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 staff time saved as a result of bringing transactional services offered by the Government online in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015.
Matthew Hancock
This information is not held centrally.
The Cabinet Office has helped government save £1.7billion overall through digital and technology transformation in 2014/15, an increase from £978m in 2013/14.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-23.
To ask the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington representing the House of Commons Commission, if the Commission will review the right of access for the City of London Remembrancer to the Chamber of the House.
Tom Brake
I understand that the Remembrancer is one of some 17 Roll A Parliamentary Agents who work with the promoters of private Bills. Parliamentary Agents are permitted to observe proceedings from the Under Gallery in the Chamber, that is, the visitors’ seats “under the gallery” facing the Speaker, for the purposes of their work. Other visitors may also sometimes sit in the Under Gallery.
Access to the Chamber and its surroundings is not a matter for the Commission.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2015-10-26.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent assessment he has made of his Department’s performance in adhering to the statutory time limit for responding to Freedom of Information requests.
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 2015-10-22.
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate he has made of efficiency savings arising from his Department’s digital strategies in (a) 2013-14 and (b) 2014-15.
Joseph Johnson
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) aims to build digital services that are simpler, clearer and faster to use. In 2013-14 and 2014-15 BIS took the lead in developing five exemplar “digital by default”projects. These focused on transforming key areas in which BIS engages with the public: student finance, Land Registry data, renewing patents, redundancy payments and apprenticeships. By the end of 2014-15 all five BIS digital exemplars were either live or in trial(“beta”) use.
Each of these is starting to bring significant benefits. For example, each year there are around 400,000 transactions for renewals of patents. The new digital patent renewal service allows patent owners and agents to complete the renewal process online in just a few minutes whereas the older, paper based service took up to 6 days to process.
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:
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.