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.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of deaths related to climate change in each county in England.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Lord Foster of Bath
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
04 February 2026
Dear Lord Foster,
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate has been made of the number of deaths related to climate change in each county in England (HL14056).
The ONS published Climate-related mortality, England and Wales: 1988 to 20221 in 2023. This release used climate and mortality data from 1988 to 2022 to analyse temperature-related mortality in England and Wales. The analysis estimates the relative risk, numbers and rates of death per 100,000 population associated with changing temperatures, based on a statistical model. Publication of updated estimates based on an enhanced statistical model and including data up to 2025 is provisionally planned for mid-2026.
Data is available for each English region and for Wales. However, data is not available by individual county in England.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which minister will be responsible for coordinating the implementation of the child poverty strategy across government and accountable for the progress of that strategy.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The responsibility for coordinating the implementation of the Child Poverty Strategy across government lies with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Education.
Accountability for delivering constituent measures sits with the relevant Secretary of State.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress his Department has made on achieving the Government’s objectives for supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises participation in public procurement.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is determined to ensure the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually delivers economic growth and supports British businesses, especially SMEs.
The Cabinet Office does not hold a central record of the proportion of procurement contracts awarded by each Government Department to SMEs over the last five financial years. The Government is, however, introducing targets for SME spend going forwards.
The Government is also taking a number of further steps to support SMEs.
We have published a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) which requires contracting authorities to consider ways to increase procurement spend with SMEs and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).
The Crown Commercial Service has also published an SME Action Plan which sets out the steps it is taking to support Government Departments maximise their procurement spend with SMEs, by removing barriers to participation and opening up opportunities to SMEs through their commercial agreements.
We have also introduced changes allowing local councils to reserve over one billion pounds worth of lower value contracts to suppliers based locally or within the UK which has recently become law, a step strongly supported by SMEs.
We will set out further reforms, including the response to the recent public procurement consultation, in due course. These reforms will further support British SMEs to bid for contracts.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of procurement contracts awarded by each Government Department were to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises in each of the last five financial years.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is determined to ensure the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually delivers economic growth and supports British businesses, especially SMEs.
The Cabinet Office does not hold a central record of the proportion of procurement contracts awarded by each Government Department to SMEs over the last five financial years. The Government is, however, introducing targets for SME spend going forwards.
The Government is also taking a number of further steps to support SMEs.
We have published a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) which requires contracting authorities to consider ways to increase procurement spend with SMEs and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).
The Crown Commercial Service has also published an SME Action Plan which sets out the steps it is taking to support Government Departments maximise their procurement spend with SMEs, by removing barriers to participation and opening up opportunities to SMEs through their commercial agreements.
We have also introduced changes allowing local councils to reserve over one billion pounds worth of lower value contracts to suppliers based locally or within the UK which has recently become law, a step strongly supported by SMEs.
We will set out further reforms, including the response to the recent public procurement consultation, in due course. These reforms will further support British SMEs to bid for contracts.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the assessment criteria the Department uses to determine whether the supplier of externally-contracted services has been responsible for a critical performance failure in delivering its contractual commitments.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office does not utilise a single, universal set of assessment criteria for determining whether a supplier is responsible for a critical performance failure. Instead, specific criteria are defined within each individual contract, generally aligning with the standard definitions in the Model Services Contract.
The Cabinet Office remains committed to promoting high standards of supplier performance and compliance with all relevant procurement legislation.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to counter espionage within the civil service.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government Security Group (GSG) is part of the Cabinet Office and is the centre of the Government Security Function. GSG is responsible for the oversight and coordination of protective security within all central government departments, their agencies, and arm’s length bodies.
GSG works with stakeholders across government to mitigate risks posed to government security from a range of threats, including espionage, and is constantly seeking to develop and strengthen measures to improve its risk mitigation capability.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government Commercial Agency is taking to help improve access to Government procurement processes for (a) Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and (b) other suppliers with expertise in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is determined to ensure the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually delivers economic growth and supports British businesses, especially SMEs.
The Cabinet Office does not hold a central record of the proportion of procurement contracts awarded by each Government Department to SMEs over the last five financial years. The Government is, however, introducing targets for SME spend going forwards.
The Government is also taking a number of further steps to support SMEs.
We have published a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) which requires contracting authorities to consider ways to increase procurement spend with SMEs and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).
The Crown Commercial Service has also published an SME Action Plan which sets out the steps it is taking to support Government Departments maximise their procurement spend with SMEs, by removing barriers to participation and opening up opportunities to SMEs through their commercial agreements.
We have also introduced changes allowing local councils to reserve over one billion pounds worth of lower value contracts to suppliers based locally or within the UK which has recently become law, a step strongly supported by SMEs.
We will set out further reforms, including the response to the recent public procurement consultation, in due course. These reforms will further support British SMEs to bid for contracts.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department has spent on X premium, and on which tier, in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office has spent £302.40 on X premium for two subscriptions in the last 12 months.
(i) COBR’s National Situation Centre paid for its National Security Watchkeepers to access the X-Premium+ service X Pro. The National Security Watchkeepers use X Pro, and other tools, to monitor open source information to identify national security and civil contingencies risks.
(ii) Fast Stream and Emerging Talent spent £100.80 on X Premium membership in FY25/26. This was mainly because it provides access to an analytics dashboard, not available on the free version, to monitor campaign effectiveness. It also allows for longer posts, enabling us to better engage with our target audience. This membership will not be renewed for the next financial year.