It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

The Office for Veterans’ Affairs, based in the Cabinet Office, administers a range of grant schemes for veterans organisations and charities. These cover support in areas such as health, housing, employment, and combating stress, and are typically available UK wide.

The OVA was established in 2019 and has become more established over time, meaning comparable figures for each of the last five years are not available. However, in 2023/24, over £6 million was awarded to veterans organisations and charities.

The latest information on the work of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-veterans-affairs

It has not proved possible to respond to this question in the time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly with the Member.

The Office for Veterans’ Affairs, based in the Cabinet Office, administers a range of grant schemes for veterans organisations and charities. These cover support in areas such as health, housing, employment, and combating stress, and are typically available UK wide.

The OVA was established in 2019 and has become more established over time, meaning comparable figures for each of the last five years are not available. However, in 2023/24, over £6 million was awarded to veterans organisations and charities.

The latest information on the work of the Office for Veterans’ Affairs can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-for-veterans-affairs

The Public Duty Cost Allowance is specifically reviewed by the National Audit Office (NAO) as part of its annual audit of the Cabinet Office. The 2022-23 NAO audit review was completed in October 2023. The 2023-24 audit review will commence in May 2024.

The offices of the former Prime Ministers receive guidance which stipulates what type of expenses can be reimbursed by the Allowance. Claims, including those for office staff time, are then received by Cabinet Office Finance and include supporting evidence showing how much is related to the Allowance and how much is not.

I would note that the same audit provisions applied when former Liberal Democrat Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, claimed the Allowance.

There is no centrally held record of government use of tools such as Pol.is or CitizenOS used as ways of gathering and understanding public opinion. The use of such is devolved to individual departments.

The Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO), within Cabinet Office, is responsible for supporting departments to build and operate modern, state of the art, highly responsive, cost-effective technology that meets the needs of our end users and delivers the cross-government digital strategy.

CDDO is working with departments to establish the frameworks and policies to guide the responsible adoption of new technologies.

The Government is conducting regular monitoring of the UK Internal Market Scheme and Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme and there are clear signs of new traders taking advantage of these new arrangements.

With respect to the UK Internal Market Scheme, as set out to the Northern Ireland Protocol Sub-Committee on 12 October, there are now more than 6,200 businesses registered - 2,200 of which (more than a third) are companies who were not members of the previous UKTS scheme. This list is dynamic, meaning more businesses moving goods in Northern Ireland will benefit over time.

With respect to the new Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme, the broader eligibility coupled with the certainty provided to businesses, mean that we have seen welcome signs of new traders taking advantage of the scheme. For example, wholesalers have written to customers noting that they are now able to “bring back some of your favourite products that we had to remove due to the previous Northern Ireland Protocol”. Consumers in Northern Ireland are also able to see the broader reach of the green lane, with for example shelf labelling in place in major food service outlets, which were excluded from the scope of the old grace periods.

The Government continues its extensive programme of engagement with businesses to identify any practical issues and ensure that the new Green Lane system continues to be implemented in a seamless manner.

Evaluation is a Treasury requirement for all Government policies and programmes. All evaluations of Government policies and programmes must be carried out in line with the evaluation standards in the Magenta Book (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-magenta-book), which is Treasury guidance on how evaluations should be undertaken. Annex A of the Magenta Book details the analytical methods which can be used. All Ministerial Departments have published an evaluation strategy on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/evaluation-strategies-from-uk-government-departments), publicly setting out how they will meet the required standards.

The Evaluation Task Force (ETF) was established in 2021 with the aim of increasing the quality and quantity of evaluations conducted across Government. The ETF works closely with evaluation leads within Departments to advise on evaluation designs and application of evaluation methods and to ensure that Government evaluations are robust and are delivered to a high analytical standard. This involves identifying the most proportionate and robust method(s) suitable for each policy or programme in question.

The ETF does not have a routine set of requirements which Departments are held to, because the most appropriate method for each evaluation is specific to the policy and programme context. In some cases methods which score lower on the Maryland Scientific Methods Scale may represent the most robust and proportionate approaches for a Government policy or programme. While the ETF works with Departments to ensure that the most robust methods possible are applied to each policy or programme, this is done on a case-by-case basis rather than through the application of a scale or framework.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Rt Hon. the Lord Hain

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

20 October 2023

Dear Lord Hain,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking how many deaths occurred in each of the last 12 months where the cause of death was listed as COVID-19 (HL10538).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for publishing statistics on deaths registered in England and Wales [1]. Figures for Scotland [2] and Northern Ireland [3] are the responsibility of National Records for Scotland and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency, respectively.

Causes mentioned on the death certificate are converted to International Classification of Diseases 10th edition (ICD-10) codes, with the underlying cause of death defined as the disease or injury that initiated the events that directly lead to the death. The ICD-10 codes for COVID-19 are U07.1, U07.2, U10.9, U09.9.

