Mike Wood

There is no definition of gender, sexual orientation or gender identity formally recognised and used by the diversity networks in the Cabinet Office.

The National Audit Office does not pay subscriptions to Stonewall.

The Call for Evidence on Equality Law, published on 7 April 2025, seeks evidence on how we can better remove barriers to ambition and success for everyone, to improve the lives of working people and strengthen our country as part of our Plan for Change.

The purpose of the Call for Evidence is not to put forward detailed policy proposals and it would therefore not be possible or appropriate to produce an impact assessment at this stage. All evidence submitted to the Call for Evidence will be taken into account when developing policy. We will assess the impact of any proposed policy in the normal way, working in partnership with business, trade unions and civil society, to ensure any potential impacts are fully considered.

The Government is sharing with the EHRC all the submissions that met the criteria of the previous Government’s call for input on single-sex spaces guidance.

It is vitally important that service providers understand the single-sex service exceptions in the Equality Act 2010 and feel confident using them. The Government has committed to ensuring that there is guidance in place which gives service providers assurance about the rights afforded by the Act and how to lawfully apply its single-sex exceptions. We will set out our next steps on this soon.

The Government is sharing with the EHRC all the submissions that met the criteria of the previous Government’s call for input on single-sex spaces guidance.

It is vitally important that service providers understand the single-sex service exceptions in the Equality Act 2010 and feel confident using them. The Government has committed to ensuring that there is guidance in place which gives service providers assurance about the rights afforded by the Act and how to lawfully apply its single-sex exceptions. We will set out our next steps on this soon.

The public consultation seeks views on the proposed approach to mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting in order to inform the drafting of the legislation.

We are separately engaging with a wide range of organisations, including employers, and gathering evidence in a more systematic manner on the likely costs and benefits of the proposed reporting requirements. This work will inform the impact assessment that will be published alongside the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill.

The Equality Act defines the protected characteristic of gender reassignment as a person that is proposing to undergo, is undergoing or has undergone a process (or part of a process) for the purpose of gender reassignment.

The scope of the Public Sector Equality Duty (the PSED) is set out in the Equality Act 2010 (the Act). It extends to all public authorities listed in Schedule 19 of the Act and all parties carrying out public functions. This came into force in April 2011 and includes private sector and voluntary organisations.

The PSED requires organisations in scope to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination, advance equality of opportunity, and foster good relations between different people.

The government remains committed to upholding the PSED and ensuring that all parties exercising public functions comply with its provisions.

Whoever you are, wherever you come from, Britain should be a country where hard work means you can get on in life. Our work in the Opportunity Mission aims to break the link between background and success to ensure all children, including those from white working-class backgrounds, are able to achieve and thrive today so they can succeed and flourish tomorrow.

We are currently considering our position on caste discrimination. We will announce our plans in due course.

The datasets previously held on the Electronic Property Information Mapping Service comprised information on property, buildings, land, occupation, vacant space, and surplus assets. These were made publicly available on gov.uk at https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/c186e17f-654d-4134-aed7-b3f13469546a/epimstransparency.

These datasets have now been superseded by the datasets now held on the InSite system, which include property, contract, building, land, occupation, vacant space, and surplus assets. These are also published on gov.uk at https://www.data.gov. uk/dataset/a3ad62cf-d8a2-4d3b-b3c6-24c35c5e0f71/the-government-property-estate-including-buildings-and-land to ensure continued transparency.

Following the appointment of the current Cabinet Secretary, a review of the Civil Service Governance arrangements took place, to identify what steps could be taken to make it simpler and more effective. As a consequence of the review, CSB ceased operations in January 2025.

CSB’s functions are undertaken by a combination of the Head of Department, the People Board and the Civil Service Operations Board.

Guidance on Mutually Agreed Exits will be published in due course.

Departments publish salary information for all their Senior Civil Service (SCS) roles in quarterly organograms on data.gov.uk and for all SCS operating at Board level in their Annual Accounts. The Cabinet Office will publish a new 2025 'high earner' list for senior public officials, linked to the Treasury's senior pay control threshold (published in guidance here), in due course.

The Cabinet Office routinely publishes the salaries of those special advisers earning equivalent to senior civil servants in the Annual Report on Special Advisers which is available on gov.uk.

The refocused Fast Stream Summer Internship scheme will give talented undergraduates from lower socio-economic backgrounds the opportunity to see what a career in the Civil Service is like. We will assess eligibility for the summer internship scheme based on parental occupation at the age of 14. The Social Mobility Commission (SMC) identifies this as the most accurate measure of socio-economic background.

