Found: a request for mutual legal assistance, placing UK health data at risk4.Furthermore, in recent years Government

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to ensure that all Government contracts include a requirement to pay staff (a) the Living Wage Foundation’s real Living Wage and (b) occupational sick pay.

Answered by Jeremy Quin

This government is committed to paying properly, which is being addressed through the statutory National Living Wage. This is based on the recommendations of the Low Pay Commission. In April 2023, the National Living Wage increased to £10.42 per hour, an increase of 9.7%. By 2024, the Government has committed that the National Living Wage will reach 66% of median UK earnings.

Departments are responsible for setting the terms and conditions of employment for their civil servants, in accordance with the rules of the Civil Service Management Code. This includes matters related to sickness absence.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many suppliers to government departments have been excluded from subsequent procurement processes on the grounds of either fraud or corruption.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

The grounds for the exclusion of bidders from public procurement procedures are set out in the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. These rules set out the circumstances in which bidders must, or may, be excluded from a public procurement process.

In all cases, individual departments and other public sector bodies are responsible for their own decisions on these matters, and will hold their own records. This information is not held centrally.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the level of compliance by (a) Government Departments, (b) Executive Agencies and (c) non-departmental public bodies with the guidance set out in Procurement Policy Note 01/22: contracts with suppliers from Russia and Belarus.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia has been met with unprecedented global condemnation. The UK is proudly standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and has introduced tough financial and investment sanctions, to push Russia to cease its illegal and destabilising actions.

In March 2022, Cabinet Office published PPN 01/22 which set out the government's commercial policy and guidance, recommending that public bodies immediately seek to identify any contracts with Russian and Belarusian companies and, to switch suppliers with minimal disruption, pursue legal routes of cancelling them. In all cases, contracting authorities must be proportionate and take a risk-based approach. The final decision to terminate a contract rests with the contracting authority with responsibility for the contract.

In the case of the Cabinet Office’s own commercial activities, since the publication of PPN 01/22, there have been no instances where a Russian/Belarusian supplier has bid, and therefore been excluded from a procurement. Other departments will hold their own records on such matters.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government has knowingly granted procurement contracts with any firms that have engaged in fire and rehire tactics.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government has been clear on its opposition to this practice being used as a negotiating tactic and is now making it clear how it expects employers to behave.

Departments are responsible for their own commercial decisions, including the award and management of contracts.

Details of Government contracts above £10,000 are published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many suppliers the Government excluded from procurement on the grounds of fraud under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 in (a) 2015 (b) 2018 and (c) 2021.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

The Government is committed to tackling fraud and corruption in public procurement. All contracting authorities must act, and be seen to act, with integrity.

Information on how many suppliers the Government excluded from procurement on the grounds of fraud under the Public Contract Regulations 2015 is not held centrally. Departments will hold their own exclusions data.

The Public Sector Fraud Authority was established in August 2022 to work with departments and public bodies to understand the causes of fraud and reduce its impact, throughout the commercial lifecycle.

The Procurement Bill, which is making its way through Parliament, further strengthens the rules on supplier exclusion for fraud and corruption.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of their commitment to pay (1) 90 per cent of undisputed and valid invoices from SMEs within five days, and (2) 100 per cent of all undisputed and valid invoices within 30 days, as part of their Prompt Payment Policy.

Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)

(1) In terms of the 90% of undisputed and valid invoices from SMEs within 5 days target: at the end of the previous financial year, 13 of 16 departments were exceeding 85% payment of all invoices within 5 days, with 7 departments paying over 90% of all invoices within this time period.

(2) In terms of the 100% of valid and undisputed invoices being paid in 30 days target: as of the same date, 14 of 16 departments were paying in excess of 95% of their invoices within 30 days, with 6 of these exceeding 99%. This information is published quarterly on GOV.UK.

Cabinet Office works with departments to improve payment performance. In addition, the Procurement Bill will ensure that 30 day payment terms are included in government supply chain contracts.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government will take to ensure adherence to the Construction Playbook.

Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)

To support departments in implementing the Construction Playbook, the Cabinet Office offers in-person training sessions and an eLearning module that covers the key principles. Departments are also able to bid for additional commercial resources to support live procurements. This is targeted, short-term specialist support to upskill teams through ‘on the job experience’ where we work with project teams to ensure they adhere to the playbook principles.

