Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to tackle alleged racial discrimination in his Department.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
A ‘Respect and Inclusion review’ for the Cabinet Office is currently underway. In the recent Declaration on Government reform, Ministers and Permanent Secretaries committed to set a new standard for diversity and inclusion, including guaranteeing fairness at work and zero tolerance for Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination.
Our position at the centre of government - delivering against an ambitious agenda - means we have a responsibility to get this right. The review will have a particular focus on race and disability where our data shows scope for improvement.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he plans to take with Cabinet colleagues to use public procurement to help support the growth of British industries based in Newport West constituency.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government wants businesses from every corner of the UK to be successful in bidding for UK public contracts.
We are reforming the procurement rules to make it simpler, quicker and cheaper for suppliers, including SMEs and social enterprises, to bid for public sector contracts. The Welsh Government has confirmed that it will join the reforms.
The reforms will support the Government’s levelling up priorities by making it easier for public sector buyers to take account of social value when awarding contracts.
Under the Government’s Social Value policy, contracting authorities can already set rigorous environmental and social standards, and other criteria, that play to the strengths of supply chains who can meet those standards. The scope to take societal benefits into account when awarding contracts will be increased, playing to the strengths of UK firms who are well placed to deliver benefits.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether it his policy to support improved work-life balance as part of public services' recovery from the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government has put the recovery of public services at the heart of its building back better and levelling up agenda. We are investing £3.7 billion to build 40 new hospitals and we’re investing a further £4.7 billion in the core school budget by 2024-25. There are almost 10,000 more nurses and over 5,100 doctors now working in the NHS compared to last year, and we have recruited over 11,000 police officers.
The Government’s 2019 manifesto committed to encourage flexible working and consult on making it the default unless employers have good reasons not to. Since then, COVID-19 has changed working practices for many and led to the recognition of the need for more flexible working hours to balance work with other personal commitments. The Government intends to build on what we have learnt and ran a consultation proposing to reform the existing Right to Request flexible working from September to December 2021. We are currently analysing responses and will issue a formal Government response in due course.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether it is his policy to promote improved working conditions through Government procurement policy.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Government encourages employers to better support all employees to remain in and thrive through work.
Through our new approach to extend the use of the Social Value Act, effective from 1 January 2021, additional social benefits can be taken into account via the delivery of contracts.
To promote consistency across departments, we developed a tool called the ‘Social Value Model’ for use by all organisations in scope of the new policy. The tool has provisions to improve health and wellbeing in the contract workforce.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people in Newport West constituency received an award in the Birthday Honours or New Years Honours in (a) 2015, (b) 2016, (c) 2017, (d) 2018, (e) 2019 and (f) 2020.
Answered by Michael Ellis
The Government publishes honours transparency data broken down by both town/city and county. Data is collected using the county the recipient gives as their correspondence address. This is usually their home address rather than their place of origin. This data relates only to the main Prime Minister’s List and does not include data from the Defence List or the Overseas and International List, neither of which are administered by the Cabinet Office. The transparency data for the New Year Honours and Birthday Honours Lists between 2008 and 2022 can be found at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/honours-reform-and-operation#honours-lists
The Government does not collate data against political administrative areas and, therefore, we cannot provide information regarding honours awarded in Newport West or any other individual constituency.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the attendee lists from the last three COBRA meetings.
Answered by Michael Ellis
As a matter of policy, the Government does not comment on the details of COBR meetings.