Staff networks are volunteer networks, organised by employees within various Civil Service Departments. As the Terms of Reference are internal documents of volunteer-led networks, there are no current plans to publish them. All network activity must align with the values and standards set out in the Civil Service Code.

The New Media Unit currently has 19 FTE, of which 17 are permanent and 2 are loanees. Assuming the NMU is fully staffed with a consistent grade mix, throughout the financial year the annual salary costs currently would be circa £1.28 million.

The New Media Unit currently has 19 FTE, of which 17 are permanent and 2 are loanees. Assuming the NMU is fully staffed with a consistent grade mix, throughout the financial year the annual salary costs currently would be circa £1.28 million.

The Cabinet Office does not have a London Weighting Allowance. There are separate London and National pay ranges. An individual’s pay, paid as a salary, is determined by the location of their designated office, as set out in their contract.

Government Communication Service does not set the salaries of Government Communicators. Government Communications salaries are aligned with Civil Service pay bands. Salaries vary according to grade, location, and departmental pay arrangements, and are consistent with the broader Civil Service structures.

All Government Communications civil servants are members of the Civil Service pension schemes and receive employer contributions in line with standard Civil Service pension arrangements. The employer contribution rates are determined by the scheme actuaries and apply uniformly across the Civil Service.

The most recent data on mean and median salaries for the Civil Service can be found in the Civil Service Statistics publication. The latest data published as at 31st March 2025 can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-service-statistics-2025. Data is not yet available for 2025-26.

The estimated employer contribution for a Civil Servant to the Civil Service Pension Scheme is £6.6bn for 2024-25. The estimated employer contributions for 2025-26 is not currently known.

(https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6761a6d6d20fc50099e1904e/E03252376_-_HC_481_Civil_Superannuation_Annual_Report_and_Accounts_23-24_Web_Accessible.pdf)

The guidance for declaring Non-Executive Board Member interests, with a particular reference to declaring political activity, differs from the Governance Code on Public Appointments as its scope is limited to current interests an individual holds.

The guidance published on 28 November 2024 requires Non-Executive Board Members to declare any current political activity. There are strict rules in the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies about political activity (sections 3.11 - 3.15). As stated in the code of conduct, any breaches are also considered a breach of the terms of appointment.

Declarations of previous political activity is a requirement during the Public Appointment process so that advisory assessment panels can assess whether the activity should be taken into account when determining a candidate’s suitability for the role.

I refer to my answer for PQ 59029 on 16 June 2025.

We intend to publish the self-reported public sector trade union facility time data in line with our standard timelines for this data set, which will be before the end of this year.

I refer the Hon Member back to PQ69066 and to PQ54767.

Since 4 July 2024, 5 Directors of Communications for government departments have left their roles.

Spending above the £100,000 control threshold is published as standard on the transparency data page of gov.uk, found at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/search/transparency-and-freedom-of-information-releases?parent=cabinet-office&keywords=advertising+marketing+and+communications&organisations%5B%5D=cabinet-office&order=relevance

Channels and partners used by the New Media Unit (NMU) are determined on a project by project basis. The NMU utilises a wide range of digital and social media channels to reach target audiences. This includes the use of digital influencers.

A list of non-departmental public bodies can be found on the ALB Landscape Analysis 2023/24. This dataset includes information on Arm's Length Bodies (ALBs) that were sponsored by the UK Government during the 2023/24 Financial Year. This dataset is published annually a year in arrears.

Contract CCZZ24A18 was awarded following a competition run under the Crown Commercial Service Research & Insights Dynamic Purchasing System (RM6126) agreement. A total of 453 suppliers were invited to bid and two bids were submitted. In accordance with the evaluation criteria, the University of Birmingham achieved the highest overall score on quality and price and was therefore awarded the contract.

In addition to the buildings named in the announcement on Places for Growth dated 14 May 2025 (102 Petty France, 39 Victoria Street and Caxton House), a further 8 buildings will close by 2030. Details will be announced following the conclusion of ongoing commercial discussions. This represents value for money for the taxpayer, delivering £94m in savings per annum whilst ensuring that London continues to be a vibrant place for Civil Servants to work.

The Civil Service EDI Expenditure Review has concluded and there are no further plans to provide additional information to the information already published relating to 2023-24.

Process Intelligence is the approach used to understand how work is happening across an organisation by analysing multiple processes using data from organisational systems. It supports a forward-looking approach to process improvement that delivers value for money - helping organisations identify root causes of inefficiencies that may be built into processes and actively shape better ways of working.

The UK Multi-Stakeholder Forum for Open Government (MSF) has not met during 2025. The MSF last met on 17th July 2024 and plans for reconvening the MSF are currently being developed.