Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 26 February 2024 to Question 13942 on UK Health Security Agency: Finance, if she will break down the (a) sources and (b) amounts of the Other customers section.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

The UK Health Security Agency is unable to provide the information requested because it is commercially sensitive.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The information requested is not held centrally by the Department and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department. The Department undertakes Baseline Personnel Security Standard pre-employment checks for all new joiners. The FCDO's approach to employ those with a criminal record is assessed at national security level and all decisions are made in line with Cabinet Office's Security Vetting Guidance.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

The requested information is not centrally held and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department.

HM Treasury’s approach to employ those with a criminal record is assessed at national security level and all decisions are made in line with Cabinet Office’s Security Vetting Guidance.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)

All Home Office staff considered for appointment undergo stringent pre-employment and security checks before taking up post.

We recognise the contribution that former offenders can make to our workforce, however, in deciding whether to make an appointment we would consider a range of factors, including the nature of the position and the circumstances of the offence. However, to determine those members of staff with a criminal conviction in our current workforce can only be obtained with disproportionate effort.

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Simon Hoare - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities)

Criminal record checks are made prior to appointment and we require individuals to inform the department of criminal convictions after appointment as set out in the staff handbook. The information is not collected centrally.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many civil servants in her Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

No civil servants at DCMS hold a criminal conviction.

Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

All employees of the Department are subject to appropriate levels of pre-employment checks and/or security clearance. As you will be aware, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 allows certain eligible convictions or cautions to become “spent” after a specified period of time.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, how many civil servants in her Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Graham Stuart - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero does not hold central records of criminal convictions. When joining the department all candidates undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check which checks for unspent criminal convictions. Where a candidate does have unspent criminal convictions, these are shared with the individual vacancy holder for them to consider as this is likely to have impact on individuals’ suitability for the role.

The Department engages with the cross-government Going Forward into Employment (GFIE) schemes, including for prison leavers. The number of civil servants in the department on this scheme is less than 10. Given this number is relatively low the exact number is not provided in order to protect the identity of those individuals.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many civil servants in her Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

The information requested is not held centrally by the Department. The Department undertakes Baseline Personnel Security Standard pre-employment checks for all new joiners. A minimal number of roles also require National Security Vetting clearance prior to joining. In the event of a declared criminal conviction, a risk assessment is completed on a case-by-case basis.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, how many civil servants in her Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Andrew Griffith - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology does not hold central records of criminal convictions. When joining the department all candidates undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check which checks for unspent criminal convictions. Where a candidate does have unspent criminal convictions, these are shared with the individual vacancy holder for them to consider as this is likely to have impact on individuals’ suitability for the role. The department is looking at how it can engage with the across government Going Forward into Employment (GFIE) schemes, including for prison leavers.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when she plans to respond to the correspondence from the hon. Member for Shipley of 21 June 2023.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

We have received the hon. Member’s correspondence of 21 June 2023 and will respond shortly.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Paul Maynard - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, how many civil servants in her Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)

DBT do not centrally hold data on employees with criminal convictions. This information will be captured and considered at application stage by the Government Recruitment Service through the BPSS checks. In line with wider Civil Service guidance, the Department does encourage applications from those with prior convictions via our recruitment campaigns on Civil Service Jobs. The department also supports the Going Forwards into Employment, Prison Leaver scheme which is an exception to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many civil servants in her Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)

The department does not collect or hold information on the criminal convictions of its civil servants.

The department does require that, prior to commencing employment, individuals have cleared the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). This includes a check for live convictions and is the minimum level of clearance for all people working across the Civil Service. These checks are also carried out for existing civil servants moving into the department.

If checks highlight convictions, the department will consider the appointment if a conviction relates to any of the following: life sentences, arson, sexual offences, hate and terror offences, the department will also consider the specific offence against the nature of the business, i.e., a conviction for fraud may rule you out for a finance role (the department also undertakes an internal fraud database check, which identifies civil servants who have been dismissed for committing internal fraud, or who would have been dismissed had they not resigned).

The department is engaged in the ‘Civil Service Prison Leavers’ scheme but has not yet made any appointments. This scheme ensures that if an individual is a prison leaver, then having a criminal conviction is not a barrier to joining the Civil Service. The department only asks about criminal convictions once a job offer has been made and excepted and the BPSS checks completed.

