Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the (a) engagement, (b) inclusion, (c) discrimination and (d) bullying scores by ethnicity of civil servants’ responses to the (i) 2020 and (ii) 2021 Civil Service People Surveys.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Cabinet Office publishes results from the Civil Service People Survey on GOV.UK. In addition to the overall results, demographic breakdowns are published.
The demographic scores for the 2020 Civil Service People Survey were published on 31 March. This publication included scores for (a) engagement, (b) inclusion, (c) discrimination, and (d) bullying by ethnicity, disability status, gender and sexual orientation of civil servants’ responses.
Publication of the demographic scores of the 2021 Civil Service People Survey is scheduled for 30 June 2022 on GOV.UK. This will also include scores for (a) engagement, (b) inclusion, (c) discrimination, and (d) bullying by ethnicity, disability status, gender and sexual orientation of civil servants’ responses.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what is the total cost to the public purse of the (a) travel, (b) accommodation and (c) printing costs of the Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency’s visits to civil service offices across the country in the last (i) 7, (ii) 14, (iii) 21 and (iv) 28 days.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
Since being appointed, the Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency has visited Glass Wharf, Bristol, on Friday 22 April. Travel was provided by the Government Car Service. No accommodation costs were incurred. Costs for printing in support of the visit were not outside that usually provided.
The Minister also regularly attends government offices within London for meetings as part of his duties. Travel is usually provided by the Government Car Service and printing costs did not materially differ from those usually incurred.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the the annual Civil Service People Survey will be published.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
Every year, the Civil Service People Survey team publishes the Civil Service benchmark scores and the results for all participating organisations in the annual Civil Service People Survey on GOV.UK. The publication of the results for the Civil Service People Survey 2021 is scheduled for Thursday 28 April 2022.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
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 London Travel Passes were allocated to.
Answered by Jacob Rees-Mogg
These savings, £340,104, were generated through the Cabinet Office National Fraud Initiative (NFI) for London Councils rather than a Department. The NFI is a data matching exercise which involves 1200 organisations from across the UK. In this case, the NFI worked with London Councils, an organisation that represents and provides services for London’s 32 boroughs and the City of London, to identify where freedom passes or taxi cards were still live, and could be used, despite the holder having passed them on. This resulted in the cancellation of passes and cards with an associated value of £340,104. Although assigned to London Councils, ultimately these savings are realised by London Boroughs and the taxpayer.
Asked by: Rachel Hopkins (Labour - Luton South and South Bedfordshire)
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 and South Bedfordshire)
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 and South Bedfordshire)
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.