Cabinet Office is also encouraging adherence by working with departments to improve their pipelines, and making use of these to identify early opportunities to offer support in implementation of Playbook principles. This is complemented by work with senior sponsors in each of the key construction departments to identify areas to offer greater support, or to identify challenging areas where more guidance or training is required. Finally, compliance with the Playbook principles is assessed on a ‘comply or explain’ basis as part of the Cabinet Office commercial controls process.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if will make it his policy to apply a minimum liquidity threshold to companies applying to tender for Government contracts.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

The Sourcing Playbook includes a specific guidance note on “Assessing and monitoring the economic and financial standing of suppliers”, which provides advice on effective evaluation and monitoring both pre and post procurement and is relevant to all Central Government Departments, their Executive Agencies and Non Departmental Public Bodies.

Assessing and monitoring the economic and financial standing of suppliers is about understanding the financial capacity of suppliers to perform a contract in order to safeguard the delivery of public services.

The guidance states that all assessments of bidders’ economic and financial standing should be proportionate, flexible, contract specific and not overly risk averse while ensuring protection of taxpayer value and safety and compliance with relevant procurement law.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to remove conflicts of interest in the government procurement process.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

There are specific legal duties in the Public Contracts Regulations that require government departments to take appropriate measures to effectively prevent, identify and remedy conflicts of interest arising in the conduct of procurement procedures, so as to avoid any distortion of competition and to ensure equal treatment of all bidders and suppliers.

Companies may be excluded from bidding for government contracts where a conflict cannot be effectively remedied.

An updated Procurement Policy Note was published in May 2021 on the management of actual and perceived conflicts of interest in order to provide commercial teams across government with further information on the roles and responsibilities of those involved in decision making, risk management and how provisions may be applied to suppliers.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many emergency procurement rules introduced in March 2020 are in place as of 7 September 2022.

Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)

Existing procurement rules, which pre-date COVID-19, rightly allow the Government to procure at speed in times of emergency. These rules are not new and it is for contracting authorities to make their own determinations on when to use them.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department has taken to set up a centrally coordinated, cross-government compliance function for ensuring compliance with governance processes and the wider regulatory framework as recommended by Nigel Boardman.

Answered by Michael Ellis

I refer the Hon Member to HCWS500.

The Government has set out that a policy statement in response to the Upholding Standards in Public Life Report from the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the review into the development and use of Supply Chain Finance in government by Nigel Boardman will be published in due course.

Ministers and Permanent Secretaries are responsible for ensuring compliance with internal and external requirements in their departments in line with legislation, the relevant Codes of Conduct and requirements of Managing Public Money. They are supported by legal, HR and finance professionals in discharging these obligations. The Cabinet Office and HM Treasury provide a coordination role across such functions and can provide advice and guidance in specific cases.

Direct Ministerial appointments reflect the successive practice of administrations in engaging eminent individuals to provide independent views and advice to Government on specific areas. Such appointments should, by nature, be flexible to the circumstances of the situation and in line with wider public law duties. Appointments are made by Ministers. Appointees must abide by the Seven Principles of Public Life and the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies, and should ensure that any relevant interests are declared to the Senior Civil Servant sponsoring their work to ensure that no actual or reasonably perceived conflicts arise.

Departments are responsible for their own transparency releases as they hold the information required to generate them and must take steps to ensure the accuracy of the information. The Cabinet Office provides central guidance to ensure consistency of information.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many contractors have been refused government contracts in excess of £5 million on the basis of guidelines for prompt payment in government contracting; and what assessment they have made of the level of compliance in public sector contracts with the provision that 95 per cent of invoices should be paid within 60 days.

Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal

Individual departments are responsible for the implementation of the prompt payment exclusion measure and decisions on their own procurements. The Cabinet Office has been made aware of at least seven suppliers that have been excluded from procurements wholly, or in part, on grounds of non-compliance with the requirements to pay their suppliers promptly.

The UK’s large businesses are required to report on a half yearly basis on their payment practices, policies and performance. All information is publically available. Since the implementation of the prompt payment measure in Central Government contracts in September 2019, through businesses' published payment data, there have been some significant improvements in the prompt payment performance of key Government suppliers.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to increase opportunities for small businesses to bid for Government contracts.

Answered by Michael Ellis

Small and medium-sized businesses are the backbone of the UK economy. That is why we are making sure Government spending supports this vital sector, both as part of our economic recovery from COVID-19 and as part of our levelling up agenda. We are increasing opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a variety of ways - from transparently publishing contract pipelines, to simplifying bidding processes.

These measures are working. The latest procurement figures for 2019/20 show that £15.5bn was paid to small and medium sized businesses to help deliver vital public services. This figure is an increase of £1.3bn on the previous year and the highest since records began in 2013.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many and what proportion of Government covid-19 contracts have been awarded without following a competitive tender process since the beginning of March 2021.

Answered by Heather Wheeler

This information is not held centrally.

Details of Government contracts above £10,000 should be published on Contracts Finder: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search.