The department expects its civil servants to abide by the Civil Service Code of Conduct and the departmental standards of behaviour. Employees must inform their manager if they are arrested, are charged and released, refused bail, or convicted of any criminal offence. If they fail to do so, the department will take disciplinary action for non-disclosure.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)

As of September 2023, there were 101,276[1] (FTE) staff in post across the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

To provide the quantitative base to answer this PQ, this could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost. This would require manually entering each individual record to extract the data and engaging with all workplaces across England and Wales to ascertain locally managed/ recorded information.

All Ministry of Justice staff are held to high levels of professional and personal conduct and are subject to pre-employment vetting checks to ensure suitability for employment into post. Across the MoJ, all directly employed roles require a minimum of Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) level to enter the organisation and this includes a request of criminal conviction history. For any roles requiring a higher security level, roles may require an enhanced DBS check or be subject to National Security Vetting (NSV) checks which are carried out externally by UK Security Vetting (UKSV).

Across the MoJ, we must act in accordance with the high expectations that the Government and members of the public expect from us to ensure we drive our vision to deliver a world-class justice system that works for everyone. People are at the heart of what we do, and security and safety considerations are paramount in ensuring we welcome the right people to come to work for us to deliver our objectives. This might mean that some people may not ever be considered suitable to hold employment with us because of their background. Criminal conviction history of the applicant, including offence type and length of time since conviction will be assessed during vetting decision making to assess suitability for the role applied.

[1] Workforce management information: MOJ - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)

This information is not centrally held and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. However, Civil Service applicants must declare any criminal convictions during the application process. This is reviewed during the security clearance process run by UKSV. The Ministry of Defence does not routinely employ people with unspent convictions.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.

Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

The information requested is not held centrally and to obtain it would incur disproportionate costs.

New appointments to Defra undergo pre-employment criminal record checks. Where a conviction is flagged, appointment is dependent on a role-specific risk assessment. Convictions for the following offences result in the individual automatically failing pre-employment checks and not being appointed: life sentences, arson, sexual offences and hate and terror offences.

Defra has participated in the Going Forward into Employment Scheme for Ex-Offenders and has appointed to posts via this scheme. We can confirm that the numbers appointed under this scheme are currently less than 10. However, exact numbers may enable individuals to be identifiable and the privacy and confidentiality of this information requires us to ensure individuals are properly protected.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of banning the sale of tobacco products to people born after 1 January 2009 on tobacco duties.

Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)

Tobacco_and_vapes_bill_IA.pdf (parliament.uk)

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 8 March 2024 to Question 16638 on UK Health Security Agency: Finance, on what basis the information requested is considered to be commercially sensitive.

Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)

Further breakdown of customers groupings would identify individual customers and the value of individual vaccine sales. These grouping are varied and include customers such as wholesalers, hospitals, medical centres, travel clinics and other providers of vaccination services. To break this information down to a level that would identify individual purchases could prejudice future commercial relations with the UK Health Security Agency customers.

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Chope Sir Gary Streeter [R] Martin Vickers John Redwood Royston Smith Sir Robert Syms [R] Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Chope Sir Gary Streeter [R] Martin Vickers John Redwood Royston Smith Sir Robert Syms [R] Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Chope Sir Gary Streeter [R] Martin Vickers John Redwood Royston Smith Sir Robert Syms [R] Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Chope Sir Gary Streeter [R] Martin Vickers John Redwood Royston Smith Sir Robert Syms [R] Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Chope Sir Gary Streeter [R] Martin Vickers John Redwood Royston Smith Sir Robert Syms [R] Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Chope Sir Gary Streeter [R] Martin Vickers John Redwood Royston Smith Sir Robert Syms [R] Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Chope Sir Gary Streeter [R] Martin Vickers John Redwood Royston Smith Sir Robert Syms [R] Philip

Found: Millar Bob Blackman Nick Fletcher Andrew Lewer Marco Longhi Martin Vickers Steve Double Philip

Found: Knight Bachelor • Philip Davies MP; Member of Parliament (MP) for Shipley.