Table 1 shows the number of deaths due to COVID-19 registered in England and Wales by month registered between October 2022 and September 2023.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1: Deaths due to COVID-19 by month and year of registration, England and Wales, registered October 2022 and September 2023 [4,5,6,7,8].

Source: Office for National Statistics

[1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/

[2] https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/deaths

[3] https://www.nisra.gov.uk/statistics/births-deaths-and-marriages/deaths

[4] Figures are for deaths registered, rather than deaths occurring in each period.

[5] Figures are based on provisional data.

[6] Figures include the deaths of usual residents of England and Wales as well as those of nonresidents.

[7] Figures are based on deaths where COVID-19 (ICD-10 codes U07.1, U07.2, U10.9, U09.9) was the underlying cause of death.

[8] Deaths due to COVID-19 refers to deaths where COVID-19 was the underlying cause of death. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death.

The Government is committed to supporting the Crown Dependencies in deterring and defending against state and non-state threats. Since its creation in 2016, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has supported the Crown Dependencies in building their cyber resilience. The NCSC supports the governments, police and communications service providers of the Crown Dependencies, engaging with them on a regular basis to provide expert advice, guidance, the latest threat assessments and support related to incidents affecting their networks. The governments of the Crown Dependencies also use a range of Active Cyber Defence tools and services provided by the NCSC.

Although a breakdown of costs is not available, examples of support includes:

• The NCSC supported and advised on the formation of Cyber Security Incident Response Teams in the Crown Dependencies. Jersey Cyber Emergency Response Team (CERT) has now been established and is responsible for promoting and improving the cyber resilience across the Island’s critical national infrastructure.

• The NCSC have attended events on each of the Crown Dependencies in recent years, presenting at the Isle of Man’s Cyber Isle cyber Conference in 2021, 2022 and 2023. Attendees were informed about the NCSC’s free products and services available to all Crown Dependencies covering public, private and third sectors;

• The Governments of the Crown Dependencies, are eligible for and are using NCSC Active Cyber Defence services including Mail Check, Web Check, Early Warning and Protective DNS. These are the same tools used by HMG to help protect our networks.

The Ministerial Code sets out the standards of conduct expected of ministers and how they discharge their duty. Notably:

• Section 8.3: Ministers should ensure that their statements are consistent with collective Government policy;

• Section 6.5: Ministers are free to make their views about constituency matters known to the responsible Minister by correspondence, leading deputations or by personal interview provided they make clear that they are acting as their constituents’ representative and not as a Minister.

The Ministerial Code can be viewed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-code

The Cabinet Office does not collate this data centrally. Notwithstanding, to assist the noble Lord’s scrutiny, a list has been compiled from public information. The 10 year period used is 4 October 2013 - 4 October 2023.

Where Ministers were in post on 4 October 2013, our calculations have used the start of their tenure, which may precede that date.

The Cabinet Office is not aware of any plans to introduce legislation preventing departments from responding with a "no reply" email.

Each department is responsible for deciding how it communicates with members of the public by email.

Some departments may wish to send emails from a "no reply" email address to ensure that follow up emails are sent through the correct routes and handled consistently and effectively. However, all departments will either have an email address or a contact form that can be accessed on GOV.UK for members of the public.

We published our legal position when the Windsor Framework was agreed. This provided the Government's assessment that the Framework respects the Acts of Union.

We understand that the Acts of Union are of fundamental importance, reflecting Northern Ireland’s constitutional position in the United Kingdom.

We remain fully committed to Northern Ireland’s place in the Union and believe that it is best safeguarded by a fully functioning devolved government.

The Government is committed to ensuring the timely and successful implementation of the Windsor Framework and to seeing the restoration of an Executive in Northern Ireland as soon as possible. We are in regular contact with the Northern Ireland political parties about these matters and how we may best secure both objectives.

The Government takes its data protection responsibilities very seriously, including where data is held by suppliers to the Government and suppliers to public sector bodies. Data protection processes are kept under continuous review. As the relevant National Technical Authority, the National Cyber Security Centre provides the Government, public sector bodies and the private sector with expert advice on protecting data from unauthorised access.

The Government Cyber Security Strategy was published last year. This sets out our plans significantly to harden the Government’s critical functions against cyber attack by 2025, with all organisations across the public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities by 2030 at the latest.

I am pleased to refer the noble Lord to the upcoming debate on the government’s position on the long-term strategic challenges posed by China, to be held in the House of Lords on 19 October.

The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) outlines a pragmatic and phased implementation approach starting from January 31 2024, designed to give all relevant parties sufficient time to prepare ahead of its introduction.

We will continue to engage with and monitor the sentiment of stakeholders across all parts of the United Kingdom, affected sectors, and our trading partners around the world to ensure readiness for the phased introduction of our new model.

