Cabinet Office

The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

As has been the case under successive administrations, it is a long-standing principle that Civil Service advice is given and treated in confidence. This includes detailing whether or not advice has been given and by whom.

Tulip Siddiq MP referred herself to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards on 6 January 2025. As is set out in the Independent Adviser’s terms of reference, “Information provided to the Independent Adviser for the purposes of their functions is provided in confidence” (paragraph 4.2).

The Cabinet Office does not hold this data. It is not Civil Service practice to provide immunity from disciplinary action in such circumstances. The Cabinet Secretary or departmental Permanent Secretaries may, where appropriate, provide letters of assurance to those giving evidence to inquiries to encourage them to provide open and honest answers to questions posed.

The Cabinet Office does not hold this data. It is not Civil Service practice to provide immunity from disciplinary action in such circumstances. The Cabinet Secretary or departmental Permanent Secretaries may, where appropriate, provide letters of assurance to those giving evidence to inquiries to encourage them to provide open and honest answers to questions posed.

I refer the noble lady to the answer from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office of 24 January 2025, Official Report, PQ 24441.

HMRC, the Home Office, the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence have allocated officials to manage the relationship with Fujitsu. In addition, as one of the Government's 39 cross-government strategic suppliers, Fujitsu is managed by the Cabinet Office, with the support of a Crown Representative.

The Government is committed to working with the Northern Ireland Executive and the other devolved administrations to ensure that every part of the UK benefits from an improved trading relationship with the EU, as part of our wider reset

The Paymaster General and Minister for EU Relations most recently chaired a meeting of the Interministeral Group on UK-EU Relations in December 2024, which was attended by the First Minister and the deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland. The Government will seek to continue this cooperation as the UK-EU reset progresses.

Between 4 July 2024 and 11 February 2025, approximately 8,000 vacancies were advertised through the Civil Service Jobs website. To note, an advertised vacancy may contain a number of posts, hence the variance between the number of vacancies and the number of roles in the table below. Listing all of these roles individually could only be done at disproportionate cost.

However, aggregate data is provided. Any recruitment conducted outside the Civil Service Jobs portal will not be included in these figures.

The Cabinet Office collects data on the duration and cost of inquiries from departments, inquiries’ own reports, and other publicly available information.

We have provided details on all statutory inquiries established since 2005 in the table below.

We do not hold information on projected costs; under section 17 of the Act, the procedure and conduct of an independent public inquiry are a matter for the Chair, including acting with regard to the need to avoid any unnecessary cost.

The pension scheme was made by the then Minister for the Cabinet Office and laid before Parliament on 15 March 2012. A copy of the scheme is held by the Journal Office.

The terms of reference for a public inquiry determine an inquiry’s scope. Since 2015, none of the terms of reference for public inquiries (whether or not led by a judicial chair) have specifically required an inquiry to make recommendations related to compensation. We do not hold data centrally on departmental reviews.

The Infected Blood Inquiry - a judge-led inquiry - specifically recommended the provision of compensation payments. The Inquiry did so in response to Sir Robert Francis’ framework into compensation payments for victims of infected blood which was commissioned by the Cabinet Office. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) - an inquiry with a non-judicial chair - made a recommendation for a redress scheme for victims and survivors of sexual abuse.

We are not aware of any other inquiry since 2015 which made recommendations for compensation.

The terms of reference for a public inquiry determine an inquiry’s scope. Since 2015, none of the terms of reference for public inquiries (whether or not led by a judicial chair) have specifically required an inquiry to make recommendations related to compensation. We do not hold data centrally on departmental reviews.

The Infected Blood Inquiry - a judge-led inquiry - specifically recommended the provision of compensation payments. The Inquiry did so in response to Sir Robert Francis’ framework into compensation payments for victims of infected blood which was commissioned by the Cabinet Office. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) - an inquiry with a non-judicial chair - made a recommendation for a redress scheme for victims and survivors of sexual abuse.

We are not aware of any other inquiry since 2015 which made recommendations for compensation.

The terms of reference for a public inquiry determine an inquiry’s scope. Since 2015, none of the terms of reference for public inquiries (whether or not led by a judicial chair) have specifically required an inquiry to make recommendations related to compensation. We do not hold data centrally on departmental reviews.

The Infected Blood Inquiry - a judge-led inquiry - specifically recommended the provision of compensation payments. The Inquiry did so in response to Sir Robert Francis’ framework into compensation payments for victims of infected blood which was commissioned by the Cabinet Office. The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) - an inquiry with a non-judicial chair - made a recommendation for a redress scheme for victims and survivors of sexual abuse.

