Cabinet Office

The UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) runs a number of internships and placement schemes. They are designed to provide insight about what it is like to work in UKIC.

The eligibility criteria for specific internship schemes in UKIC are made publicly available on agency websites at the time when they are advertised. Any internship participant wishing to subsequently apply for employment with UKIC or the Civil Service is required to take part in fair and open competition, with selection based on merit.

The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and GOV.UK.

We are making Capita work to restore, to contractual levels, administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme following its failed transition in December last year. Capita committed to restoring the service by the end of June. The Government is now undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the latest data provided by Capita post the end of June commitment.

We remain committed to holding Capita accountable. Should underperformance occur and the agreed firm end of June deadline not be met, the Government will not hesitate to take firm action, all commercial levers will be used and all options will be considered.

The Cabinet Office is unable to provide a specific breakdown of the number of Civil Service Pension Scheme members who are awaiting payment beyond the expected timescale, as members retire at different times, including early, late, or partial retirement. Around 20,000 members currently await pension quotations from Capita, including outstanding historical cases left unprocessed by the previous administrator.

Capita has issued lump sum payments to 18,425 retired members awaiting their regular pensions, whilst the scheme continues to pay approximately 730,000 existing pensioners on time. To alleviate immediate hardship, employers have issued £15.1 million in Transitional Support Loans to 2,734 members, alongside interest-free bridging loans ranging from £5,000 to £20,000. Members will fully repay these bridging loans upon receipt of their formal pension payments.

The scheme will automatically pay interest on delayed benefits to protect members from financial loss. The statutory complaints process evaluates claims for financial loss, distress, and inconvenience on a case-by-case basis and is operated in strict accordance with the standards set by the Pensions Ombudsman.

The administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme is the responsibility of the Cabinet Office.

The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and GOV.UK.

We are making Capita work to restore, to contractual levels, administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme following its failed transition in December last year. Capita committed to restoring the service by the end of June. The Government is now undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the latest data provided by Capita post the end of June commitment.

We remain committed to holding Capita accountable. Should underperformance occur and the agreed firm end of June deadline not be met, the Government will not hesitate to take firm action, all commercial levers will be used and all options will be considered.

A dedicated 140-person government surge team was deployed to clear the 15,000 inherited unread emails and stabilise operations. Government has been clear that this support will remain in place until they are satisfied service levels have been restored, with an expectation of Capita picking up the cost (to be part of the post-recovery contractual settlement).

The Cabinet Office sets standards for public bodies, including the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies, which states that it is an improper use of public funds for public bodies to employ consultants or other companies to lobby Parliament, government or political parties. Responsibility for ensuring compliance with these standards rests with the Accounting Officer of each arm's length body and their respective sponsoring department.

There is no maximum length of time that either a (a) junior or (b) senior civil servant may be appointed to a temporary grade, but the appointment will be reviewed every 3 months after an initial 6 month period.

No pension top-ups have been agreed for mutually agreed exits since July 2024.

This Government believes that it matters where things are made and who makes them.

The Government has recently published new guidance on using national security exemptions within the Procurement Act 2023 for four initial pathfinder sectors: steel, shipbuilding, artificial intelligence, and energy infrastructure. The four pathfinder sectors were selected based on their status as critical industries where disruptions in international markets have exposed vulnerabilities that threaten national security interests and overall stability.

Separately, the Procurement Act 2023 introduced new powers to exclude a supplier from a specific procurement, terminate a public contract with a supplier, or debar a supplier from all or a range of public contracts, on national security grounds. We are prepared to take robust action to protect the UK from any suppliers in the public sector that may pose a threat to our national security.

Contracting authorities are advised to undertake a detailed national security assessment only where they identify certain sensitivities specified in the new guidance, rather than for every single tender.

The targeted nature of the exclusion and debarment regime means that suppliers will be informed when there is an investigation where there is evidence to suggest that they pose a national security risk. We have not seen evidence to suggest this has impacted negatively on the ability of SMEs to win Government contracts or increased the administrative burden on those businesses.

This Government believes that it matters where things are made and who makes them.

The Government has recently published new guidance on using national security exemptions within the Procurement Act 2023 for four initial pathfinder sectors: steel, shipbuilding, artificial intelligence, and energy infrastructure. The four pathfinder sectors were selected based on their status as critical industries where disruptions in international markets have exposed vulnerabilities that threaten national security interests and overall stability.

