Every parliamentary written question tabled by Richard Holden this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 2,161–2,180 of 2,863 · this parliament
How many civil servants in her Department have been disciplined for (a) plagiarism and (b) making false statements on a CV when applying for a job in the latest 12 month period for which figures are available.
HM Treasury has not taken any formal disciplinary action against any of its civil servants for plagiarism or making factually incorrect statements in a CV or a job application in the last 12 months.
Pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2025 to Question 29153 on Ministry of Justice: Equality, which company provided the EDI course; and what the title was of the course.
The “Creating inclusive Virtual Teams” course is procured through the Government Learning Framework provided via KPMG.
Whether Mitie is eligible for additional funding through Government contracts for the increase in employers' National Insurance contributions.
Allocation of employers’ National Insurance contributions support funding is administrated in line with the method used under the Health and Social Care levy.This funding has been allocated to departments, with the Barnett formula applying in the usual way. It is down to individual departments on how to use that support funding in mitigating their increased employers’ National Insurance contributions costs.The Government plans to publish individual departments’ allocations as part of Mains estimates.
Innovation and Technology, what steps he is taking to implement the recommendations of the Independent Pornography Review to help tackle the availability of violent online pornography.
The Online Safety Act requires services which publish or host user-generated pornographic content to prevent children from accessing it using highly effective age assurance. Extreme pornography is a priority offence under the Act, requiring services to proactively mitigate and remove this illegal content on their platforms.The government published the final report of the Independent Pornography Review on 27 February 2025 and issued an initial statement in response addressing the important issues it raised. It is right that the government takes time to understand this complex yet deeply important topic. A further update will be provided in due course.
What estimate he has made of the cost of office solutions across central government; and what framework agreements exist for office stationery and paper.
Value for money in public procurement is essential for the efficient use of government resources. The Cabinet Office does not hold a central estimate of office solution costs. However, public sector organisations can benefit from procuring office supplies through the Crown Commercial Service's RM6299 Office Solutions agreement. This framework covers various products, including stationery and paper, and streamlines procurement processes ensuring access to competitive pricing.
Innovation and Technology, what his planned timeline is for responding to the Sullivan Review.
The government has now published the independent review of data, statistics and research on sex and gender commissioned by the previous government.Given the wide breadth of recommendations, the government has ensured that the review has been shared with all the relevant departments and policy teams, who will consider the findings in light of their ongoing policy work.
Pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2025 to Question 31991 on Public Expenditure, what definition her Department uses of (a) a saving and (b) efficiency for the purpose of the 5% target; and whether cancelling programme spend is classified as a saving.
The Government uses the Government Efficiency Framework to distinguish between efficiencies and savings.The cancellation of a programme would classify as a saving.
What diversity network time is available to staff at HM Revenue and Customs.
I refer the Right Hon. Member to the answer given by Lord Spencer Livermore in HL1114 which references the diversity network time available to staff at HM Revenue and Customs.
Pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2025 to Question 32970 on Government Departments: Consultants, if she will list the outturn figures for the spending on consultancy in each of the financial years from 2017-18 to 2022-23.
Outturn figures for consultancy spending from the government’s Online System for Central Accounting and Reporting II (OSCAR II) are contained within datasets that are published as part of the OSCAR Annual Release. For financial years 2019-20 to 2022-23, these can be accessed via the November 2024 OSCAR annual release here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oscar-ii-publishing-raw-data-from-the-database For financial year 2018-19, these can be accessed via the November 2023 OSCAR annual release here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oscar-ii-publishing-raw-data-from-the-database For financial year 2017-18, these can be accessed via the November 2021 OSCAR annual release here:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/oscar-annual-release-november-2021 In compiling the baseline referenced in Question 32970, the estimate was calculated to exclude consultancy spending in previous years by the Devolved Governments, as they are responsible for their own consultancy budgets. Spending data is taken from the chart of accounts name “EXP – PURCHASE OF GOODS/SERVICES – CONSULTANCY”.
With reference to section 2, action 1 of his Department's policy paper entitled New approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth, published on 17 March 2025, what methodology his Department plans to use to measure the monetary cost of regulation; and whether this is a (a) gross cost and (b) net cost offset by the benefits of regulation.