We are not aware of any other inquiry since 2015 which made recommendations for compensation.

The Deed of Variation to contract 2887470\5, enables the transition of the Emergency Planning College (EPC) to the UK Resilience Academy from 15 April 2025 to deliver strategic national resilience training and exercising outcomes.

Given the complexities of the contract covering the management of the physical site, coupled with the provision of training services, the Authority determined that a medium-term permitted extension would allow for better development and planning for a new competitive procurement opportunity, whilst maintaining continuity of key services.

The contract provides for an extension of not less than 2-years and not more than 5-years, and does not include any financial values or thresholds. The extension does not change the economic balance of the Agreement in favour of the Contractor. International sales were covered within the Bidders' Brief as part of the original tender and subsequently the contract.

The Government is determined to ensure the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually delivers economic growth, supports small businesses, champions innovation, and creates good jobs and opportunities across the country.

On 13 February the Government published a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS), which sets out our priorities for public procurement and maximises the impact of every pound spent. New measures to support the transformation of public procurement and to deliver on the Government’s Plan for Small Businesses includes requiring all government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with SMEs (from 1 April 2025) and VCSEs (from 1 April 2026) and publish progress annually.

PQ 14712 relates to three Honours Committee campaigns which were launched and closed in the summer of 2024: (i) Community and Voluntary Service (ii), Parliamentary and Political Service, and (iii) Diversity and Outreach (formerly called Representation and Outreach).

For all three campaigns no applicants were shortlisted nor did any interviews take place before the campaigns were relaunched

I refer the Noble Lady to the answer of 21 January 2025, Official Report, PQ HC 25454.

Question:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2024 to Question 13808 on 9 Downing Street: Media, what (a) alterations and (b) other works have taken place in the media room since November 2024; what the cost of those works was; which contractors were used; and which Department authorised the cost of these works.

Answer:

A one-off refresh of the facility was undertaken in December 2024. This has restored the room back to its original politically neutral state. The cost of these works will be published in due course in Cabinet Office transparency returns. The works were carried out by OCS, and authorised by the Cabinet Office.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.

The Redbox AI service provided by Cabinet Office is the primary service the GPA has used over the last few months.The Government Property Agency has used artificial intelligence primarily to summarise content such as policy documents and meetings.

Subject to Spending Review (SR), the GPA plans to explore how AI can be used to create efficiencies and improvements in how property is managed, such as validation of building design specifications, preventive maintenance, optimising building use and improving energy efficiency.

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

A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Question of 11th February is attached.

The action in the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022-2025 to deliver an additional 50 Enterprise Advisors has been met.

Under the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), we are prohibited from providing information about individuals, or which can be used to identify individuals, to third parties without their express permission. By providing job titles, this could lead to individuals being identifiable. While the details regarding some Senior Civil Service appointment processes are made public, many are not.

Details of ministers’ meetings with external organisations are published on a quarterly basis at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications. The NPPS survey was available on gov.uk and received 436 responses including 114 from businesses and/or public sector suppliers, of which 56 identified as SME or VCSE organisations. A further 11 responses were received from Trade Associations representing the views of their wider business membership.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer provided to Question 25685 on 30 January 2025.

The cost of these works will be published in due course in Cabinet Office transparency returns.

The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has responsibility for housing and planning policy in Cabinet.

As has been the practice of successive administrations, in order to maintain the safe space for collective decisions on policy issues, we do not disclose publicly specific details about collective decision-making processes.

The New Media Unit has been established. Under the terms of reference, the unit’s purpose is to reach citizens directly with important government information via digital channels.

This communication channel will help to reach audiences where they are most active and ensure they are informed.

The guidance on the publication of Ministers’ Gifts and Hospitality states that ministers should declare details of all hospitality received “in a ministerial capacity”. Hospitality received in a political or social context is not generally considered to be ministerial business and therefore does not need to be declared on the hospitality register.

However, the guidance further states that, in the course of any exempted hospitality (such as hospitality provided in a social context), “if…a minister entered into substantive discussions with a senior media figure, this should be considered under the guidance for meetings”. The guidance for meetings is available on GOV.uk at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministers-overseas-travel-and-meetings-publication-guidance.

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

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th February is attached.

The latest data we have relates to the financial year 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, and is published on GOV.UK. The data can be downloaded from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/public-sector-trade-union-facility-time-data

It is the responsibility of government departments to ensure they meet the requirements to publish their transparency data.

Under the Commercial Air Transport Contract, CTM provides a service to source various Air Charter solutions when required. The Prime Minister and other senior ministers have access to this contract when required.

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

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th February is attached.

On 13 February the Government published a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS), which sets out our priorities for public procurement and maximises the impact of every pound spent. New measures to support the transformation of public procurement and to deliver on the Government’s Plan for Small Businesses includes requiring all government departments, executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) from 1 April 2025, and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSEs) from 1 April 2026, and publish progress annually.

Under this new policy, departments will be responsible for publishing their own spend with SMEs on an annual basis. Departmental SME Action Plans (published from 1 April 2025) will include SME spend targets approved by departmental Ministers and any previous financial years unpublished SME spend data.

Details of ministerial meetings with individuals are published on gov.uk as part of the government’s transparency agenda. Relevant meetings are also declared in the Special Advisor transparency publications.

His Majesty's Government can confirm that:

Each government department is responsible for their own internal Ministerial and Permanent Secretary submission templates.

The Cabinet Office maintains a standard template for submissions to Cabinet Office Ministers and the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary.

The template for both is the same and was revised on 18th October 2024.

The table below shows the number of members of the House of Lords who will reach the age of 80 or above in the year 2029:

This information is drawn from the House of Lords Library website (House of Lords data dashboard: Current membership of the House) and is based on composition as of 27 January 2025. These figures include members who are life peers, law lords and hereditary peers, but excludes the Lords Spiritual, who are required to retire on reaching the age of 70.

It is important that lessons are learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent of government and it is right that we allow the Chair to continue her important work. The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary costs in the Inquiry’s work, and she has been clear in her intention to complete her work as quickly and efficiently as possible.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry publishes quarterly financial reports outlining the cost to date of the Inquiry. As of the end of Quarter 2 for 2024/25, the total expenditure of the Inquiry is £124.18m. New Q3 costs will be published in the usual way.

Additionally, the Cabinet Office regularly publishes government costs in responding to the Inquiry. From the start of the 2023/24 financial year to the end of Q2 2024/25, the government response costs total £64.6m.

The Procurement Review Unit (PRU) has been established to exercise the procurement oversight powers set out in Part 10 of the Procurement Act 2023 (the Act). Part 10 comprises three provisions (sections 108-110) which provide for the investigation of a contracting authority’s compliance with the requirements of the Act, the issuing of recommendations to a contracting authority following an investigation and the publishing of statutory guidance to all contracting authorities.

Under section 108 (procurement investigations) the PRU can formally request, via notice, that a relevant contracting authority provide documents and give assistance in connection with the investigation, as is reasonable. The contracting authority has 30 days to comply with the notice.

The conducting of on-site visits to aid investigations may fall under the scope of “give assistance” and would be by mutual agreement between the PRU and the contracting authority. The circumstances giving rise to an on-site visit would have to be proportionate and relevant to the investigation. On-site audits or visits are not currently contemplated as part of a standard PRU investigation, and nor are we considering an amendment to Part 10 of the Act to provide such powers, although the procurement oversight powers and processes will remain under review as the new regime embeds.

In accordance with Part 10, the results of any investigations, including any s.109 recommendations and progress reports submitted by the contracting authority may be published, assessed on a case by case basis. Such documents will be published on GOV.UK. Any s.109 recommendations will be issued to support the contracting authority’s compliance with the requirements of the Act and follow a lessons learned approach in order for contracting authorities to reflect on their own approach to compliance and identify areas for improvement.

The Procurement Act, which comes into force on 24 February 2025, will allow the Government to investigate high-risk suppliers on behalf of the entire public sector.

International debarment lists can be considered as part of a debarment investigation that determines whether an exclusion ground applies and enables a Minister of the Crown to decide whether the supplier should be placed on the debarment list.

A live debarment investigation does not prevent a supplier from bidding for public contracts or provide a basis for any further regulatory or legal action against the supplier.

The Procurement Act, which comes into force on 24 February 2025, will allow the Government to investigate high-risk suppliers on behalf of the entire public sector.

International debarment lists can be considered as part of a debarment investigation that determines whether an exclusion ground applies and enables a Minister of the Crown to decide whether the supplier should be placed on the debarment list.

A live debarment investigation does not prevent a supplier from bidding for public contracts or provide a basis for any further regulatory or legal action against the supplier.

The Government regularly reviews its work to ensure that it is delivering the best outcomes for the people of the United Kingdom, and that its policies continue to represent the best value for the taxpayer. Individual departments are responsible for publishing any information on public reviews, consultations and investigations on gov.uk, although there will always be internal work in government departments which we would not ordinarily or routinely publish.