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 his Department's transparency data entitled Expenditure Over £25,000 - September 2025 (Cabinet Office Core), published on 30 October 2025, what works does the entry of Variable FM Expenditure - Client Requested workplace services via OCS Group UK Limited relate to.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The GPA procured this service on behalf of the occupying tenant, who has a requirement for staff to hold high security clearance. This cost is fully recovered from the occupying tenant, and is not funded by GPA or Cabinet Office budgets.
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 4 November 2025, to Question 85508, on Permanent Secretaries: Redundancy Pay, whether the Cabinet Office holds a central list of which Permanent Secretaries have received severance payments since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Yes, the Cabinet Office holds a central list of Permanent Secretaries leavers who have received compensation payment since 4 July 2024.
Payments are published in departmental Annual Reports and Accounts for the financial years in which they were made.
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 30 October 2025, to Question 84251, on Government Departments: Facilities Agreements, whether government departments are required to inform the Cabinet Office if they permit trade unions to spend facility time on trade union activities, or otherwise make changes to their policy on permitted facility time.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The existing Cabinet Office facility time framework, implemented under the previous administration and unchanged, does not require departments to inform the Cabinet Office if they permit paid time off to undertake activities, although this does require the agreement of their Secretary of State or Chief Executive. Departments do not need Cabinet Office approval to amend their own policies on the use of facility time.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress he has made on the launch of Community Help Partnerships.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government announced Community Help Partnerships (CHPs) at the Spending Review. Since then, we have been working closely with a wide range of stakeholders—including people with lived experience, the voluntary sector, and central and local government—to design a programme of preventative support for adults experiencing disadvantage.
This will build on learning from the Changing Futures’ crisis-focused programme. CHPs will go further in addressing systemic barriers to allow local services to provide better integrated, earlier preventative support. The Cabinet Office is working closely with MHCLG to coordinate the two programmes.
We are continuing to explore how to strengthen alignment with wider place-based public sector reform. Further details will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how the new Community Help Partnerships will differ from the Changing Futures Programme.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government announced Community Help Partnerships (CHPs) at the Spending Review. Since then, we have been working closely with a wide range of stakeholders—including people with lived experience, the voluntary sector, and central and local government—to design a programme of preventative support for adults experiencing disadvantage.
This will build on learning from the Changing Futures’ crisis-focused programme. CHPs will go further in addressing systemic barriers to allow local services to provide better integrated, earlier preventative support. The Cabinet Office is working closely with MHCLG to coordinate the two programmes.
We are continuing to explore how to strengthen alignment with wider place-based public sector reform. Further details will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Lorraine Beavers (Labour - Blackpool North and Fleetwood)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how allocations will be decided for new Community Help Partnerships.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government announced Community Help Partnerships (CHPs) at the Spending Review. Since then, we have been working closely with a wide range of stakeholders—including people with lived experience, the voluntary sector, and central and local government—to design a programme of preventative support for adults experiencing disadvantage.
This will build on learning from the Changing Futures’ crisis-focused programme. CHPs will go further in addressing systemic barriers to allow local services to provide better integrated, earlier preventative support. The Cabinet Office is working closely with MHCLG to coordinate the two programmes.
We are continuing to explore how to strengthen alignment with wider place-based public sector reform. Further details will be announced in due course.
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 (a) amend and (b) modernise the Lieutenancies Act 1997.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There are no plans to amend or update the Lieutenancies Act 1997.
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 10 October 2025, to Question 74211, on Prime Minister: Recruitment, if he will list the information requested for appointments below SCS2.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer of 10 October 2025, Official Report, PQ 74211.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many FTE civil servants there were across Government in England by region in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Information on the number of FTE civil servants by region is published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics. This information can be found at Table 10 of each of the annual publications data tables available at the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics#annual-statistics
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 26 September 2025, to Question 74202, Civil Service: Unpaid Work, how will the Cabinet Office determine the social class of an applicant to the intern scheme if their parents have divorced and re-married by the age of 14, and the applicant has two different blended families.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The specific measure we use to determine socio-economic background of an applicant for the Summer Internship Programme is the occupation of the ‘main household earner’ when the applicant was 14 years old. This is in line with the guidance from the ONS and Social Mobility Commission.