practicable.
Asked by: Neale Hanvey (Alba Party - Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of (a) cancelling and (b) refunding penalties issued for late tax returns in cases where there is no tax due.
Answered by Nigel Huddleston - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
I refer the Honourable Member to the reply given to the Honourable Member for St Ives on 11 September 2023 to PQ UIN 198150.