Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the latest figures for the number of trainee welders in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Rt. Hon the Lord Spellar
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
09 December 2025
Dear Lord Spellar
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the latest figures for the number of trainee welders in the UK are (HL12585).
The ONS uses the Annual Population Survey (APS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK, to estimate information on apprentices and the number of people in different occupations. We classify people’s occupations using the Standard Occupational Classification 2020 (SOC20), based on their own description of their occupation. For this question we have used SOC20 group 5213, welding trades.
Table 1 contains APS estimates of the number of apprentices in occupation 5213, welding trades, resident in the UK, for APS periods from July 2021 to June 2022, until July 2024 to June 2025, the latest APS dataset available. All estimates in Table 1 are based on a small sample size. This may result in less precise estimates, which should be used with caution. The ongoing challenges with response rates, response levels and weighting approach mean that labour market statistics based on the Annual Population Survey (APS) are subject to increased volatility and are considered ’official statistics in development’ until further review.
Table 1: Number of apprentices in the Welding Trades (SOC20 5213), UK, not seasonally adjusted
Period | Level (000s) |
July 2021 to June 2022 | 3 |
July 2022 to June 2023 | 6 |
July 2023 to June 2024 | 4 |
July 2024 to June 2025 | 4 |
Source: Annual Population Survey
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Coaker on 11 June (HL8373), when they now expect to announce the appointment of the National Armaments Director.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer to the previous answer provided by my colleague Lord Coaker. Rupert Pearce was named as the new National Armaments Director on Tuesday 14 October 2025.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which trade unions are recognised by the MyCSP.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
MyCSP operates as a private company, delivering the administration of Civil Service pensions through commercial contract arrangements starting 2013 and ending December 2025.
Any decisions concerning the recognition of trade unions are made independently by them as the employer. They are contractually obliged to comply with UK legislation, which includes worker and employment rights, including those rights associated with trade union recognition.
As far as we are aware, MyCSP does not currently recognise any trade unions either by voluntary or statutory arrangement. They do have staff representation on their Board.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many public inquiries are currently ongoing, what was their total cost last year, and what is their estimated cost for the current year.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are currently 18 ongoing public inquiries.
The Cabinet Office does not hold data on the current or projected costs of each public inquiry. Sponsor departments should hold this information for the inquiries under their remit, and, in some cases, it is published on inquiries' own websites.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what has been the cost to date for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry; and what estimate they have made of the future budget in each of the next two years.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
It is important that lessons are learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent of government and it is right that we allow the Chair to continue her important work. The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary costs in the Inquiry’s work, and she has been clear in her intention to complete her work as quickly and efficiently as possible.
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry publishes quarterly financial reports outlining the cost to date of the Inquiry. As of the end of Quarter 2 for 2024/25, the total expenditure of the Inquiry is £124.18m. New Q3 costs will be published in the usual way.
Additionally, the Cabinet Office regularly publishes government costs in responding to the Inquiry. From the start of the 2023/24 financial year to the end of Q2 2024/25, the government response costs total £64.6m.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance has been issued to (a) Ministers and (b) officials on the retention of (i) social media and (ii) other content on phones provided to them for official use.
Answered by Michael Ellis
Departments set guidance on the retention and disposal of information, for both their ministers and officials, based on the requirements of the Public Records Act 1958.
In order to support Departments, the Cabinet Office has previously published Guidance on the Management of Private Office Papers and Guidance to departments on use of private emails. In addition, a revised Code of Practice on Records Management, issued under Section 46 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, was laid on 15 July 2021 by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment has he made of the (a) efficiency and (b) effectiveness of UK Security Vetting.
Answered by Michael Ellis
UK Security Vetting is subject to an agreed set of Key Performance Indicator (KPI) measures which are monitored by the government at ministerial level and by the customers serviced by UKSV.
In relation to the effectiveness of UK Security Vetting, National Security Vetting is conducted and security clearances provided by UK Security Vetting in line with a robust set of Personnel Security Controls and Security Policy Framework as set out by the Cabinet Office and adhered to across government and by industry partners. Work is ongoing within the Government Security Group to improve and modernise the effectiveness of vetting overall, in line with the Government’s wider modernisation agenda and to keep pace with the threats faced by the UK today.
Asked by: Lord Spellar (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he will reply to the correspondence of 12 August 2021 from the hon. Member for Warley on Mr Zaman.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The Rt Hon Member wrote to Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), which is independent of the Cabinet Office. I understand that the PHSO did receive the Rt Hon Member’s letter of 12 August 2021, and will respond shortly.