Asked by: Martin Wrigley (Liberal Democrat - Newton Abbot)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when his Department plans to respond to the Freedom of Information Act request by the hon. Member for Newton Abbot on records of meetings between Boris Johnson and Peter Thiel.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office responded to the Hon. Member’s request on 8 January 2026, within the statutory time limit.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, on what evidential basis his Department has estimated the number of officials who plan to leave through the voluntary exit scheme; and how many plan to leave by Department and public body.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office collects some data on projected exits through its management of the Redundancy and Compensation control, based on departmental returns.
In terms of exits, I refer you to my previous answer PQ 82675. The most accurate data is held by individual departments, and will be reported in their Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many full time equivalent staff support Civil Service Coffee Connect.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
We have been unable to identify any such central Civil Service initiative.
Asked by: Blake Stephenson (Conservative - Mid Bedfordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to prevent the creation of fake Digital IDs.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The UK’s digital ID scheme will be built to the highest security standards, following National Cyber Security Centre guidance.
To help guard against fake digital IDs, we propose that any checking of such IDs will be done via a robust digital process. For example, we do not think people should be able to ‘flash’ their digital ID on their phone screen.
This will help ensure a digital ID has not been faked, tampered with or revoked.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, further to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts, data for July to September 2025, published on 25 December 2025, how the publication timetable was determined.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The timetable for publishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is set by the Government Commercial Function (GCF). The data for July to September 2025 was published on time, and in the usual way.
Since this Government has come into office, the GCF has shortened the overall publication timeline of KPIs from approximately 16 to 12 weeks. This allows for the performance data to be published closer to the reporting period, thereby improving the transparency of government contract performance for the public.
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 9 December 2025 to Question 94708 on Senior Civil Servants: Training, what the syllabus is for the training; and whether it includes equality, diversity and inclusion training.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Senior Leaders Scheme (SLS) is a 12 month leadership programme aimed at SCS1 Deputy Directors which focuses on creating a diverse and robust pipeline through to the most senior roles in government. The curriculum consists of four core modules:
Development
Collaboration
Futures
Transformation
These modules are supported by executive coaching, action learning sets and elective masterclasses; ‘Futures Capability’ and ‘Practical Networking’
There is no specific module or training on equality, diversity and inclusion within SLS, although inclusive leadership is inherently part of the programme.
The Directors Leadership Programme is a 12 month leadership programme aimed at high performing SCS2 Directors which focuses on systems leadership, biases and power, public interest, building cultures of respect, as well as leading at scale.
This is done through a selection of residential modules, action learning sets, frontline experiences as well as workshops involving communicating including storytelling.
Although the topics look at inclusion in leadership, there is no specific EDI content or module.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Department has made of the salary outcomes, promotion rates and role progression of participants in the Directors Leadership Programme compared to a control group of comparable civil servants who did not participate; and what cost benefit analysis the Department has undertaken on expenditure on the programme including any assessment of average time to promotion, changes in performance markings, retention rates and the financial return on investment to the public purse.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
A comprehensive assessment of salary outcomes, promotion rates, and role progression for Directors Leadership Programme participants against a control group (or formal cost-benefit analysis) is not currently feasible. A feasibility assessment for management evaluations showed that the required workforce data for rigorous evaluation on these issues are either not easily available or not held centrally; or sufficient time has not passed for enough participants to provide robust data on these measures. An implementation and process evaluation of DLP is in progress, with a public-facing report expected around Summer 2026. A public-facing report is also planned at the same time on the lessons learned (and guidance) on sharing workforce data to facilitate analysis in future on similar issues.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, further to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for government’s most important contracts, Data for July to September 2025, published on 25 December 2025, for what reason the Government People Group PeopleScout Ltd contract has a KPI where the Supplier will only accept work commissions directly from the customer, and not from VH or depts.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The process was designed and implemented to improve operational efficiency. Through streamlining our commissioning and invoicing approach we have demonstrated our continuous improvement ambition for effective contract management.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to set targets for the number of civil servants appointed based on their socio-economic background.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
As set out in the Civil Service People Plan 2024-2027, we are committed to ensuring we attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds to create a modern Civil Service, now and for the future. There are no plans to set targets for the recruitment of civil servants based on their socio-economic background.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the annual cost has been of the META programme in the past financial year, including the development centre, executive coaching, workshops, senior mentorship and all administration, and how many individuals participated in the past year.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The total expenditure for the delivery of the META Leadership Programme in the last financial year (20024/25) totalled to £534,225. This figure incorporates £355,782 in resourcing/administration, allocated to delivery of META and an additional programme conducted during this timeframe, as well as alumni activities. Over this period, 133 core participants took part over two intakes.