Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2025 to Question 76050 on Lobbying: Official Hospitality, whether the donation in kind of (a) a venue and (b) hospitality from a lobbying firm hosting a Departmental reception should be declared by the Department in their annual accounts; and whether a proportion should be declared by a Minister in their monthly transparency return on gov.uk.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Guidance on what should be published in a department's Annual Reports and Accounts is published by HM Treasury in the Government Financial Reporting Manual. Guidance on what should be declared by a Minister in their monthly gifts and hospitality transparency return is published by the Cabinet Office. Both documents are available on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how his Department's lieutenancy policy team engages with the Association of Lord-Lieutenants; and whether any (a) formal agreement and (b) memorandum of understanding exists between them.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There is no formal agreement or memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Cabinet Office Lieutenancy Team and the Association of Lord-Lieutenants. The Association operates on an informal, voluntary basis, and its relationship with government is conducted through established liaison channels.
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 his Department's transparency data entitled Cabinet Office spend approvals: April to June 2025, published on 26 September 2025, what is the financial breakdown of (a) programmes within and (b) external contractors employed as part of the planned spending by the New Media Unit.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The New Media Unit delivers campaigns to support the government missions and government priorities. The New Media Unit’s planned spend is £10.9m.
No external individual contractors are employed by the New Media Unit. However, we use third party suppliers to support New Media Unit campaigns.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77545 on Cabinet Office: Social Media, whether the influencers are (i) contracted directly by the New Media Unit or (ii) procured through a third party agency.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The New Media Unit delivers campaigns to support the government missions and government priorities. The New Media Unit’s planned spend is £10.9m.
No external individual contractors are employed by the New Media Unit. However, we use third party suppliers to support New Media Unit campaigns.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 24 October 2025 to Question 82672 on 9 Downing Street: Repairs and Maintenance, for what reason the room was not politically neutral.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
A one-off refresh of the facility was undertaken in December 2024. This was a decorative refresh, and work was undertaken to re-paint the backdrop to blend with existing wood panelling, install lighting, re-cover fabric panels and replace carpet tiles. This has restored the room back to its original politically neutral state.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 14 October 2025 to Question 77638 on Defence and National Security: Finance, whether the expenditure under the Chagos Islands Treaty will be deemed by the Government to be within the 5% target based on the NATO methodology.
Answered by Al Carns - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for Veterans)
The NATO qualifying status of these costs will be considered in the usual way. The NATO definition of defence expenditure, and defence and security related expenditure can be found on the NATO website:
NATO - Topic: Defence expenditures and NATO’s 5% commitment
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 footnotes 25 and 26 of the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts 2024-2025, HC 1372, published on 23 October 2025, for what reason the current Cabinet Secretary has a lower salary than the previous Cabinet Secretary.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
It is a longstanding policy not to comment on individuals. Details of any individual’s pay are published in the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 10 July 2025 to Question 63002on Department of Health and Social Care: Permanent Secretaries, for what reason the Permanent Secretary was appointed as a temporary civil servant on a SCS contract, rather than as a permanent civil servant under the provisions in paragraph 2.1 of the Permanent Secretary Model Contract.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The department launched a fair and open competition to appoint a Permanent Secretary in January 2025. As a result of this process, Samantha Jones was found to be an appointable candidate for this role. However, during the recruitment process it was announced that NHS England would be brought back into DHSC. This significantly changed the scale and objectives required of this role. In light of these changes the Civil Service Commission agreed a three year fixed term appointment by exception, on the Senior Civil Service Model contract.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of play-based (a) learning and (b) teaching as part of the (i) early years and (ii) Key Stage 1 curricula.
Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
The department recognises that play is critical to children’s wellbeing, learning and development. This is reflected in the early years foundation stage statutory framework, which supports early years practitioners to design a rich curriculum that includes regular opportunities for play-based learning.
The department commissioned the Children of the 2020s study to improve our understanding of children’s progress throughout key phases of learning and education. We will assess the second wave of data which will be published soon, including findings on play-based learning and teaching.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, whether her Department has commissioned any external research on the proposed socio-economic duty.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government is committed to commencing the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010.
We will work in partnership with public authorities, civil society and others in order to ensure that the implementation of the duty is as effective as possible. As part of this, we are currently analysing responses to the call for evidence on equality law, which included several questions relating to the socio-economic duty.
We will also consult on draft statutory guidance in order to ensure it addresses the needs of public bodies and civil society and supports effective implementation.
No external research relating to the socio-economic duty has been commissioned.