Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has held discussions with the Home Secretary on the news organisations that attended her 2023 visit to Rwanda.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
No.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing legislation to ensure that (a) former Prime Ministers and (b) former Ministers must have served a minimum of 12 months in post before becoming eligible to access the Public Duty Costs Allowance.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
Only former Prime Ministers are eligible to claim against the Public Duty Costs Allowance. The allowance assists former Prime Ministers who are still active in public life and payments are made only to reimburse incurred expenses, such as office and secretarial costs, arising from the fulfilment of public duties. The allowance has been frozen at an annual limit of £115,000 since 2011 and the Government has no current plans to change its eligibility requirements.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) increasing the Treasury pay remit and (b) refunding the overpaid pension contributions.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
Pay for grades below the Senior Civil Service is delegated to departments. Pay awards are made by individual departments, in consideration of their own priorities and affordability, and discussed with their trade unions.
The pay remit guidance is a cost control document and allows departments to seek further flexibility for a pay award above the headline range for pay awards.
It is important that pay awards for civil servants are affordable, as well as fair to both staff and the taxpayer. The pay remit guidance considers economic conditions while balancing the need for sustainable public finances. The 2023/24 guidance will be published next year.
Civil servants are not overpaying pension contributions. Member contribution rates are set via the Cost Control element of the Valuation. The 2016 Valuation was completed on 17 December 2021. It found that there was no ‘breach’ in the Cost Control element, meaning there was no need to adjust benefits or contributions. The valuation process ensures that members receive generous benefits linked to their contributions. The 2020 valuation is ongoing.
Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will undertake a review of the Government’s plan to cut 19,000 jobs from the civil service over the next 3 years.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Government is firmly committed to the delivery of high quality public services at an affordable cost. Earlier this year, the former Prime Minister tasked Secretaries of State and Permanent Secretaries to work together on producing a plan for returning the Civil Service workforce numbers to 2016 levels over the next three years. This work remains ongoing and, as plans are still in development, no decisions have yet been made.