Tag: Tom Watson

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on how many occasions ministerial authorisation has been granted for expenditure which exceeded his Department’s internal efficiency control thresholds for (a) advertising, marketing and communications, (b) consultancy and (c) external recruitment; and what the (i) purpose and (ii) value of any such agreed expenditure has been in the last 12 months.

Elizabeth Truss

The Department for Education has its own internal efficiency controls thresholds and complies with the Cabinet Office controls.

1. Advertising, Marketing and Communications expenditure above the Departmental threshold of £100,000 is submitted to Efficiency and Reform Group at Cabinet Office for final clearance.

2. Consultancy expenditure above £20,000 (and is a new contract expected to exceed 9 months, an existing contract to be extended beyond 9 months or is expenditure for procurement related consultancy) is submitted to Cabinet Office for final clearance.

3. Cabinet Office is not directly involved in recruitment approvals.

The approved expenditure requests which have exceeded Departmental thresholds are published on a quarterly basis on the Department’s website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/approved-exemptions-to-the-efficiency-controls

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether a research analyst is advising his Department on the deployment of remotely piloted aircraft systems.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

No.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, 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 Shailesh Vara

In the financial years 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14 no duplicate supplier payments were made; all duplicate invoices were stopped before payment and therefore no recovery action was necessary. In 2010/11 duplicate payments totalling £8,964.35 were made. This represents a small proportion, 0.039%, of the total number of duplicate payments invoiced over the four year period. It is possible that this entire amount was recovered, however, disproportionate cost would be incurred in determining this.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many transactions were made by each (a) Minister and (b) official in his Department on government procurement cards held by his Department in the last financial year; and what the cost, date and reasons for each such transaction was.

Elizabeth Truss

Government Procurement Card transactions over £500 are published on: http://data.gov.uk/dataset/gpc-spend-dfe

Information on transactions below that level is not held centrally and could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-09.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance he has issued to local authorities about the use of (a) Twitter and (b) other social media to communicate with the public.

Kris Hopkins

Digital and social media are an effective and low-cost way of communicating with the public.

This Government has amended the law to strengthen the rights of the press and public to report and film council meetings using digital and social media. In August 2014, we published a plain English guide to help councils, the press and the public with these new rights.

We made clear that there is no prohibition on councillors from tweeting and blogging at meetings, and they should be able to do so provided it is not disruptive and does not detract from the proper conduct of the meeting.

Local authorities should have regard to the local government Publicity Code, which seeks to prevent the misuse of taxpayer-funded resources, including social media.

Notwithstanding, last June, Ministers challenged and criticised guidance to parish councils issued by the National Association of Local Councils (NALC) that sought to prevent elected councillors from issuing media comments without prior written permission of the council. NALC has now produced a new Media Policy Example that takes into account the new national rules on filming and recording at parish and town council meetings.

In December, we invited bids for local pilots to bring statutory notices into the 21^st Century. This could include supporting the increased use of digital and social media by councils and commercial partners, as one of the ways that such notices could be improved and reformed.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, 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.

Dr Andrew Murrison

My Department does not hold records of duplicate supplier payments. The system currently operating in the Northern Ireland Office registers invoice numbers and will not allow two invoices with the same reference number to be paid. To manually search through the invoices received and paid from 2010 to date would incur disproportionate cost.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will place in the Library copies of the Property Data Survey Programme results for schools in Sandwell local authority area.

Mr David Laws

The Property Data Survey is due to complete by September 2014. We are currently sharing the initial findings with schools and responsible bodies to validate them.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Strategic Defence and Security Review will address the issues identified in Joint Doctrinal Note 2/11, the UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems.

Michael Fallon

The next Strategic Defence and Security Review will be a matter for after the General Election.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, 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.

David Mundell

The Scotland Office has made no duplicate supplier payments since 2010.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tom Watson on 2014-06-25.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 19 October 2013, Official Report, column 235W, on billing, what the value was of duplicate supplier payments identified by his Department’s audit; and what proportion of such payments have since been recovered.

Elizabeth Truss

The Department’s spend recovery audit contractor has identified a small number of duplicate payments (excluding Executive Agencies). In 2012/13 there were 12 duplicate payments and in 2013/14 there was one. Any duplicate payments that have been identified and already recovered in previous years would not have been picked up in this audit.

The value of these duplicate payments is £110,527 over the five years audited. The audit was completed in April 2014 and we have recovered £40,256 (36%) of the total amount, with the remainder being subject to an ongoing recovery process by the contractor. We expect the contractor to pursue the remaining recovery action quickly.

In addition to the recovery work currently being undertaken, the Department has brought in other measures to minimise the risk of duplicate payments. From August 2013, arrangements for grants payments are dealt with by a central grants payment team. More recently, we have implemented the use of a unique reference number (URN) to reduce the risk of inaccurate grant payments and improve management information. The Department also ensures that finance guidance is updated as appropriate to ensure risks are minimised and we have regular discussions with our shared service provider about continuous improvements, which includes measures such as routine supplier data cleansing and clear protocols.