Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government efficiency savings: technical note, 2021, published on 28 March 2022, what debt recoveries were made in the private sector as a result of the Debt Market Integrator including (a) the company the debt was recovered from, (b) the amount recovered for each private company and (c) a summary of how the debt was accrued.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
Since its inception in 2015, the Debt Market Integrator has recovered over £2.9bn in debts from over 14 million accounts owed to the public sector. Due to the vast amount of accounts placed with the DMI, we are unable to provide a breakdown of the companies that debt was recovered from or the amount recovered for each private company, or how the debt accrued.
The DMI focuses on ethical collection strategies in line with Financial Conduct Authority Treating Customers Fairly Principles, to ensure that debt is recovered in a sustainable manner, taking individual consumer and business circumstances into account.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government efficiency savings: technical note, 2021, published on 28 March 2022, what the (a) name of the supplier, (b) date the contract was awarded, (c) amount the Government paid to the supplier, (d) description of the contract and (e)) link to the contract on Contracts Finder was for each Department for Health and Social Care covid-19 response contracts that was renegotiated.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Government efficiency savings technical note sets out the government’s assessment of savings made by cross-cutting government functions in their work with government departments and other central government organisations.
The Government Internal Audit Agency was engaged to audit the £3.4 billion of 2020/21 efficiency savings. We do not intend to publish further details about the efficiency savings relating to the Department of Health & Social Care’s Covid response as there may be associated commercial implications.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government efficiency savings: technical note, 2021, published on 28 March 2022, which Department the savings of the identification of properties fraudulently declared empty when they were in fact occupied were allocated to.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
These savings, £63,602, were generated through the work of the Cabinet Office National Fraud Initiative (NFI) for private sector utilities companies, rather than government departments, as a result of proactive data analytics using government data. The NFI is a data matching exercise which involves 1200 organisations from across the UK. Since 1996, more than £2bn of fraud or error has been detected or prevented through the NFI.
In this particular case, information provided to the NFI, primarily for the prevention and detection of public sector fraud, has also been utilised to prevent fraudulent losses for private sector utilities companies. Fraudsters operate across the public and private sector. In order to best minimise government and private sector losses, it is important that we also collaborate across organisations and sectors wherever possible. These savings derive from a strategy to work across the public and private sector to deliver counter fraud benefits for the whole of the UK economy. This is aligned to the Government’s Economic Crime Plan that sets out how both sectors will work together to tackle economic crime.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the impact of the Department for Work and Pensions' decision to close 42 offices across the UK on his Department’s ability to relocate civil servant roles outside London.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
As the Levelling Up White Paper set out, departments have committed to moving more than 15,000 Civil Service roles out of Greater London by 2025, and 22,000 by 2030. By the end of 2021, more than 2,000 Civil Service jobs had already been relocated from Greater London under the Places for Growth programme.
Questions relating to the closure of DWP offices should be addressed to my Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment she has made of the compatibility of her decision to close 42 offices across the UK with her policy on increasing the proportion of civil servant roles based outside London.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
As the Levelling Up White Paper set out, departments have committed to moving more than 15,000 Civil Service roles out of Greater London by 2025, and 22,000 by 2030. By the end of 2021, more than 2,000 Civil Service jobs had already been relocated from Greater London under the Places for Growth programme.
Questions relating to the closure of DWP offices should be addressed to my Rt Hon Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the impact of increased homeworking during the covid-19 outbreak on his Department’s carbon footprint.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Department monitors and reports on its greenhouse gas emissions - information on this is published in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Report.
Any impact of increased home working during the COVID-19 pandemic will be included in the 2020/21 Greening Government Annual Report, which will be published in due course.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to measure its carbon footprint.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Department is committed to reducing emissions and energy consumption wherever possible, as part of the UK’s transition to net zero. The Department’s current targets to make progress on reducing emissions have been published, as part of the Greening Government Commitments.
The Government published the Net Zero Strategy in October 2021, which sets out policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet our net zero target by 2050.
Greenhouse gas emissions are published annually in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Reports.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has published a plan setting out the steps it plans to take to transition to net zero emissions.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Department is committed to reducing emissions and energy consumption wherever possible, as part of the UK’s transition to net zero. The Department’s current targets to make progress on reducing emissions have been published, as part of the Greening Government Commitments.
The Government published the Net Zero Strategy in October 2021, which sets out policies and proposals for decarbonising all sectors of the UK economy to meet our net zero target by 2050.
Greenhouse gas emissions are published annually in the Greening Government Commitments Annual Reports.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether a senior manager in his Department has been given the portfolio for leading on departmental sustainability.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government is committed to making its estate and operations more sustainable and resilient through the Greening Government Commitments. We report on these commitments every quarter.
In the Cabinet Office, this is led by the Head of Estates, working closely with the Government Property Agency, as the main provider of the Cabinet Office estate.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what environmental factors the (a) Government Property Agency and (b) his Department have considered in assessing the suitability of locations for Government hubs.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
A location’s potential to be a Government Hub is assessed against the following: Climate Resilience, Climate Adaptation, Flood Risk, Biodiversity and Sustainability.
The GPA adheres to the Government Buying Standards, which sets minimum acceptable Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM) ratings, which are applied across the Government Hubs programme. These are summarised as:
BREEAM New Construction 2018 at 70% or Excellent rating, or
BREEAM Non-Domestic Refurbishment and Fit-Out 2014 at 55% or Very Good rating.