Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ruth Cadbury and Alex Burghart

Thursday 25th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Slough) (Lab)]

10. What recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of his Department's processes for scrutinising nominations for honours.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

It looks like the Member who tabled No. 10 is not out of bed.

A validation process is carried out to assess the strength and credibility of each nomination. We protect the integrity of the honours system by carrying out probity checks with a number of Government Departments before the Prime Minister submits names to His Majesty the King for approval.

[Ruth Cadbury]

The Prime Minister previously backed calls for Horizon victim and campaigner Alan Bates to receive an honour, yet his name was absent from the Prime Minister’s surprise honours list last month. However, Russia-linked Mohamed Mansour’s name was on that list. What was it about the multi-millionaire, generous Conservative party donor that attracted the Prime Minister to the idea of giving him a knighthood?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ruth Cadbury and Alex Burghart

Thursday 7th September 2023 Commons Chamber

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

16. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure value for money in public procurement.

[The Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office (Alex Burghart)]

The UK Government already award contracts on the basis of most economically advantageous tender. Furthermore, we are currently taking the Procurement Bill through Parliament, which is an opportunity to streamline procurement processes and ensure that value for money remains central to the UK’s procurement regime.

[Ruth Cadbury]

It is important that taxpayers get value for money when public services are outsourced. Over recent years, the Home Office has given vast sums of taxpayers’ money to Clearsprings Ready Homes, yet the accommodation that it has contracted out for housing asylum seekers has been unfit for human habitation, partly because so much taxpayers’ money is being skimmed off by unaccountable intermediaries before it reaches the hotels or food providers. What is the Cabinet Office doing to stop that sort of thing happening in outsourced services?

[Alex Burghart]

I am unable to comment on the specifics of that case, but on the broader point, the Procurement Bill covers a range of issues, including how we can improve quality within our supply chains. Perhaps the hon. Lady will join us for ping-pong next week.