The government has committed to cut the administrative costs of regulation to business by 25% by the end of this Parliament. To do this, we must determine the cumulative administrative costs of regulation that businesses face, which has not been done for 15 years. By focusing on reducing administrative costs, we will ensure that regulations achieve their policy objectives in the most efficient way possible with the lowest possible costs to business.My department is working with others across Whitehall to determine the best approach to do this and will provide further updates in due course.
Whether the Office for Value for Money has made an assessment of the use of non-scheduled flights for foreign travel.
The Office for Value for Money has an immediate focus on supporting value for money decisions surrounding the spending review, including developing efficiency targets and plans, scrutinising investment proposals and conducting VfM studies. It will also recommend system reforms. Non-scheduled flights for foreign travel do not currently fall within the remit of the OVfM.
Pursuant to the Answer of 31 October 2024 to Question 11277on Treasury: USA, whether the flights for that journey were carbon offset; and at what cost.
Carbon emissions, including for flight travel, will be published later in the year in the Sustainability Report section of HM Treasury 2024-25 Annual Report and Accounts. This will be published at the following link. HMT annual report and accounts - GOV.UK
What assessment she has made of the potential impact of unregulated online pornography on violence against women and girls.
The Government published the final report of the Independent Pornography Review on 27 February 2025 and issued an initial statement in response addressing the important issues it raised. . The findings of the Review continue to be assessed by the Government, including as part of our work to halve Violence Against Women and Girls in a decade, and a further update will be provided in due course.Already, from 17 March 2025 services in scope of the Online Safety Act must take action to tackle illegal pornographic content. By July 2025, all services that allow pornography will also need to have highly effective age-checks in place to protect children from accessing it.
What guidance (a) her Department and (b) HM Revenue and Customs has produced on income tax liability where employees claim expenses for personal gifts (i) with and (ii) without the employer’s knowledge of that gift.
The normal rules for employment-related benefits apply to employment-related gifts, as set out in HMRC’s guidance at www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim20020 There is an exemption for small gifts received by employees costing a total of £250 or less per year to provide, HMRC guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim21715 No tax relief is available for the purchase of personal gifts by employees under the normal rules for employment expenses, HMRC guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/employment-income-manual/eim31630
Representing the House of Commons Commission, how many copies of The Morning Star are purchased by the House of Commons each day.
The House of Commons purchases five copies of the Morning Star each day. These are made available in different locations around the Estate.
Media and Sport, what artworks owned by (a) the Government Art Collection and (b) her Department have been removed from public display from her Department's offices since 5 July 2024.
The Government Art Collection is a working collection, used across government buildings in the UK and the global estate, which means that artworks may change their display location from time to time in response to new display steers and requests.
Whether his Department has issued guidance on the use of Departmental premises for speeches by Ministers.
Any use of departmental premises by Ministers for speeches should be an appropriate use of government resources.
Whether (a) Ministers and (b) special advisers from her Department (i) met and (ii) took hospitality from senior executives from TikTok at the Labour Party Conference in 2024.
Both Ministers and special advisers are required to regularly publish information on the meetings that they have taken and the hospitality that they have received. These publications can be found on gov.uk.
How many new (a) executive agencies, (b) non-departmental public bodies, (c) public corporations and (d) publicly-owned companies (i) have been established since 4 July 2024 and (ii) are due to be established.
As said in my previous answer of 8 January 2025, the Cabinet Office maintains records and oversight of formally established arm’s-length bodies, including executive agencies, non-ministerial departments and non-departmental public bodies. No ALBs have been formally established since 4 July 2024. Records for public corporations and publicly-owned companies are held at departmental level.
What her Department's budget is for translation into foreign languages in the (a)2024-25 and (b) 2025-26 financial year.
The budget for translation services in the 2024-25 financial year was £2,911,000.While budgets are not set at the level of individual contracts, the figure represents the planned spend by HM Prison and Probation Service under its translation and transcription contract with an external provider.We are unable to provide an equivalent figure for 2025-26 as budgets have not yet been set at that level of detail.