Separately, the Procurement Act 2023 introduced new powers to exclude a supplier from a specific procurement, terminate a public contract with a supplier, or debar a supplier from all or a range of public contracts, on national security grounds. We are prepared to take robust action to protect the UK from any suppliers in the public sector that may pose a threat to our national security.

Contracting authorities are advised to undertake a detailed national security assessment only where they identify certain sensitivities specified in the new guidance, rather than for every single tender.

The targeted nature of the exclusion and debarment regime means that suppliers will be informed when there is an investigation where there is evidence to suggest that they pose a national security risk. We have not seen evidence to suggest this has impacted negatively on the ability of SMEs to win Government contracts or increased the administrative burden on those businesses.

This Government believes that it matters where things are made and who makes them.

The Government has recently published new guidance on using national security exemptions within the Procurement Act 2023 for four initial pathfinder sectors: steel, shipbuilding, artificial intelligence, and energy infrastructure. The four pathfinder sectors were selected based on their status as critical industries where disruptions in international markets have exposed vulnerabilities that threaten national security interests and overall stability.

Separately, the Procurement Act 2023 introduced new powers to exclude a supplier from a specific procurement, terminate a public contract with a supplier, or debar a supplier from all or a range of public contracts, on national security grounds. We are prepared to take robust action to protect the UK from any suppliers in the public sector that may pose a threat to our national security.

Contracting authorities are advised to undertake a detailed national security assessment only where they identify certain sensitivities specified in the new guidance, rather than for every single tender.

The targeted nature of the exclusion and debarment regime means that suppliers will be informed when there is an investigation where there is evidence to suggest that they pose a national security risk. We have not seen evidence to suggest this has impacted negatively on the ability of SMEs to win Government contracts or increased the administrative burden on those businesses.

Details of Government contracts awarded during the last financial year (2025/26) are published on the Find a Tender service central digital platform which is available at https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Search. Under the requirements of the Procurement Act 2023, the whole contract should be published when the procurement is valued over £5m.

Departments are responsible for setting their own policies regarding the administration of trade union subscriptions in line with the provisions within the Civil Service Management Code. The Government has no current plans to update the management code on this matter.

The Cabinet Office is fully committed to supporting the mental health and wellbeing of civil servants.

All departments provide comprehensive Employee Assistance Programmes (EAP) and Occupational Health services, ensuring staff have direct access to counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), and specialist trauma support. To supplement this, trained Mental Health First Aiders and equivalents are in place to provide immediate advice and signposting.

The Civil Service routinely benchmarks its approach to employee sickness absence and health and wellbeing to ensure it aligns to best practice. As part of the Civil Service People Plan 2024-27, we are undertaking research to better understand and address the underlying factors behind mental health-related absence of civil servants.

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

A response to the Parliamentary Question of 24th June is attached.

Assessments of the representation of women and ethnic minorities in Senior Civil Service roles are made on a regular basis, and at least annually.

The representation of women in the Senior Civil Service has increased year on year since it was created in 1996. As at 1 April 2025 49.9% of Senior Civil Servants are women, up from 49.6% in the previous year, and 16.7% in 1996.

The representation of people from an ethnic minority background in the Senior Civil Service has increased year on year since 2013. As at 1 April 2025 9.1% of Senior Civil Servants are from an ethnic minority background, up from 8.9% in the previous year, and 3.9% in 2013.

The Prime Minister has agreed with the Cabinet Secretary that access talks can take place with declared candidates for the Labour Leadership.

Access talks will be led and coordinated by the Cabinet Secretary.

I refer the noble Lord to the answer given by the then Prime Minister on 7 February 2017, Official Report, PQ 62542. Following the practice followed by past administrations, the Government does not comment on security matters.

The Government has taken significant action to respond to threats posed to the UK from hostile state actors.

The Resilience Action Plan (RAP), published in July 2025, establishes an ‘all hazards approach’ to national resilience, with specific pledges to improve cyber resilience within our CNI. The Government works closely with public and private sector operators to manage cyber risk and minimise the impact of incidents.

The National Cyber Action Plan will be published shortly, setting out concrete actions for the government to take alongside businesses to tackle the growing threat and strengthen our collective resilience.

Under the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act 2021, the Government retains powers to intervene in investments that pose risks to national security. The Counter Political Interference and Espionage Action Plan sets out the full range of actions HMG is taking to strengthen our legislation, help those who work in politics to recognise, resist and report the threat, as well as delivering disruptive action against proxy organisations.

