Live Cabinet Office Questions House of Commons

round-up of the Cabinet officer's questions, Ben Gummer. Second

reading. Wednesday the 29th of March at 4pm. Thank you, orator. Questions

to the Minister for the Cabinet office and the Chancellor of the

Duchy of Lancaster. Cyber attacks are growing with more frequent,

sophisticated and damaging. The Government will ensure that it

protects all its services and products from cybercrime and will

ensure that all systems are designed with cyber security and appropriate

purposes described in place. I am grateful to the Minister for that

answer, but I wonder if he can be assured of it further that the

strategy puts more and more of our data online, or a tax is on her

health and so on, but none of that data will be at risk of ending up in

the wrong hands? I am very grateful to the right honourable gentleman

for making the point. It is central to what we are doing to ensure that

we are protecting not only the information that Government requires

to keep confidential, but as importantly, citizens as well. That

is partly why the website has been designed so it protects citizens'

data in the enquiry is that the make of Government. Thank you, Mr

Speaker. Last night, I had a very pleasant evening with Doctor Helen

Stokes Lampard who is chairman of the Royal commerce of general

practitioners and is my own personal GP from Lichfield. She was telling

me that NHS data on patients will now go to be clouds at the system

will work, of course, because there will be individual programmes that

will access it, but how secure will be quoted be? Look like my

honourable friend has doctors in high places. They would say to him

is that for a specific enquiries about NHS digital services, his

question should be directed to be secretary of state. I will ensure

that you receive a proper reply from him. Our purpose is to make sure

that we have the most secure Government information systems

anywhere in the world and that is what lies behind the Government

transformation strategy and the cyber strategy as well. The

Government's strategy on big data is the wrong way around. It

concentrates on big organisations with a central repository of data

over people, when it should be an empowering state where individuals

have control over their own data, not helped by big organisations.

Concerning the Government, it is the latter that we are seeking to

achieve. That is why it has been built as it has. It is important

that citizens have complete faith in needed to help that the Government

and if you're able to interrogate it in a way that is helpful to them.

Could my honourable friend update the house on what action he is

seeking to make sure businesses are aware of their responsibilities,

particularly those that to trade with Government on cyber security so

that businesses and Government are safe. I am grateful to my honourable

friend for a reading important matter. I'd direct business is to

look at the cyber essentials Pack which is on the national cyber

Security Centre 's website. That gives the essentials of what

business is candid protect themselves. It is the purpose of

this to make sure that businesses who work with Government are dear to

the same standards of cyber security that the Government expects of

itself. I shall, with your permission, Mr Speaker, answer this

question and the next few questions together. I published a policy Simon

on the 3rd of March seeking feedback from interested parties by the 26th

of May. I want to reflect the experiences of domestic abuse

survivors of it are more easily exercise the right of old. This will

help ensure we have a democracy that works for everyone. -- right to

vote. We want to make it better for men and women who have suffered

domestic abuse. Those men and women registering anonymously will not be

on the electoral register? Names and addresses do not appear on the

electoral register as a result of the application to register

anonymously. The Government is opposing to make it easier for an

applicant to demonstrate the safety by expanding the type of documentary

evidence that is required. As part of the consultation process, we are

looking at every point of contact that survivors of domestic abuse,

cross to make sure that the exercise their right to vote. I warmly

welcome the efforts to make it easier for victims of domestic abuse

to register to vote, I have the all-important right to be hard. This

has been raised in my surgeries of victims who have survived domestic

abuse. One part of the plan is to reduce the number of testers by

lowering the scenery team of police and social services and possibly

expanding the number, will be Cheney are guidelines provided to help the

money are called on to adjudicate in a specific case? I would like to

thank the honourable friend for her question. The Cabinet will be

working with any relevant bodies to provide the relevant guidance

required. I commend the work the Government has done with women's's

aid and other organisations. Others continue to ensure all types of

abuse are heard at the ballot box? I've worked closely with these

organisations over the past few months to explore what can be done

to improve the anonymous registration process. To look

forward to continuing this work with them and other domestic abuse

charities going forward. In a 26 years before I was a Member of

Parliament, I worked in the field of domestic abuse and I wanted as the

Minister if you would make sure that he considers the scent of which

domestic abuse perpetrators will go in their efforts to track down their

victims, often for many months and years after the religion offended?

Thank you for your contribution and her contribution any field of

domestic violence work. Absolutely right, that will mimic at this

particular issue of domestic abuse survivors, not just for five years,

but for the rest of their life, we must ensure that when they have the

right to vote, they are protected. We will carry that work forward as

part of the consultation process and I would welcome any contribution,

given her expertise, that she would like to make. It is great that the

Government is showing bureaucratic flexibility to help domestic abuse

victims doubled, but this flexibility should be brought into

order. Will the Government build register to vote links into all its

online service applications pages? With a of years, we have introduced

the ability to ability to register to vote online, that has been highly

successful would 24 million people taking that opportunity. As part of

our engagement strategy published in the summer, I'm keen to look at the

issue of Digital democracy, where it can work, and what to do with other

departments to ensure that we have these points of contact and remove

the get the user, we based the registration I read the user

themselves. I will be going forward doing exactly that. Will the

Minister ensure that where victims of the domestic abuse who are

severely traumatised and have had difficulty applying for proxy or

postal votes, the utmost secrecy is applied in future? The honourable

gentleman is absolutely right. We need to ensure that we learn from

the experiences of domestic abuse survivors and that that particular

journey and ensure that women have the registration process, it works

for these women and when we look at the point of contact, we provide the

support they need going forwards. Obviously welcome that the

Government seeks to protect the voting rights of domestic violence

survivors by making anonymity easier. As with the announcement of

a one off cash injection for specialist refugees, though much

more than that is needed. You cannot usually vote if you have no fixed

abode and the truth is, Women's Aid are estimating that one in six of

all specialist refugees closed since 2010. And children and 150 women

today are unable to find a specialist refugee. With the ensure

that the inter-ministerial group no addresses between the central

questions of providing sustainable funding for refugees and ensuring

it, but is comprehensive plan for every refugee in the country? We

have increased funding when it comes to looking at women's refuges. But

by Minister has said that she will make women's issues one priority.

When it comes to the issue of registration, let me be clear, this

issue came to me through Women's Aid, through a Lady who herself was

a survivor of domestic abuse. She fought bravely and put her name out

there any public domain to campaign for other women. There are

potentially 12,000 other women who cannot by virtue of the

circumstances take that step to vote and we are determined to make sure

we give them their boat and voice to heard. With your permission, Mr

Speaker, I would like to answer this question and question of four

together. This matter, Weller falls within the response ability of HM

RIC, I am pleased to confirm that the Cabinet office and HMR is the

officials are working together to deal with the issue of national

insurance others, including notification letters. Any steps to

improve voter registration have to be welcomed. With the Minister not

agree that a cost-effective method of improving border registration

would be better with automatic vote registration? The Government has

been very clear in its determination to ensure that we have individual

electoral registration. Voting is not just the right, it is a

responsibility. I am delighted that when it comes looking at

16-year-olds registering to vote, it has increased by 17.7%.

The national insurance registration process is one way of doing that,

but there are other methods. Online voting, as one of them. When I

pressed the Cabinet Office on this, I was told there would be a plan by

the spring. It is no spring. We've is the plan? Spring is indeed

sprung. We will be publishing the plan shortly. We are committed to

ensuring we have a democracy that works for everybody. We welcome the

government commitment look at voting registration through national

insurance numbers. Will the government commit to supporting an

amendment from the other place on the higher education will to

register all students on campus? Yesterday, I met with the Baroness

to discuss this. I have been working with universities for several

months. We are looking at other universities beginning to introduce

it. It is rate we make it easier for electoral registration to work with

universities which is why we are looking closely at this process.

