Tag: Tom Watson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-07-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he plans to take to improve performance in his Department of handling correspondence from hon. Members and Peers.

Ben Gummer

The prompt response to correspondence from both Members of Parliament/Peers and the public is of high importance to the Department, and is a personal priority for me. We aim to respond to all correspondence within 15 working days.

Our last published statistics for the calendar year 2015 were at 70%, far below our preferred level of 90%. We are trialling new reforms to improve our response rate, such as more comprehensive statistics per unit within the Department, and board-level scrutiny of monthly statistics.

The Guidance on handling correspondence from Members of Parliament, Peers, MEPs and Members of devolved Administrations was updated in March 2016

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/handling-government-correspondence-guidance

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-02.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which former Deputy Prime Ministers have claimed expenses under the Public Duty Cost Allowance after leaving office.

Ben Gummer

The purpose of the Public Duties Cost Allowance is to assist former Prime Ministers with the costs of continuing to fulfil duties associated with their previous position in public life. Exceptionally, the then Prime Minister agreed that the former Deputy Prime Minister , the Rt Hon Member for Sheffield Hallam, should be able to have access to the allowance to recognise the special position he held in the Coalition Government. Other former Deputy Prime Ministers are not eligible for the allowance. The allowance is set at a maximum limit of £115,000 per annum. The amounts paid are a reimbursement of expenses, accounted for in the published Cabinet Office Annual Reports and Accounts. The former Deputy Prime Minister is eligible for the allowance from the date of leaving ministerial office for the duration of this Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-08.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 22 July 2016 to Question 43066, on Cabinet Office: Ministerial policy advisers, whether his Department has now calculated the information requested in that Question on severance pay.

Ben Gummer

This information will be published in due course, as part of the full and detailed list of special advisers, salary bands and total pay bill costs.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-13.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to ensure that parliamentary questions are answered in full where the requested information is already available.

Ben Gummer

Ministers are responsible for the answers they give to Parliamentary questions. The practice of providing links or references to published material is long standing. There are currently no plans to update the Guidance to Departments on drafting answers to Parliamentary questions given it was previously updated in the last Parliament.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-01-14.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 7 November 2014 to Question 213733, if he will seek the agreement of the US administration to release a copy of the current revised Reaper Agreement.

Mr Mark Francois

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 17 November 2014 to Question 213733. We will discuss possible release with the US once the Memorandum Of Understanding has been agreed and finalised.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the value is of duplicate supplier payments identified by his Department since 2010; and what proportion of such payments have since been recovered in each of the last two financial years.

Kris Hopkins

In my Department’s publication “50 ways to save”, we asserted that councils could save money by conducting audits of potential duplicate payments and reforming accounts payable processes. This was based on research by Experian of both local and central government bodies.

In the answer by my hon. Friend, the Member for Great Yarmouth (Brandon Lewis) of 5 November 2013, Official Report, Column 145W, it was noted how our Department has itself undertaken such best practice, and had duly recovered £61,301 of taxpayers’ money from twenty duplicate payments for the period May 2010 to October 2013, apart from a sum of £257 which was not recoverable from three payments. A further £32,000 was recovered from historic duplicate payments made between 2006 and 2009. I also would note there were £7,018 of duplicate payments from January to April 2010.

Since that answer, our ongoing internal processes have identified a further £7,492 from four transactions from November 2013 to March 2014, all of which have been recovered thanks to our strengthened checks.

We have previously commissioned business analytics and information services firm, PRGX, to carry out a full spend-recovery audit on our accounts payable system and help us further improve and reform administrative practices. PRGX’s audit report has subsequently noted that 99.999% of the transaction value reviewed was processed correctly, and that: "DCLG have been effective in limiting supplier overpayments. The low rate of errors identified by the audit and statement request process indicates the current processes and controls continue to limit supplier overpayments."

This sizeable saving endorses what we said in “50 ways to save”: regularly checking for duplicate payments and putting systematic checks in place is a common-sense way of saving taxpayers’ money in both local and central government.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether any staff of her Department are engaged in considering the effects of drone strikes on civilian populations as part of her Department’s work in the Middle East and North Africa.

Mr Desmond Swayne

In countries where DFID has humanitarian programmes, we monitor the general humanitarian situation in close communication with partners on the ground.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what the value is of duplicate supplier payments identified by his Department since 2010; and what proportion of such payments have since been recovered in each of the last two financial years.

Mrs Helen Grant

The value of duplicate supplier payments detected by the Department in each financial year since 2010 was:

Financial Year £

2010-11 £38,815.22

2011-12 £17,976.00

2012-13 NIL

2013-14 £26,481.10

All of these duplicate payments were detected by the Departments own financial control processes and recovered in full in the same financial year at no cost to the Department.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department will assess (a) the effect of drone strikes on civilian populations and (b) access to civilian compensation schemes as part of its humanitarian mission in Iraq and Syria.

Justine Greening

We are monitoring the impact of military operations on civilian populations in both Iraq and Syria and ensuring our humanitarian response is targeted to those most in need. To date, the UK has pledged £800 million in response to the humanitarian crisis in Syria and the region, and a further £39.5 million to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. Access to civilian compensation schemes is an MoD lead and therefore does not form part of our humanitarian mission.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-07-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the value is of duplicate supplier payments identified by his Department since 2010; and what proportion of such payments have since been recovered in each of the last two financial years.

Mr Philip Dunne

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has been able to distinguish between duplicate payments and other types of overpayment made to suppliers from financial year 2013-14. In that year, the total value of duplicate payments identified was £4.1 million, 100% of which has been recovered. Over the first quarter of 2014-15, we have identified duplicate payments to the value of £0.5 million of which 60% has so far been recovered. Prior to 2013-14 we were unable to distinguish duplicate supplier payments from other types of overpayments. However all overpayments have been recovered since 2010.

The MOD processes over four million invoices a year totalling some £26 billion. We review our bill payment processes and controls periodically to ensure that we achieve the required high standards of performance and governance and seek to recover overpayments made to suppliers as quickly as possible.