The effectiveness and implementation of the Government Functional Standard for Commercial (GovS 008) is assessed through the Commercial Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework (CCIAF). The CCIAF provides a structured framework that allows government departments and wider public-sector organisations to self-assess their commercial practices against the standard and benchmark their performance against their peers.

Since the current version of the GovS 008 and CCIAF launched in May 2022, a total of 149 contracting authorities across the public sector have enrolled, representing a combined third-party spend in excess of £162 billion.

The Government Commercial Function utilises the assessment detail to drive capability and maturity initiatives across government.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry operates independently from the Government. Therefore, Ministerial approval was not required for this contract.

The contract was procured and awarded in line with procurement rules, as well as Cabinet Office Commercial policies and procedures.

The GPA cannot confirm how many staff are assigned to work at the Darlington Economic Campus (in effect Feethams House at this time) as this information is held by individual departments. The GPA does not monitor attendance.

Following the introduction of The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017, the Cabinet Office Facility Time Framework was updated. The update was to inform departments that they were required to publish the relevant data in their annual reports; on their website; and on the Cabinet Office’s facility time publication service. And that the data for each department must be published annually before the 31st July. This came into effect for the financial year 1 April 2017 to 31 March 2018.

The total number of civil servants on a temporary contract, including those on casual contracts, is published quarterly by Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of their quarterly public sector employment statistics and is available at Table 8 of each release:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/publicsectorpersonnel/datasets/publicsectoremploymentreferencetable

Departments are responsible for applying the Civil Service Nationality Rules, which govern employment within the Civil Service on the basis of nationality. This includes which roles should be reserved to UK nationals only and where additional restrictions may be required. Candidates with dual nationality are in principle eligible for employment in the Civil Service provided that they meet the requirements in relation to one of their nationalities. They may not be eligible, however, for employment in certain reserved posts where departments and agencies have imposed additional eligibility requirements.

As with any other model policy, the Cabinet Office engaged with a range of stakeholders during development of the model Policy and Guidance: Supporting Trans and Non-binary Employees.

On 20 January, the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister outlined his commitments to rewire Whitehall and modernize public services, with a specific focus on enhancing public sector productivity through rapid operational delivery and resolution.

A core element of this initiative is ensuring that innovation, frontline delivery and private sector skills and experience is valued equally alongside policy development, ensuring a strong institutional focus on delivery.

Assessments of turnover and time in post are made routinely on an annual basis on behalf of the Civil Service Government People Group (now the Future Civil Service).

The information requested is not held centrally and therefore cannot be answered without incurring disproportionate costs.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer of 10 June 2026, PQ 6440.

The government takes transparency and accountability seriously, and publishing data is key to this.

Under the Grants Functional Standard, central government departments and their arm's length bodies (ALBs) are required to provide details of their grants schemes and awards to the Cabinet Office via the Government Grants Information System (GGIS).

The Cabinet Office publishes this data and accompanying official statistics on GOV.UK in March each year in order to fulfil the government’s commitment in the Transparency Agenda. The publication covers formula grants and general grants at scheme and award level, showing how public funds are spent through the grants funding mechanism by departments and ALBs

Key Performance Indicators for the Media and Creative Services framework agreement (RM6364), under which WPP Media is appointed, are detailed within Framework Schedule 4 (Framework Management).

The framework documentation is publicly available on the Government Commercial Agency website at: https://www.gca.gov.uk/agreements/RM6364.

The Government has announced its intention to redefine social value in central government procurement, to put community impact at the heart of public procurement decisions. This will help to ensure public expenditure directly targets the creation of local jobs, skills, apprenticeships, and regional opportunities for growth.

We are working with a range of stakeholders to develop this definition and will publish it shortly.

The internal Subject Access Request manual was drafted in 2018. This has not been updated given the legislation underpinning the guidance remains the same.

Since 4 July 2024, the department has commissioned an aircraft on 32 occasions.

Ministerial travel is undertaken in accordance with the Ministerial Code, ensuring efficiency and value for money for the taxpayer.

The Government Property Agency nor Cabinet Office are aware of any other delays where notification was required to be provided to relevant local authorities since July 2024.

The Cabinet Office does not issue specific guidance on this matter. Section 4.1 of the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies states that ‘it will always be an improper use of public funds for public bodies to employ consultants or other companies to lobby Parliament, government or political parties.’

