Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what opportunities from the UK's withdrawal from the EU the Minister for Brexit Opportunities has identified to date.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
This Government is driving forward an ambitious programme to seize the opportunities of leaving the EU, and deliver growth and innovation across the whole of the UK economy. On the 31st January, the Government published a policy document entitled ‘The Benefits of Brexit: how the UK is taking advantage of leaving the EU’, which set out in detail how the Government is seizing the opportunities of leaving the EU, and how the Government will transform the UK into the best regulated in the world. From artificial intelligence and gene-editing, to autonomous vehicles and data, our reforms will give businesses the confidence to innovate, invest and create jobs. We have set a target to cut £1 billion of red tape to help businesses innovate and grow and have set out plans to bring forward the Brexit Freedoms Bill which will end the special status of EU law and ensure it can be more easily amended or removed.
Furthermore, we now have an opportunity to develop and implement a new procurement regime which will enable us to create a simpler and significantly more transparent system that reduces costs for business and the public sector alike as well as supporting the levelling up agenda.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Ministers’ connected parties have been granted Government contacts under the Government’s procurement policy since the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
This information is not held centrally. A list of ministers’ interests is published periodically on GOV.UK.
Updated commercial guidance on the management of actual and perceived conflicts of interest has been published to provide commercial teams across government with further information on the roles and responsibilities of those involved in decision making, risk management and how provisions may be applied to suppliers.
The future legislative scheme, as set out in our proposals for procurement reform, will continue to place legal duties on authorities with respect to the prevention and remedy of conflicts of interest, with additional policy and guidance provided by the centre where the need arises.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to tackle delays at UK customs on EU imports.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
The Government has provided comprehensive guidance on the new arrangements for trade with the EU following the end of the Transition Period. Officials are monitoring trade flows at the border to identify any issues and to resolve them when they arise to allow goods to continue flowing freely.
We have delayed the implementation of full border import controls until January 2022 to minimise disruption and give traders a chance to prepare. Until these controls take effect, most importers of most goods are not required to file a customs declaration at the point of entry.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the COBRA Civil Contingencies Committee last met to discuss covid-19; and how many times that Committee has met each month in 2020.
Answered by Penny Mordaunt - Lord President of the Council and Leader of the House of Commons
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by Chloe Smith MP to PQ 66203 on 2 July 2020.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the report of the Intelligence and Security Committee on Russia will be published.
Answered by Oliver Dowden - Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In line with his responsibilities in the Justice and Security Act 2013, the Prime Minister carefully considered and approved the report, and is content that its publication would not prejudice the functions of those bodies that safeguard our national security.
We acknowledge the public’s interest in the publication of the report, however the report itself is the property of the independent ISC, as such it is not for the Government to publish ISC reports; it is for the ISC to lay them before Parliament. Once a new Committee has been established, it will be up to them to choose when they wish to publish it. The process to establish a new Committee has already begun.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of Colombian nationals currently living in (a) the UK, (b) London and (c) Southwark.
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: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of Venezuelan nationals living in the UK in each year since 2015.
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: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of crimes committed against children in each of the last five years.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Government will take steps to ensure the voting rights of citizens of other EU member states in local elections under all possible scenarios after March 2019.
Answered by Chloe Smith
The issue of electoral voting rights is part of the wider issue of the rights of EU citizens and UK expats that need to be considered during the Brexit preparations. The rights of both sides should be taken together. The UK pushed hard in negotiations for reciprocal voting rights for EU citizens in the UK, and UK nationals in the EU, but they will not form part of the Withdrawal Agreement. The Government has made clear that we will seek to discuss this issue bilaterally with individual Member States with a view to protecting the rights of UK nationals resident in those Member States, where they will not otherwise continue.
We do not anticipate any changes to the current UK primary legislative framework for candidacy and voting rights being made before the May 2019 English and Northern Ireland local elections. The Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly are responsible for their own franchises.
To provide certainty to prospective candidates, it will be the policy intent of the UK Government that candidates who are validly nominated and elected at or before the May 2019 local elections in England and Northern Ireland should be able to serve that term of office in full, notwithstanding any wider changes to voting and candidacy rights in the future.
Asked by: Neil Coyle (Labour - Bermondsey and Old Southwark)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the oral contribution of the Prime Minister of 4 December 2018, Official Report, column 879, what information his Department has received from the Electoral Commission on whether the EU referendum 2016 was a fair poll.
Answered by Chloe Smith
In September 2016, the Electoral Commission Report on the 23 June 2016 referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union found the referendum had been delivered without any major issues and the result announced in a clear, timely manner.
Since then, the Electoral Commission has published the conclusions of its investigation into the campaign spending of referendum campaigners. That electoral rules have been breached is rightly a cause for concern. However, that does not mean that the rules themselves were flawed.
The Government will continue to work closely with the Electoral Commission, along with many other stakeholders in the electoral system, to protect the integrity, security and effectiveness of referendums and elections.