Tag: Louise Haigh

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of the number of times his Department has missed the statutory time limit for responding to Freedom of Information requests in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014 and (f) 2015 to date.

Matthew Hancock

The Government publishes statistics on the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 within central government, including on timeliness and the number of requests rejected by each government department. These reports can be accessed at the following webpage: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what provision his Department’s procurement guidance makes to ensure contractors to Government departments pay the living wage.

Matthew Hancock

The Government awards contracts on the basis of the best value for money for the taxpayer.

We are the first Government ever to deliver a National Living Wage. Every employer in the country will pay the National Living Wage, including all Government contractors, from April 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reasons the minutes of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments have not been published since February 2015.

Matthew Hancock

The independent Advisory Committee on Business Appointments has confirmed that it met on 21 October, when the minutes of its previous meeting on 3 June were approved. The minutes of the June meeting have now been published on the Committee’s website in the normal way at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=advisory-committee-on-business-appointments&publication_type=transparency-data

The minutes of the October meeting will be published in due course.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what budget the Government has allocated to the Independent Commission on Freedom of Information.

Matthew Hancock

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Sheffield Central on 19 October 2015 to UIN: 10764.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if his Department will take steps to ensure that graduates from a working class background are recruited onto the Civil Service Fast Stream.

Matthew Hancock

To govern modern Britain, the Civil Service needs to look and sound likemodern Britain. We need access to the broadest possible pool of talent, drawing on peoplefrom all backgrounds and all parts of the country.

The Civil Service is implementing a number of initiatives to recruit individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds onto the Fast Stream and Fast Track Apprenticeship schemes, including internship programmes, schools and colleges mentoring and discovery days, work experience programmes and engagement with universities with a high representation of lower socio-economic students.

Information on the socio-economic status of recent appointees to the SCS was published in 2014,and the socio-economic status of Fast-Stream applicants has been published since 2011.

In 2015 16.8% of new joiners to the Fast Track Apprenticeship Scheme were from lower socio-economic backgrounds, up from 8.5% in 2013/14. From 2015 this data will be published as part of the Fast Stream applicants publication.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Special Advisors Remuneration Committee last met.

Matthew Hancock

Information relating to meetings of internal committees is not normally disclosed.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Freedom of Information requests were rejected by government departments in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014 and (f) 2015 to date.

Matthew Hancock

The Government publishes statistics on the operation of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 within central government, including on timeliness and the number of requests rejected by each government department. These reports can be accessed at the following webpage: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Champion is taking to ensure (a) improved engagement and (b) increased promotion rates of under-represented groups.

Matthew Hancock

To govern modern Britain, the Civil Service needs to look and sound likemodern Britain. We need access to the broadest possible pool of talent, drawing on peoplefrom all backgrounds and all parts of the country.

We have published the Talent Action Plan which introduced the ‘Removing Barriers to Success’ programme’, overseen by the Diversity and Inclusion Champion, Sue Owen. We have introduced Shared Parental Leave, launched the Civil Service Job Share Finder and made sure all-male shortlists and selection panels for senior positions are by exception only. We are also increasing the number of places on our development programme aimed at disabled, BAME and LGB&T Civil Servants from 200 to 1000.

We are also implementing a number of initiatives to recruit individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds onto the Fast Stream and Fast Track Apprenticeship schemes, including internship programmes, schools and colleges mentoring and discovery days, work experience programmes and engagement with universities with a high representation of lower socio-economic students.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-22.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Government Digital Service plans to publish its business plan for 2015-16.

Matthew Hancock

The Government Digital Service will set out its business plan after the spending review.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate he has made of efficiency savings arising from his Department’s digital strategies in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.

Mr Edward Vaizey

DCMS has made significant savings by working with the Government Digital Service to streamline it’s IT services, in line with other Government departments. Cabinet Office and DCMS now share a technology platform for common technology systems, which has allowed the Department to reduce its annual running IT costsfrom £3.79 million to £1.75 million – a saving of over £2 million per year (this does not include capital costs or costs associated with DCMS specific business systems or projects.) Due to costs associated with adapting to the new system, savings in 2014-15 were approximately a third of that.