Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his Department's expected timescale is for receiving the final report of Sir Brian Langstaff on the contaminated blood inquiry.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Honourable Member to the written ministerial statement of 23 October 2023.
https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2023-10-23/debates/23102320000007/InfectedBloodInquiry
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people have registered to vote in the UK since 23 June 2016.
Answered by Chris Skidmore
The Government holds figures for the number of applications to register, but not for the number of additions or deletions from each local register resulting from such applications. This data is only held by Electoral Registration Officers.
Since 23 June 2016, 783,834 applications to register have been made. Of these, 642,701 applications were made online, through the Government’s Register to Vote (RTV) website. The remainder - 127,232 applications - were submitted on paper.
A breakdown of these applications by type (e.g. home movers, name changes, corrections or first-time applications) is not possible. It can be assumed that the vast majority of these applications relate to general churn in the system, with the annual canvass now well underway.”
These figures will include re-registrations from people moving house, as part of the normal churn of electoral registration over time.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what revenue the Government has received from the sale of government-owned assets in the Newcastle upon Tyne local authority area between 2010 and 2016.
Answered by Matt Hancock
Since 2010, the Government has generated £1.8 billion in capital receipts and vacated over 2,000 individual properties. This includes over £600,000 raised from the sale of Government owned property in Newcastle upon Tyne between 2010 and 2016. Disposals of surplus property is improving Government’s estate management and releasing surplus land and property in a way that delivers value for the taxpayer, boosts growth and creates new homes.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what plans the Government has to sell government-owned assets in the Newcastle upon Tyne local authority area.
Answered by Matt Hancock
The Government is undertaking a programme to dispose of surplus Government owned land and property to improve the efficiency of the Government estate, deliver value for the taxpayer and support economic growth, in particular housing. The Government is committed to disposing of at least £5 billion of public sector land and property between 2015 and 2020 and freeing-up surplus Government owned land with capacity for at least 160,000 homes. This will involve selling surplus land and property across the country. In the Newcastle upon Tyne area for example, in the coming year, the Northumbria Probation Service Office at 6 Lansdown Terrace will be marketed for sale, and Network Rail are planning to release a former freight site at Heaton Down Yard for development. All Departments are working to accelerate the release of their surplus property and get it to market, so that it can deliver local benefits and value.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of extending the remit of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 to cover Ombudsman Services provided by the Ombudsman Services Company.
Answered by Matt Hancock
I refer the hon Member to my Written Ministerial Statement of 1 March 2016 [Hansard reference HCWS566]. There are no current plans to extend the scope of the FOI Act.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the vulnerability of the UK's critical infrastructure from cyber attack; and what investment his Department is making to improve the security of the UK's critical infrastructure from such attacks.
Answered by Matt Hancock
For security reasons we do not comment on details of our vulnerability to cyber attacks. The Government takes cyber security very seriously; since 2011 we have invested £860 million in a National Cyber Security Programme. As announced in the National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015, we plan to almost double investment in cyber security to £1.9bn over the next five years, which includes further investment in protecting the UK’s critical national infrastructure.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Office for National Statistics plans to include in quarterly migration figures the number of Syrian refugees resettled in the UK under the Government's relocation scheme.
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: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) organisations in total and (b) trade unions receive income by means of a government check-off facility.
Answered by Lord Maude of Horsham
This is matter that is delegated to individual Departments in the Civil Service.
This information is a matter for departments.
Asked by: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average weekly earnings were for the (a) richest and (b) poorest five per cent of earners in each of the last five years (i) in real terms and (ii) as a proportion of all UK earnings.
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: Nicholas Brown (Independent - Newcastle upon Tyne East)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which Government departments administer their own departmental civil service payrolls; and which Government departments' payrolls are administered by which other outside firms.
Answered by Lord Maude of Horsham
Detail on the payroll service arrangements of all departments is not held centrally.