Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 27 November 2025 to Question 92613 on Digital Technology: Identity Cards, whether Digital ID will be required for Digital Right to Work checks.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As the Prime Minister has recently stated in the House of Commons, there will be checks. They will be digital and they will be mandatory.
We will consult on the technical details of how this will be implemented.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of Digital ID on Right to Work checks.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
As the Prime Minister has recently stated in the House of Commons, there will be checks. They will be digital and they will be mandatory.
We will consult on the technical detail of how this will be implemented.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the trends in the level of excess mortality above pre-2020 trends in the 50- to 64-year-old age group.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon lady’s Parliamentary Question of 5th February is attached.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to ensure modelled increases in expected deaths are not used to retroactively redefine excess mortality as normal.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon lady’s Parliamentary Question of 5th February is attached.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the number of vacancies in the automotive manufacturing sector in (a) January 2024 and (b) each subsequent month up to and including the most recent month for which data is available.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Rt Hon. gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 4th February is attached.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) the introduction of a compensation scheme to support those facing financial hardship as a result of the delays in administering pensions and lump sums and (b) the prioritising of hardship cases including unpaid retirees, people retiring imminently, ill-health retirement cases and bereavement cases.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. Administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme transferred to Capita on 1 December.
The issues and delays facing some civil servants and pension scheme members in accessing their pensions is unacceptable.
In response, we have set up a dedicated a surge team of 150 staff to work alongside the 500 Capita staff to clear the backlog. There is an agreed recovery plan in place that prioritises the most urgent cases including bereavements, ill health and hardship cases and has clear timelines and targets for full-service restoration for all members.
No former civil servant should be facing financial hardship as a result of delays to their pension and we are putting in place direct support for people facing delays in their first payments. We are also actively working with all partners to ensure affected members do not suffer permanent financial loss as a result of this issue.
The Cabinet Office has set out arrangements whereby employing departments are able to make interest-free hardship loans to those who are waiting for their pension benefits.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what resources he has allocated to help ensure the timely and efficient processing of the 86,000 cases inherited by Capita from My CSP.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. Administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme transferred to Capita on 1 December.
The issues and delays facing some civil servants and pension scheme members in accessing their pensions is unacceptable.
In response, we have set up a dedicated a surge team of 150 staff to work alongside the 500 Capita staff to clear the backlog. There is an agreed recovery plan in place that prioritises the most urgent cases including bereavements, ill health and hardship cases and has clear timelines and targets for full-service restoration for all members.
No former civil servant should be facing financial hardship as a result of delays to their pension and we are putting in place direct support for people facing delays in their first payments. We are also actively working with all partners to ensure affected members do not suffer permanent financial loss as a result of this issue.
The Cabinet Office has set out arrangements whereby employing departments are able to make interest-free hardship loans to those who are waiting for their pension benefits.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the speech by the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister on 20 January, what the budget will be for the new National School of Government and Public Services.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The National School of Government and Public Services will be part of the Cabinet Office. Its annual budget will be defined through normal Cabinet Office processes with any relevant information published as part of the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts. The creation of the National School is expected to deliver efficiency savings of between £4m-£15m across the spending review period 2026-29.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the Government Property Agency’s total expenditure was in 2024–25 on measuring, collecting, reporting or validating greenhouse gas emissions across the Government estate; and what the Agency’s projected annual expenditure is for each of the next five financial years on those activities.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
This information is not available. GPA do not manage the greenhouse gas emissions data across all of the government estate.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department plans to provide local authorities with guidance on whole society resilience.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
In July 2025, the Government published its Resilience Action Plan which set out its approach to enable the whole of society to take action to increase resilience.
The Resilience Guidance Doctrine on GOV.UK brings all resilience guidance together in one place. It supports local responders, including local authorities, to understand how to fulfil their duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and how to work with partners to drive community resilience.
There is also specific guidance in the ‘Local Authorities Preparedness for Civil Emergencies: A Good Practice Guide for Chief Executives’, which provides assistance to local authorities to make sure they are well-prepared to respond and recover from emergencies, including how to work collaboratively with wider partners. In response to the Grenfell Inquiry recommendations, MHCLG has committed to review this guidance further.
Additionally, the Government, UK Resilience Academy, Local Government Association and Society of Local Authority Chief Executives are running a pilot to test a new training offer to local authority chief executives and all relevant staff.