The Cabinet Office facility time framework and guidance is expected to be implemented across the Civil Service, including all departments and agencies that employ civil servants. It retains the principle that trade union representatives should spend at least 50% of their time delivering their official role.

The Government is confident that all relevant departments and individuals were engaged through a comprehensive commissioning process managed by the Cabinet Office. All departmental Permanent Secretaries were required to provide assurance that they had taken reasonable steps to identify, search for, and return all material within the scope of the motion. This process ensured that all relevant current and former Ministers, Special Advisers, and officials were contacted. Following this rigorous process and the publication of Volume II of the Government’s response, the Government considers that it has duly discharged its obligations in respect of the Humble Address. A small number of separate, relevant documents continue to be withheld exclusively at the request of the Metropolitan Police to avoid prejudicing their ongoing independent criminal investigation into alleged misconduct in public office. The Government will publish these remaining documents once police authorities confirm it is appropriate to do so.

This information is not held centrally.

Decisions on terms and conditions of employment, including International Remote Working, are made by individual departments, depending on their specific business requirements and the nature of the role. Departments must comply with strict regulations when making decisions to allow individual staff members to work abroad, with cases approved only in exceptional circumstances.

The Cabinet Office awarded Capita the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme in November 2023 under the previous government. The current delays facing scheme members are entirely unacceptable, and this Government has taken firm action to resolve them through a clear recovery plan with strict delivery milestones. We have deployed additional resources to expedite priority cases, ensuring that serving and former staff receive the high standard of service they deserve. Regular progress updates remain available to members via the pension portal and Gov.uk.

We recognise the significant impact these delays have on deferred members’ ability to plan their financial future. Capita is under a firm mandate to restore full service delivery to standard contractual levels by the end of June 2026. We are actively exploring the use of all available commercial and contractual levers and continue to withhold milestone payments for missed transition deliverables. All options remain on the table if they fail to meet the June deadline.

United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) delivers National Security Vetting (NSV) services to departments and agencies across government, police and industry. NSV remains a key element in HMG’s approach to the management of national security risk.

The median wait time in May 2026 for callers to United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) is 29 minutes and 10 seconds.

The mean wait time in May 2026 for callers to United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) is 30 minutes and 42 seconds.

UKSV are working on technical solutions to further streamline services, and implement improvements, to existing portals. We are also improving online services as an alternative to calling UKSV.

Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 025: 'Protecting the UK’s national security through public procurement' was published on 19 June 2026.

The PPN can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ppn-025-protecting-the-uks-national-security-through-public-procurement

In January 2025, 74 FTE staff were employed in the Resilience Directorate. In July 2025, the Resilience Directorate, the COBR Unit and the National Situation Centre merged into the new COBR Directorate. The responsibilities of the previous Resilience Directorate, and resilience more broadly, now sit across different Cabinet Office and UK Government teams, including the COBR Directorate. Therefore, no meaningful comparison can be made with pre-merger FTE numbers.

In July 2025, the Resilience Directorate merged with the COBR Unit and National Situation Centre. The new COBR Directorate is responsible for the coordination of resilience, civil contingencies planning, and crisis management across the system.

Prior to this merger, the former Resilience Directorate had the following staff employed on a full-time equivalent (FTE) basis: January 2024, 57; July 2024, 54; January 2025, 74.

Honours are awarded by The Sovereign following a recommendation from one of ten independent Honours Committees, comprising a majority of independent members who are experts in their relevant sector. Honours are given to reward outstanding service in a given field or area and are awarded entirely on merit. As part of the nomination process, we try to minimise the risk that prospective candidates have behaved in ways likely to bring the system into disrepute by carrying out probity checks with a number of government departments before names are submitted for approval.

A recipient who has been deemed to have brought the honours system into disrepute can have their award forfeited. Full criteria for forfeiture and the Forfeiture Committee’s contact details are available on gov.uk.

The Governance Code on Public Appointments requires the public disclosure of political activity within the last five years for successful candidates. The Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies also requires appointees to comply with the rules of the appointing body on handling conflicts of interests, which typically require the public declaration of potential conflicts, usually in the body’s register of interests.

The general guidance on the declaration of interests process for Non-Executive Board Members, which would include political activity, is published on Gov.uk, with the intention of standardising the management and publication of such interests across UK Government departments in order to increase consistency and transparency, as recommended by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee.