The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-07-20.
To ask the Prime Minister, whether she has made any further machinery of government changes since her Written Ministerial Statement of 18 July 2016.
Mrs Theresa May
Machinery of Government changes are set out in Written Statements, and are available in the Official Report.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-02.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many applications from former special advisers of his Office have been received under the business appointment rules for civil servants since 13 July 2016.
Ben Gummer
Under the Business Appointment Rules, applications by former special advisers in the Prime Minister’s office are the responsibility of the Cabinet Office. The Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary takes decisions on any such applications, taking account of the advice of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments in respect of the most senior appointees. A List of the advisory committees is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/advisory-committee-on-business-appointments
Summary details of applications from special advisers equivalent to SCS1 and above are published.
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-09-08.
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many officials of his Department work in the Propriety and Ethics team.
Ben Gummer
Transparency data on Cabinet Office staffing can be found online at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-staff-and-salary-data-as-at-31-march-2016
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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2016-10-21.
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions she has had with the games industry on the potential effects on that industry of the UK leaving the EU.
Matt Hancock
We have ongoing, detailed discussions with the Games industry and others on all matters, including the UK leaving the EU. The Games industry is represented on the Creative Industries Council, which met on the 27th October 2016.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 4 February 2015 to Question 222429, whether any of the RAF personnel in Afghanistan support RPAS operations.
Mr Mark Francois
No RAF personnel in Afghanistan are supporting Remotely Piloted Air Systems operations.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-07-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the value is of duplicate supplier payments identified by her Department since 2010; and what proportion of such payments have since been recovered in each of the last two financial years.
Dan Rogerson
Core Defra has controls in place to prevent duplicate payments being made to suppliers. These include careful checking of each invoice against evidence of delivery and against any previous payments in respect of the relevant purchase order. External and internal audit reviews of key financial controls have found no evidence of weakness that would lead to duplicate payments. There are also regular reviews of expenditure against budgets which would quickly bring to light unexpected payments and would lead to immediate action for recovery.
Core Defra is carrying out a Spend Recovery Audit, as part of a Cabinet Office initiative on fraud and error which we expect to conclude by Autumn 2014.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, which post or team in his Department is responsible for the application of remotely piloted aircraft systems.
Mr Mark Francois
There is no one person or team responsible for the application or deployment of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS). The decision to deploy RPAS is taken by Ministers following advice provided by senior personnel, both military and civilian, across the Department.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-07-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, 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 David Lidington
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not hold all of the required data centrally and could not answer this question in full without incurring disproportionate costs. However, we recently investigated duplicate supplier payments for the eight month period from April to November 2013 and identified just one duplicate invoice, with a value of £2,501. Our financial control system prevented any payment being made. The FCO has several controls in place to prevent duplicate payments.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-10.
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2015 to Question 222435, what the (a) rank, (b) function and (c) location is of the five personnel from the UK Reaper Force on loan service to US Forces.
Mr Mark Francois
There are four Flight Lieutenant Instructors at 49th Operations Group, Holloman Air Force Base. There is also one Flight Lieutenant at 53rd Test and Evaluation Group, Creech Air Force Base in a test and evaluation role. None of the five personnel on loan are conducting operational mission flying.
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-07-15.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, 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.
Dr Daniel Poulter
The Department checks for duplicate supplier payments as part of the business as usual processes within the finance team. As part of the internal process checks the Department has identified the value of duplicate supplier payments since 2010 as £1,287,260.31.
The proportion of such payments the Department has recovered following these internal checks in each of the last two financial years is as follows:
(i) Payments for 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013 – £325,456.94 – of which 100% has been recovered based on the internal processes.
(ii) Payments for 1 April 2013 to 31 March 2014 – £282,198.56 – of which 100% has been recovered based on the internal processes.
For completeness, in the financial year 2010-11 the value of such payments was £510,599.10 of which 99.7% was recovered, and in financial year 2011-12 the value of such payments was £169,005.71 of which 98.6% was recovered.
Further investigations are taking place into duplicate payments made as part of a Spend Recovery Audit that the Department has commissioned externally and we will seek to recover any further duplicates identified as part of this exercise.