Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the reason why the public statement on 6 January about the appointment of Axel Heitmueller as Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and Expert Adviser on Delivery does not include his (1) remuneration, or (2) expected end date, in line with paragraph 21 of Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, published October 2025.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

This information was published by the government on the new Direct Ministerial Appointments Announcements Portal.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to Permanent secretary model employment contract, deposited in the House of Commons Library on 4 December 2025 (DEP2025-0830), whether they will place the model contract for the Senior Civil Service in the Library of the House.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

A copy of the model contract has been placed in the House Library.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 23 December 2025 (HL13096), who took the decision not to include any political activity information in Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25, published on 2 December 2025; and why page 41 of The Commissioner for Public Appointments Annual Report 2024-25, published on 17 December 2025, contained political activity data on regulated public appointments that was not listed in the Cabinet Office's Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The decision not to include political activity data in the Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25 was taken by officials, due to a data collection issue which limited the data that was available.

The Commissioner for Public Appointments sources data from the Cabinet Office. As an independent regulator, he reports separately to the government and decided to include this limited data.

The data collection issue has been rectified, and this information will be considered for inclusion in the 2025-26 data report. In the meantime, information about the political activity of individual public appointees is available on the announcement page of the public appointment digital service.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to paragraph 23 of Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, published in October 2025, whether (1) the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary, and (2) the Cabinet Propriety and Ethics Team, have approved any individual exemptions to the publication of details of direct ministerial appointments for appointees who are currently in post.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

There are no such cases.

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.

Found: Letter dated 28/01/2026 from Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent to Baroness Finn regarding the debate