The National College for Creative Industries (NCCI) are currently consulting on their proposed partnership model. The model proposed would result in the NCCI company being responsible for the direction, brand and vision of the National College, and will discharge this responsibility through a board of directors, comprising representatives from the licensed partners and employers. As the NCCI are still at the consultation stage, no appointments have yet been made.

If, following consultation, the proposed partnership model is agreed by the NCCI board there will be no direct funding relationship with the new NCCI company.

The Electoral Commission set out their concerns and recommendations for implementation in their 2013 report ‘A regulatory review of the UK’s party and election finance laws: Recommendations for change’.

The Coalition Government took the decision not to implement the 2009 legislation, as it was not deemed to be workable, and the Conservative Government continues to hold this view.

During the passage of the 2009 Act, the Electoral Commission raised concerns about the legislation (further to Official Report, 15 October 2009, Col. 998W), and in 2013, the Electoral Commission also flagged issues about the tax status declaration requirements. The Labour Government conceded that the provisions could not be commenced at that time “due to their complex nature” (as outlined in the answer of Official Report, 10 March 2010, Col. 5MC).

An individual’s tax status is subject to confidentiality between them and HMRC. It may therefore be difficult or impossible for the political party and the Electoral Commission to accurately determine whether a donor meets the permissibility test set out section 10 in the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009.

The Government also has a principled objection to the measures:

• The UK has a robust legal framework in place that bans foreign donations. There is a long-standing principle – as originally recommended by the Committee on Standards in Public Life in 1998 – that permissible donors are those on the UK electoral register, and this includes UK citizens who are registered overseas electors. Companies wishing to make donations must be UK-registered and carrying on business in the UK.

• If a British citizen is able to vote in an election for a political party, they should also be able to donate to that political party, subject to the requirements for transparency on donations. Supporting a political party is part of the democratic process, and is an expression of freedom of association.

• Since the adoption of universal suffrage, taxation has never been the basis of enfranchisement in the UK. Those who do not pay income tax, such as those earning less than the tax-free personal allowance, rightly remain entitled to vote. Similarly, full-time students are legally exempt from paying council tax, but still have the right to vote in local elections.

Notwithstanding, as I stated in my previous answer, the Government has announced it will consult on strengthening the current provisions which protect UK politics from foreign influence. The consultation may consider recommendations on tackling loopholes in relation to foreign spending in elections and donations from shell companies which are not properly operating in the UK.

More broadly, since 2010, the Government has taken action to sanction and deter those involved in offshore evasion, including creating a new criminal offence for serious offshore evasion, and introducing penalties for those who deliberately help others to evade tax offshore. The Government has introduced over 100 new measures to tackle tax avoidance, evasion and non-compliance.

The Coalition Government took the decision not to implement the 2009 legislation, as it was not deemed to be workable, and the Conservative Government continues to hold this view.

During the passage of the 2009 Act, the Electoral Commission raised concerns about the legislation (further to Official Report, 15 October 2009, Col. 998W), and in 2013, the Electoral Commission also flagged issues about the tax status declaration requirements. The Labour Government conceded that the provisions could not be commenced at that time “due to their complex nature” (as outlined in the answer of Official Report, 10 March 2010, Col. 5MC).

An individual’s tax status is subject to confidentiality between them and HMRC. It may therefore be difficult or impossible for the political party and the Electoral Commission to accurately determine whether a donor meets the permissibility test set out section 10 in the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009.

The Government also has a principled objection to the measures:

• The UK has a robust legal framework in place that bans foreign donations. There is a long-standing principle – as originally recommended by the Committee on Standards in Public Life in 1998 – that permissible donors are those on the UK electoral register, and this includes UK citizens who are registered overseas electors. Companies wishing to make donations must be UK-registered and carrying on business in the UK.

• If a British citizen is able to vote in an election for a political party, they should also be able to donate to that political party, subject to the requirements for transparency on donations. Supporting a political party is part of the democratic process, and is an expression of freedom of association.

• Since the adoption of universal suffrage, taxation has never been the basis of enfranchisement in the UK. Those who do not pay income tax, such as those earning less than the tax-free personal allowance, rightly remain entitled to vote. Similarly, full-time students are legally exempt from paying council tax, but still have the right to vote in local elections.

Notwithstanding, as I stated in my previous answer, the Government has announced it will consult on strengthening the current provisions which protect UK politics from foreign influence. The consultation may consider recommendations on tackling loopholes in relation to foreign spending in elections and donations from shell companies which are not properly operating in the UK.

More broadly, since 2010, the Government has taken action to sanction and deter those involved in offshore evasion, including creating a new criminal offence for serious offshore evasion, and introducing penalties for those who deliberately help others to evade tax offshore. The Government has introduced over 100 new measures to tackle tax avoidance, evasion and non-compliance.

We continue to monitor the financial health of all of our strategic suppliers, including Kier

We remain in close communication with Kier’s management and will continue to discuss
their proposed strategy.

Successive Governments have considered section 10 of the Political Parties and Elections Act 2009 to be unworkable

There is already a robust legal framework in place to ensure only individuals that are registered on the electoral register and organisations that carry out business in the UK can
make donations to political organisations in the UK

In May this year, the Government announced it will consult on strengthening the current provisions which protect UK politics from foreign influence. The consultation may consider
recommendations on foreign spending in elections and donations from shell companies.

We remain in close communication with Kier’s management and will continue to discuss their proposed strategy. We continue to monitor the financial health of all of our strategic suppliers, including Kier. Kier has a large number of contracts across the private and public sector and we are confident they can continue to deliver quality public services.

One Public Estate is a programme delivered in partnership by the Office of Government
Property, within Cabinet Office, and the Local Government Association. The programme
currently employs 29 members of staff across the two organisations

The Office of Government Property employs 12 civil servants within the One Public Estate
programme, of which two are employed at 0.5 full time equivalent (FTE), equating to a total of 11 FTE posts. In addition, the programme is currently recruiting two vacant Office of Government Property posts.

The total staffing and IT costs for the One Public Estate programme in 2018/19 were
£1,882,195. The total staffing budget for 2019/20 is in the process of being confirmed.

At present there are nine civil servants and one supplier resource working on developing the latest release of Contracting, Purchasing & Finance. There is no contingent labour at this time.

The number of further education (FE) students and apprentices who have graduated and been recruited from the National College for Creative and Cultural Industries is set out in the table below on FE student and apprenticeship starts and completions. As the apprenticeships last 12 months, some students are still due to complete for this year and next year. The data for this table has been supplied from the college’s own records.

The college does not have destination data available for students in 2016/17. However, out of the FE students who completed in academic year 2017/18, 8 are working in the industry and the remainder have gone onto to further education or higher education.

The student intake according to region and gender is in the table below. Detailed information on

the number of students from low income background is currently not available.

It should be noted that the data is supplied by the college’s own records for academic years 2016/17 to 2018/19.

It should be noted that the data is supplied by the college’s own records for academic years 2016/17 to 2018/19.

The government has not provided funding to the Backstage Centre. Funding provided to the National College for Creative and Cultural Industries since its incorporation is set out in the table below, where details of the funding covers financial years from April to March.

The number of total staff per year since the creation of the National College for Creative and Cultural Industries is set out in the table below, which includes temporary placements, apprentices and part time staff.

The current estimate of the cost to complete the new Midland Metropolitan Hospital for Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, to be funded from public capital provided by the Department, is £358 million (including VAT) over the financial years 2019/20 to 2021/22. The Department is also providing £27 million for an early works contract to continue building works this year.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office maintains an ongoing dialogue with the Cabinet Office, including the Crown Commercial Service (CCS), in relation to the ongoing management of all major suppliers, including Interserve, accessed through CCS frameworks.

As set out in the Strategic Supplier Risk Management Policy, supplier risk ratings are not published by Government but are made available by the Cabinet Office to in scope organisations on request.​

The Cabinet Office regularly reviews staff numbers to ensure that teams are adequately resourced.

The Government is currently reviewing the impact of the Rapid Response Unit's work to date, and will make a decision on the future of the unit in due course.

The Green Paper will consider the fundamental issues facing the care system, including the future sustainability of the market.

As stated in para 6.4 of the Strategic Supplier Risk Management policy (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/80222/20121108_Strategic_Supplier_Risk_Management_Policy.pdf Cabinet Office does not publish supplier ratings.

As I said in answer to a previous question, all donations are registered in accordance with the law. I appreciate that in recent days some points have been raised; indeed, some were raised in the Chamber yesterday, after your decision to grant an emergency debate, Mr Speaker. There are a lot of allegations in the air at the moment, but what the Government have to do is deal with the law as it stands and allow the correct bodies to carry out their investigations.

The Capita-led consortium (known as the Strategic Business Partner (SBP)) was appointed to lead and manage the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO), the business unit within the Ministry of Defence (MOD) that manages the majority of the Defence estate.

Following a review in to both how the MOD manages the estate and of the support provided by the SBP, the contract will be brought to an end by 30 June 2019. During the period from 1 July 2017 the arrangements around the payment of fees have been changed. Fees based on the delivery of savings have now been replaced by those that reflect the level of resource provided to deliver DIO's outputs together with a fee for the provision of the senior management team which will reduce as contractor staff are replaced by civil servants by the end of the contract.

Over the period since the start of the contract, fees payable to the SBP are as follows:

2014-15 £33.3 million

2015-16 £58.4 million (revised following the payment of a retention)

2016-17 £32.5 million

2017-18 £31.6 million (to 28 February 2018)

The figure for 2016-17 has been updated to show the amounts payable to the SBP for the full year. The previous response, to Question 54025, provided information for the first six months of the financial year with some fees only becoming payable at the year end.

Standardisation and convergence of processes enables the successful delivery of shared services. The Shared Services Strategy for Government, published January 2018, establishes the intention for process and data convergence across government; with departments adopting modern technology platforms for their back office, and to 'cluster' around these platforms for increasingly convergent shared service provision.

Adoption of these technologies, particularly with increased automation, will facilitate greater standardisation of processes, data and ways of working between organisations, while allowing a small degree of flexibility according to necessary organisational and operational context.