Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will bring forward proposals to relocate (a) staff and (b) offices of his Department to Brighton; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Maude of Horsham
Staffing is kept under review but I have no plans to move Cabinet Office staff to Brighton.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what his policy is on ensuring that Government IT initiatives represent best value for money; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
After the 2010 General Election, this Government formed the Efficiency and Reform Group to help and support departments in maximising value for money. Although responsibility for projects remains the responsibility of individual departments, we introduced strict controls to provide further scrutiny of spend including on IT projects.
These controls can and have been used by the Cabinet Office to block inappropriate spending. In 2012-13 alone these controls helped us save taxpayers over £500 million from IT, contributing to overall efficiency savings of £10billion in 2012-13 (the last year for which we have audited figures).
We have clarified our ‘red lines' for IT procurement – these are designed to encourage competition in the sector, free the government from longstanding inflexible contracts with IT providers and ensure maximum taxpayer value. These rules include:
· we will no longer let ICT contracts over £100 million in value – unless there is an exceptional reason to do so. Contracts should be smaller to ensure the widest possible range of suppliers can compete for them.
· we will not give a contract for service provision to a company providing the system integration function in the same part of government. It's an important way of ensuring we are an intelligent customer.
· we won't extend existing contracts unless there is a compelling case - it's rare to find any good reason to extend the pricing and technology of the past.
· we do not expect to let hosting contracts for more than 2 years. The cost of hosting seems to halve every 18 months. Businesses wouldn't sign up for years upon end - and neither should government.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether it is his policy to encourage civil servants to use video conferencing in order to reduce costs; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Maude of Horsham
Yes. Video conferencing can be used to reduce costs but specialist equipment can be required. Officials and ministers also make use of telephone conferencing.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of people of pensionable age in Brighton, Kemptown constituency; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of young people in (a) Brighton, Kemptown constituency and (b) East Sussex who have been unemployed for longer than 12 months in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Nick Hurd
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Asked by: Simon Kirby (Conservative - Brighton, Kemptown)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress he has made on reform of the Civil Service; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Lord Maude of Horsham
In July 2013 we published a One Year On report that gave a frank account of progress against the Civil Service Reform Plan. This is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-reform-plan-one-year-on--2:
I took the opportunity to update the House on progress during the backbench debate on Civil Service Reform on 3 April 2014 and will update the House further in our Two Years On report this summer.