Number seven. The government is conducting an efficiency review. The

Chief Secretary and I are leading the review. The Cabinet Office

function will support and offer expertise to cut waste and

inefficiency. What progress has been made with the civil departmental

delivery plan across every part of government and how these cost

savings and government initiatives can help deliver what we promised in

the manifesto? This is only the first time in the history of

government plans we have done this. It is exciting. We are a leading the

plans for an efficiency review. We are going to play in government with

money at the same time, as well. The overspend in Swansea has been ?1.2

billion. There are so many and infrastructure projects

overspending. What is a government going to do to ensure that these

major projects are not going over budget? The rich rigorously look at

the spend on these, which is why many of the over budget projects

have been reduced. I hope the bigger projects coming all will be better

frame than they have been in previous years. The United Kingdom

is recognised as a world leader in transparency. We have published an

unprecedented amount of data, including about the workings of

government. We intend to do a lot more. Would motivate honourable

friend outline how the government is supporting best practice to be the

best and most transparent government in the world. We must learn from

each other. That is why we are part of the open government community. We

will continue to learn from each other, including from others within

the G20. Should transparency beginner or warm and if so, breeders

and their response to my letter in his department from the 19th of

December, because I am yet to receive a response? I apologise if

we have not responded. It is important to me that we respond

quickly and courteously to all members. I will make sure she gets a

response. I look forward to the final stages of my own Private

members Bill which is pushing for public access to local audit

information. But will reappear transparency at all levels of

government and do the agree it is a crucial step to increasing trust? It

was Margaret Thatcher who made it possible for local councils to

conduct their dealings in public, something which we know take for

granted. We need to improve if we're going to improve the trust between

the people and the public bodies. I asked the Secretary of State for

Scotland for how many meetings they have had with the Chancellor of the

Exchequer. His answer was that he has lots of meetings. But the

details were not disclosed. With the minister agree that the lack of

transparency in that answer is a disgrace? The Secretary of State is

on the bench. You could discuss it further with them. I know he has

almost discussions every day with the Chancellor with regard to

Scotland. That is why there was an additional ?350 million for Scotland

within the budget, showing the advantages of Scotland's theme

within the United Kingdom. Number nine. The Cabinet will help fund the

registration of the electoral process. On behalf of the electoral

commission, Edwards said that the levels of funding seeing that half

of the local authorities say they have insufficient funds to maintain

the electoral register. As the Minister not worried by that

statistic and, if so, what other government going to do about it? We

are committed to helping local authorities covering the cost of

upkeep in the electoral register. Newcastle received ?145,000 in

funding for that very matter. With an applicant 's identity cannot be

identified in the first place, there are a number of ways we would

support the application. Last year, it was reported that more than 25%

of people knew the national insurance number. What assessment

has been made with regard to registration? When it comes to the

registration process, the electoral commission reported that we have a

record 47.3 million people on the electoral register. 24 million

people have used the application online using the national insurance

number. There are alternatives. It works very effectively. Topical

questions for the Cabinet Office and the Duchy of Lancaster. The Cabinet

Office is the centre of government and responsible for the constitution

and helping the government deliver public services. The House of Lords

as amended the higher education Bill. What is the Minister going to

do to assist the process of electoral registration within

universities? As I stated earlier, i-mate to discuss the amendment and

I'm committed to ensuring that more students can register more easily.

The Cabinet Office funded the pilot in Sheffield in the first place and

we are determined to carry on the work. What steps are the Cabinet

Office taking to eliminate fraud and put in place standards? They were

savings of ?730 million in the years 2015-16. The ministerial code

clearly states that former ministers should report before any appointment

and should not be able to report retrospectively. Can the minister

explained why he gave different advice to the house during his

response to the urgent question on Monday? Was that a mistake or a

convenient change of heart within the space of a week? I think the

honourable gentleman has made this point clear. They will consider all

the evidence. It is important they do so without me prejudicing the

decision by commenting on it. There is excessive noise. It is very

discordant. Does my right honourable friend agree that we should strive

to be as efficient as possible and, to that end, should we prioritise

the interests of the people rather than vanity projects? The Liberal

Democrats in Cornwall are not trying to use the money state programme to

set up, which is what was set up to save money so it would help front

line services. The honourable gentleman is right not responsible

for what happens with an Cornwall. The response of a British attitude

survey shows that only one quarter of people trust the government use

of statistics. I was concerned that he would be by that. We need to make

sure the independence of our statistics machine, which other

countries look to us for advice, is shown to the public to be the best

in the world, which I believe it is. Can my right honourable friend

update the house on the progress being made on the race disparity

audit? We have made considerable progress. We will be able to release

the results later this year. It will be a moment of reckoning for this

country as we face up to the very serious challenges we have ahead of

us in making sure everyone has an equal opportunity over regardless of

the background. ?200,000 of electoral spending was omitted from

returns. An unwillingness to cooperate with the electoral

commission. But the Conservatives can just shrug this off. Does the

Minister agree there should have been a bigger punishment for the

Conservatives breaking election spending rules? On this rule, the

electoral commission have taken action against all parties across

the political divide. Going forward, but it looks party funding, we have

to make sure we keep control of them. We have to make sure this is

transparent. There's far too much noise taking place. What steps as is

a department seeking to maximise opportunities for United Kingdom

industry? Does he have any get idea of how procurement guidelines are

bidding down? We have brought in new guidelines to make sure we can

support the United Kingdom steel industry. I will give the results

quite shortly of how we have progressed so far. Thank you. With

the Minister say that his views on digital culture should not be

listened to, given his close relationship with a new editor of

the London standout? My friend will make his own decisions about his

ministerial future and I believe it is wrong to use the hose to make

that sort of comment. How does he intend to expand the one public

state initiative? It is an opportunity to create better

services for our residents. This will not only allow us to save costs

which can be used on the front line, but it means public services will be

simpler for the citizens to be dealt with because they are situated on

one place. Questions to the Prime Minister.

I would like to express my condolences to the family and

colleagues of the former First Minister of Northern Ireland, Martin

We do not condone the path he took in the first period of his life.

However, he played an indispensable role in bringing the republican

movement away from violence to peaceful and democratic means and to

building a better Northern Ireland. This morning I had meetings with

ministerial colleagues and others and in addition to my duties in this

has, I shall have further such meetings later today. The Prime

Minister says that