The Government will run a series of in-person and online engagement events, and publish guidance detailing actions required as a result of the changes on GOV.UK. For example, we will work closely with our key trading partners to ensure the capacity and availability of certifiers for Export Health Certificates does not become a barrier to trade.

To ensure our own readiness for implementing the Model, departments with specific responsibilities will run and end-to-end operational testing, working with industry to identify any issues and support a smooth transition for each phase of the Model.

The Model represents an estimated £520 million saving for all importers compared to the Model originally planned for introduction in 2022. The actual cost to business will greatly depend on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the Model. As outlined in the BTOM, we estimate the costs of the Model at £330 million per annum overall, across all EU imports, which is around 0.13% of the overall value of EU goods imports to Great Britain. We estimate the measures introduced through the BTOM would have a minimal impact on consumer food price inflation of less than 0.2% in total over a 3-year period.

In contrast, an outbreak of a major disease could have a much more significant impact: the 2001 Foot and Mouth disease cost £12.8 billion in 2022 prices, £4.8 billion of which was cost to Government and £8 billion cost to the private sector.

The Government ran a consultation on charges for Government owned Border Control Posts from 12 June to 9 July, including a call for views on our intention to administer a single Common User Charge for eligible Sanitary and Phytosanitary consignments at government-run Border Control Posts. The outcome of this consultation will be published shortly.

The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) outlines a pragmatic and phased implementation approach starting from January 31 2024, designed to give all relevant parties sufficient time to prepare ahead of its introduction.

We will continue to engage with and monitor the sentiment of stakeholders across all parts of the United Kingdom, affected sectors, and our trading partners around the world to ensure readiness for the phased introduction of our new model.

The Government will run a series of in-person and online engagement events, and publish guidance detailing actions required as a result of the changes on GOV.UK. For example, we will work closely with our key trading partners to ensure the capacity and availability of certifiers for Export Health Certificates does not become a barrier to trade.

To ensure our own readiness for implementing the Model, departments with specific responsibilities will run and end-to-end operational testing, working with industry to identify any issues and support a smooth transition for each phase of the Model.

The Model represents an estimated £520 million saving for all importers compared to the Model originally planned for introduction in 2022. The actual cost to business will greatly depend on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the Model. As outlined in the BTOM, we estimate the costs of the Model at £330 million per annum overall, across all EU imports, which is around 0.13% of the overall value of EU goods imports to Great Britain. We estimate the measures introduced through the BTOM would have a minimal impact on consumer food price inflation of less than 0.2% in total over a 3-year period.

In contrast, an outbreak of a major disease could have a much more significant impact: the 2001 Foot and Mouth disease cost £12.8 billion in 2022 prices, £4.8 billion of which was cost to Government and £8 billion cost to the private sector.

The Government ran a consultation on charges for Government owned Border Control Posts from 12 June to 9 July, including a call for views on our intention to administer a single Common User Charge for eligible Sanitary and Phytosanitary consignments at government-run Border Control Posts. The outcome of this consultation will be published shortly.

The Border Target Operating Model (BTOM) outlines a pragmatic and phased implementation approach starting from January 31 2024, designed to give all relevant parties sufficient time to prepare ahead of its introduction.

We will continue to engage with and monitor the sentiment of stakeholders across all parts of the United Kingdom, affected sectors, and our trading partners around the world to ensure readiness for the phased introduction of our new model.

The Government will run a series of in-person and online engagement events, and publish guidance detailing actions required as a result of the changes on GOV.UK. For example, we will work closely with our key trading partners to ensure the capacity and availability of certifiers for Export Health Certificates does not become a barrier to trade.

To ensure our own readiness for implementing the Model, departments with specific responsibilities will run and end-to-end operational testing, working with industry to identify any issues and support a smooth transition for each phase of the Model.

The Model represents an estimated £520 million saving for all importers compared to the Model originally planned for introduction in 2022. The actual cost to business will greatly depend on how businesses adapt their business models and supply chains to integrate the Model. As outlined in the BTOM, we estimate the costs of the Model at £330 million per annum overall, across all EU imports, which is around 0.13% of the overall value of EU goods imports to Great Britain. We estimate the measures introduced through the BTOM would have a minimal impact on consumer food price inflation of less than 0.2% in total over a 3-year period.

In contrast, an outbreak of a major disease could have a much more significant impact: the 2001 Foot and Mouth disease cost £12.8 billion in 2022 prices, £4.8 billion of which was cost to Government and £8 billion cost to the private sector.

The Government ran a consultation on charges for Government owned Border Control Posts from 12 June to 9 July, including a call for views on our intention to administer a single Common User Charge for eligible Sanitary and Phytosanitary consignments at government-run Border Control Posts. The outcome of this consultation will be published shortly.