Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Government press release entitled Internship Scheme To Get More Working Class Students Into Civil Service, published on 1 August 2025, how many Civil Service internship schemes the Government will run in 2026; and what the eligibility requirements of each will be.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
As we set out in August, we will be opening our Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme exclusively for undergraduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds for 2026. We will determine eligibility based on parental occupation at age 14 in line with guidance from the Social Mobility Commission. The Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme is a cross government internship programme led by the Cabinet Office. All other internship programmes across the Civil Service, arm’s length bodies and public corporations are responsible for setting their own eligibility criteria to suit the specific needs of the recruiting organisation. The exact number of other internship programmes and their eligibility criteria is not held centrally.
For those who do not meet the criteria for the Summer Internship Programme but wish to pursue a career in the Civil Service, there are other opportunities for them to explore via the Civil Service Jobs website (https://www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/) or the Civil Service Fast Stream (https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/fast-stream/).
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the press release of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament of 1 May 2025, and pursuant to the Answer of 3 June 2025 to Question 54011 on Intelligence and Security Committee, what assessment he has made of the potential implications for his Department’s policies of the Committee's representation to the Government that safeguards against conflicts of interest have now been comprehensively dismantled.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
Established processes are in place to monitor and manage actual and perceived conflicts of interest.
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 17 September 2024 to Question 4667 on Nick Joicey, for what reason the internal move was deemed exceptional circumstances.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
I refer the hon Member to 4667. The Civil Service Commission is operationally independent of the government.
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 5 December 2024 to Question 16512 on Government Communication Service, and with reference to the FOI Internal Review response IR2025/05101 of 29 May 2025, if she will place in the Library a list of the Government Communication Service staff broken down by (a) department and (b) agency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Government Communications is made up of around 6,000 professional communicators from across the UK, supporting and promoting the work of 25 ministerial departments, 21 non-ministerial departments and over 300 agencies and other public bodies. The list provided for the response to IR2025/05101 breaks this down further, and will be submitted for entry into the House of Commons library.
The Government Communication Service headcount can be found on Gov.uk at this link here.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate he has made of the number of headcount members of the Government Communication Service; and what estimate he has made of the number of embedded communications across central government that are not included with the Government Communication Service.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Government Communications is made up of around 6,000 professional communicators from across the UK, supporting and promoting the work of 25 ministerial departments, 21 non-ministerial departments and over 300 agencies and other public bodies. The list provided for the response to IR2025/05101 breaks this down further, and will be submitted for entry into the House of Commons library.
The Government Communication Service headcount can be found on Gov.uk at this link here.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the headcount of staff included within the Government Communications Service is.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Government Communications is made up of around 6,000 professional communicators from across the UK, supporting and promoting the work of 25 ministerial departments, 21 non-ministerial departments and over 300 agencies and other public bodies. The list provided for the response to IR2025/05101 breaks this down further, and will be submitted for entry into the House of Commons library.
The Government Communication Service headcount can be found on Gov.uk at this link here.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2025 to Question HL8627 on Cabinet Office: Managers, which business units the 540 staff leaving are from.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The 540 refers to the number of applications that were approved and is subject to the individual's final acceptance.
The voluntary exit process has not yet concluded, so we are unable to report on which business units individuals will be leaving from.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the eligibility criteria for the MI5, MI6 and GCHQ Summer Intelligence Internship on people from disadvantaged white working class backgrounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In recent years, UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) has run a number of internships and placement schemes. They are designed to provide insight about what it is like to work in UKIC to individuals who have particular skills and experience, want to work in a particular area and/or are from demographics and backgrounds under-represented across Government.
Any internship participant wishing to subsequently apply for employment with UKIC or the Civil Service is required to take part in a fair and open competition, in the normal way, with selection based on merit.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what data the Office for National Statistics holds on the average income of people by (a) class and (b) type of profession.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 29th August is attached.
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 21 January 2025 to Question 23677 on Transgender People, whether his Department has completed its revision of the guidance on gender reassignment.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The current model Gender Reassignment HR policy and guidance was issued in 2019. A review to update it was started in 2023 under the previous administration. The recent Supreme Court ruling in the For Women Scotland case and revision of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Code of Practice has had implications for this review. This is therefore ongoing and the revised policy and guidance will be shared with departments in due course.