Contributions
1,892 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDList of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial CodeThe Government’s work on reforms to strengthen ethics and integrity in central government is now nearing conclusion and we hope to publish our response soon. There have been a…25 Apr 2023HANSARDParliamentary Democracy in the United KingdomI welcome the fact that the noble Baroness, Lady Jones of Moulsecoomb, has secured this important and extremely wide-ranging debate. We should spend more time debating these…25 Apr 2023HANSARDList of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial CodeWork is in progress and it will be published in due course.25 Apr 2023HANSARDList of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial CodeI obviously come from a business background, where whistleblowing is a very important and helpful constraint on wrongful behaviour. I will certainly reflect on my noble friend’s…25 Apr 2023HANSARDList of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial CodeI do not think I have a great deal to add to the Prime Minister’s reply, other than to underline the point that has been made about how we learn to better handle such matters in…25 Apr 2023HANSARDList of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial CodeSince the noble Lord mentions the former Deputy Prime Minister, I remind the House that he made an important contribution to the country, not least by his work during the…25 Apr 2023HANSARDList of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial CodeThe noble Lord asks why the register is not updated on a monthly basis in the same way as the register of interests that applies in our House and in the other place. It is…25 Apr 2023HANSARDList of Ministers’ Interests and Ministerial CodeI do not think we should make the change that the noble Baroness suggests. I draw the House’s attention to the fact that the terms of reference for the role of the independent…25 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuI have explained what we are doing about the inquiry. The grounds for the exclusion of bidders from public procurement procedures are set out in the Public Contracts Regulations…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuI do not have information on other procurement contracts but I can tell the noble Lord that, in the year that has just finished, we paid Fujitsu £1.6 million for the alerts…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuWe have to follow due process. An inquiry is rightly taking place into the Horizon and Post Office scandal. In the meantime, it is important that procurement processes are open,…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuI thank the noble Baroness for her support. Indeed, I think this alert system appeared in the Labour Party manifesto; we have had cross-party support for it. We have set up the…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuI do not accept that the small addition of Fujitsu’s work in this area negates this very important piece of work, which the noble Lord was obviously involved in and agrees with.…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuI sympathise with the point made by my noble friend. That is for Fujitsu, of course, and the process of looking at the awful history of the postmasters is still not finished. I…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuThe noble Lord is right that we do not always get as many bidders as I would like in procurement, and one of the things we are trying to do in the procurement area is to broaden…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuI do not have information on how many contracts Fujitsu plans to bid on, or indeed whether it will be successful in bidding for those contracts. All I can say is that we are…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuAll of this arises from the horrendous case of the Post Office, which I have studied over many years and feel equally strongly about. That process is continuing; Fujitsu is…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuI will make one preliminary point: Fujitsu has been fully co-operating with the postmasters inquiry. I also emphasise that there is no link between the small amount of work that…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuMy noble friend and I agree that the impact of the Horizon scandal on postmasters and their families is utterly horrendous; we used to work together on this when I was on the Back…19 Apr 2023HANSARDEmergency Alert System: FujitsuFujitsu has had a small role in the development of the UK’s emergency alert system, initially providing a subject matter expert to support early development by DCMS. Emergency…19 Apr 2023