Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the National Audit Office report, Lessons learned: the government’s use of external consultants, HC: 1381, 21 November 2025, Figure 10, what specific data is collected on Government spending by (a) Oxygen Finance and (b) Jaggaer Spend.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Since 2010, Central Government departments publish expenditure above £25,000 on a monthly basis. Oxygen Finance aggregates this transparency data to provide reports on spending by a particular department or category.
Jaggaer Spend relies on data generated by payments processed through public sector procurement systems, as opposed to published invoice data.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Downing Street press release, "Appointment of Axel Heitmueller as Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and Expert Adviser on Delivery", of 6 January 2026, what is (a) the time commitment expected of the role, (b) the expected end date of the appointment, (c) the monetary amount of his remuneration, and (d) his terms of reference.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Information about this role was published by the government on the new Direct Ministerial Appointments Announcements Portal: https://apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/direct-ministerial-appointments-announcements.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the (a) name, (b) job title, (c) annual remuneration, (d) time commitment and (e) expected end date is for each direct ministerial appointment in the Cabinet Office, including those appointed by the Prime Minister, the Leader of the House of Commons and the Leader of the House of Lords.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
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Information related to Direct Ministerial Appointments can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77118 on Lord Mandelson, if he will place in the Library a copy of the due diligence undertaken by his Department on Lord Mandelson before his appointment.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Due diligence was undertaken prior to the appointment of the former Ambassador to the United States, and was part of an established process to collate relevant information as part of the identification and selection of the appointee.
In line with the practice across multiple administrations, the government does not publish such material.
I refer the Hon. Member to the Cabinet Secretary’s letter of 30 October 2025 to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which sets out the process and information contained in the due diligence report: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50019/documents/269409/default/
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 67 of the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts 2024-25, published on 23 October 2025, if he will list the venues that Cabinet away days took place in 2024-25.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Cabinet away days taking place in 2024-2025 have been located at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Lancaster House and Chequers.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the (a) governance structure, (b) terms of reference for the (i) Senior Steering Group, (ii) Champions Network and (iii) Expert Advisory Group, (c) minutes, (d) declared interests and (e) any recorded conflicts of interest and information on how these were managed for One Big Thing 2024.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The following sets out the key individuals and groups that made up the governance structure for One Big Thing 2024, including their roles:
Group/Individual | Membership | Role |
Sponsor for One Big Thing 2024 | Jo Shanmugalingam, 2nd Permanent Secretary, DfT (at the time) | Responsible for advocacy/ championing One Big Thing 2024 and encouraging participation across the Civil Service. |
Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) | Sapana Agrawal, Director for Civil Service Strategy Unit | Day-to-day leadership of One Big Thing, responsible for ensuring the project meets its objectives. |
Senior Steering Group | Sponsor, SRO, and other senior civil servants (SCS) with responsibility for relevant areas such as Civil Service Communications, Government People Group, and Government Digital Service. | This group acted as a review and challenge function and assured that the design aligned with the needs of the Civil Service. It was responsible for signing off on the approach and products. |
Departmental Champions | SCS departmental champions, nominated by permanent secretaries. | Responsible for ensuring successful delivery and participation in their departments and feeding into overall initiative design and plan via monthly Champion Network meetings. |
Expert Advisory Group | Internal and external innovation experts | This group provided advice to inform the design and development of the One Big Thing 2024 learning offer. |
Central working group | The central project management team in the Cabinet Office’s Civil Service Strategy Unit and delivery partners. | Day-to-day delivery across workstreams, including training products, comms and engagement, platform, data collection, and evaluation. |
No conflicts of interest were recorded. The Expert Advisory Group had representation from external experts from the private sector and academia. Their role was limited to providing subject matter expertise, with no decision-making/ sign-off authority or involvement with delivery.
We are unable to publish the minutes of meetings, as requested, as the effective design of One Big Thing is reliant upon these being internal forums for free and frank discussions, with attendees often providing informal opinions or preliminary views.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 21 October 2025 to Question 82673 on Government Departments: Social Media, how much has been spent on the two agencies for influencer work since July 2024.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There are no plans to publish specific financial details in the public domain.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts 2024-25, HC1372, was published in October.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office Annual Report and Account 2024-25 was laid on 23 October 2025. Departments seek to lay their 2024-25 annual reports as soon as they are able to do so before the statutory deadline of 31 January 2026.
This publication is in line with those of previous years, and comes earlier than the Cabinet Office Annual Report and Account 2023-24, published in December 2024.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 58 of the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts 2024-25, published on 23 October 2025, if he will set out the types of personal data reported to the Information Commissioner's Office in each of the eight incidents; and if he will set what types of data were compromised in the Capita cyber-attack.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Please see below the data items as recorded on the notification forms to the Information Commissioner’s Office for the eight incidents referred to on page 58 of the Cabinet Office annual reports and accounts 2024-25:
Incident 1 - Health, name, contact details, date of birth
Incident 2 - Name, account numbers and sort codes
Incident 3 - Names, addresses, dates of birth and medical information
Incident 4 - Name, date of birth, home address and brief medical history
Incident 5 - Names, work email addresses, job roles/grade
Incident 6 - Name, Address, National Insurance Number, economic and financial data
Incident 7 - Name, Address, National Insurance Number, economic and financial data
Incident 8 - Name, allegations of improper conduct
In the majority of the above reported incidents either individual or very small numbers of data subjects were affected by the breach.
Regarding the Capita incident, the types of personal data recorded in the Information Commissioner’s Office notification are as follows:
Name
Contact details
Account numbers and sort codes
Health data
Economic and financial data, e.g. credit card numbers, bank details
Copies of official documents, e.g. driving licences
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 35 of the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts 2024-25, published on 23 October 2025, if he will list each (a) Minister and (b) senior official who made use of the Government Car Service; and what were the greenhouse gas emissions reported for 2024-25.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government Car Service (GCS) provides vehicles to departments as a shared resource and does not record the use of the vehicle on an individual basis. In relation to the specific greenhouse gas emissions of GCS reported for 2024-25, GCS was transferred from the Department for Transport to the Cabinet Office in April 2025. The Cabinet Office does not, therefore, hold information on GCS prior to this date.