Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including timber supply metrics in the National Security Risk Assessment.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) is the government’s principal tool for identifying and assessing the most serious malicious and non-malicious risks facing the United Kingdom and its interests overseas.
Whilst timber supply is not currently included as a discrete risk, both threat to domestic timber and critical supply chain disruption are considered from a range of causes across the NSRA. Malicious risks impacting imports and a plant pest affecting UK forestry, for example, currently assess this topic.
Furthermore, all risks are assessed for their economic and macroeconomic impacts, and a disruption to construction materials sufficient to disrupt the UK economy (regardless of cause) may be identified here.
Both the NSRA and the publicly available version, the National Risk Register (NRR), are kept under continual review to reflect the changing risk landscape. During every update, policy makers are encouraged to consider the potential implications of their risk across a range of sectors.
The Lead Government Department (LGD) model ensures departments with the day-to-day responsibility for an issue or sector are responsible for leading work to identify serious risks and ensuring that the right planning, response and recovery arrangements are in place.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to give the Intelligence and Security Committee the power to (a) summon witnesses and (b) sanction individuals in the event that any person from the security and intelligence services provides misleading information to that committee.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government values the independent and robust oversight which the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) provides. The Justice and Security Act 2013 (JSA2013) was designed to ensure the ISC has the necessary access to highly classified material while protecting national security. The Government remains confident current arrangements remain fit for purpose.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether advice on the (a) strengths and (b) weaknesses of individual appointable candidates were given to the Prime Minister by the Civil Service on the appointment of the (i) previous and (ii) current Cabinet Secretary.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer to my answer 115556, the Cabinet Manual sets out that the Cabinet Secretary is appointed directly by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister receives advice from the First Civil Service Commissioner, but is the final decision maker.
The announcement of the previous Cabinet Secretary (here) explained that “this appointment was made following a full fair and open external competition, chaired by the First Civil Service Commissioner.”
The announcement of the current Cabinet Secretary (here) explained that “the Prime Minister and the First Civil Service Commissioner agreed a process to appoint a new Cabinet Secretary. Once this process was complete, the First Civil Service Commissioner confirmed that Dame Antonia Romeo is an exceptional candidate of the highest calibre, having run two of the largest operational departments in Government, and confirmed her track record makes her the right candidate for the role.
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 review recruitment practices in the public sector.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The public sector - healthcare, education, emergency services, and infrastructure - has delegated authority to determine their own recruitment needs, job roles and hires in line with organisational and industry guidelines.
With regard to the Civil Service, the Government is committed to ensuring it attracts, develops, and retains talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds. To support this, we are currently reviewing and implementing several measures.
Asked by: Stuart Anderson (Conservative - South Shropshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to help ensure that public services are coterminous.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is committed to the effective delivery of public services through cross-departmental collaboration, including the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's focus on place-based approaches. The Prime Minister has established a Public Services Committee, chaired by the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister. The Committee is considering all matters related to improving the population’s experience of public services.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what lessons his Department has learned about the impact of recent global conflicts and pandemics on UK strategic autonomy.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK National Security Strategy is clear that we need to increase our preparations for potential threats, from future pandemics to energy and supply chain disruption.
The UK's alliances and partnerships are critical to our safety and our collective security is a source of significant strength. But it must be delivered in the right way, mitigating against areas of over-dependence and moving instead towards interdependence.
We are embedding lessons from COVID-19, including those of the COVID-19 Inquiry. The largest ever national pandemic response exercise was conducted last year, testing coordination efforts across all regions and nations of the UK and we published the new Pandemic Preparedness Strategy in March 2026, alongside £1 billion of investment in health protection.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Cabinet Office news story entitled Dame Antonia Romeo appointed as first female Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service to drive change and implement the government’s agenda, published on 19 February 2026, if he will publish the recruitment process to select the Cabinet Secretary, including whether it was a open and fair competition.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer to my answer for 115556, following the departure of Sir Chris Wormald as Cabinet Secretary, the Prime Minister and the First Civil Service Commissioner agreed a process to appoint a new Cabinet Secretary.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the new Cabinet Secretary is on a level transfer from her previous role.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service is the most senior role in the Civil service and a level transfer is not possible.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has approved an exit payment to the most recently departed Cabinet Secretary.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The necessary approvals were given, as set out in the Guidance on Public Sector Exit Payments.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to publish an updated National Resilience Strategy covering food, energy, health, critical minerals and supply chain vulnerabilities.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government published the Resilience Action Plan on 8 July 2025 to set out its resilience strategy. It set out three core objectives to improve the UK’s resilience to the full range of risks we face: (1) continually assess how resilient the UK is in order to target interventions and resources; (2) enable the whole of society to take action to improve their resilience; and (3) strengthen the core public resilience system. These objectives inform a series of activities to deliver greater resilience across the whole of society.
Designated Lead Government Departments are responsible for leading work to identify risks within their sectors and ensuring that planning, response and recovery arrangements are in place.