Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Department will make an estimate of the current UK population based on food consumption data.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question’s of 22nd January is attached.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Department will make an estimate of the current UK population based on water usage data.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question’s of 22nd January is attached.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Department will make an estimate of the current UK population based on waste disposal.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question’s of 22nd January is attached.
Asked by: Graham Leadbitter (Scottish National Party - Moray West, Nairn and Strathspey)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 4 December 2025 on Question 95787 on the Prime Minister, what is the estimated total departmental spend by his department to supporting the Minister for the Union in their role since the office was established.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As set out in our response from 4th December 2025, budgets are allocated to departments, rather than specific ministerial roles. Departmental expenditure can be reviewed in the Cabinet Office’s published Annual Report and Accounts.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the ethnic pay gap reporting framework will require employers to record and report pay gap data for Jewish and Sikh employees as distinct ethnic groups.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Our consultation on ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting closed in June 2025. The consultation sought views on the proposed approach, including whether ethnicity data should be collected following the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Ethnicity Harmonised Standard. Good progress has been made in analysing the responses and we will publish the Government response to the consultation in due course.
The ONS current harmonised standard does not include specific “Sikh” and “Jewish” categories for a person’s ethnic group. The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which is independent of government, is currently running a public consultation which seeks to review the harmonised standard to ensure it meets the needs of both data users and respondents.
We will monitor the progress of this review during policy development.
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 3 June 2025 to Question 54279 on Cabinet Office: Repairs and Maintenance, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the refurbishment of the No. 9 media room.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
A one-off refresh of the facility was undertaken in December 2024. Work was carried out to the appropriate standard.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance the Cabinet Office have issued to departments since the start of December 2025 about the approach to answering Written Questions about direct ministerial appointments; whether the Cabinet Office has made departments aware of expectation of transparency on direct ministerial appointments in the Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, published October 2025; and what assessment they have made of compliance with that guidance of (1) the original, and (2) the corrected, Written Answer by the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office on 7 January (HC98100).
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Cabinet Office wrote to departments when the Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments was published, highlighting the contents of the guidance. As the guidance sets out, the responsibility for the publication of information about direct ministerial appointments rests with individual departments.
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 Environment Agency's job vacancy, Strategy and Government Relations Advisor, reference 32597, closing date 4 January 2026, what is his policy on public bodies hiring advisors to engage with the Government.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Environment Agency is a Non-Departmental Public Body, and does not form part of HM Civil Service. Non-Departmental Public Bodies are expected to engage with a range of stakeholders, including relevant Government departments, Parliamentarians across both Houses, Parliamentary Select Committees, and other key stakeholders pertinent to their work.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2025, to Question 92614, on Deputy Prime Minister: Admiralty House, if he will publish the Government Property Agency letter of June 2025.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Communications between officials and third parties are not published as their disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs. The release of individual names would also be a breach of data protection under the General Data Protection Regulations.
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 report entitled Civil Service sickness absence, 2025 published on 16 December 2025, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of Civil Service (a) long-term and (b) short-term sickness rates.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Civil Service sickness absence data, published on 16 December 2025, indicates a rise in both long-term and short-term sickness absence across the Civil Service, both since the previous year and over the past decade.
(Source: Civil Service sickness absence data published on 16 December 2025)