Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the headcount of staff included within the Government Communications Service is.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Government Communications is made up of around 6,000 professional communicators from across the UK, supporting and promoting the work of 25 ministerial departments, 21 non-ministerial departments and over 300 agencies and other public bodies. The list provided for the response to IR2025/05101 breaks this down further, and will be submitted for entry into the House of Commons library.
The Government Communication Service headcount can be found on Gov.uk at this link here.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the eligibility criteria for the MI5, MI6 and GCHQ Summer Intelligence Internship on people from disadvantaged white working class backgrounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
In recent years, UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) has run a number of internships and placement schemes. They are designed to provide insight about what it is like to work in UKIC to individuals who have particular skills and experience, want to work in a particular area and/or are from demographics and backgrounds under-represented across Government.
Any internship participant wishing to subsequently apply for employment with UKIC or the Civil Service is required to take part in a fair and open competition, in the normal way, with selection based on merit.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what data the Office for National Statistics holds on the average income of people by (a) class and (b) type of profession.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 29th August is attached.
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 21 January 2025 to Question 23677 on Transgender People, whether his Department has completed its revision of the guidance on gender reassignment.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The current model Gender Reassignment HR policy and guidance was issued in 2019. A review to update it was started in 2023 under the previous administration. The recent Supreme Court ruling in the For Women Scotland case and revision of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Code of Practice has had implications for this review. This is therefore ongoing and the revised policy and guidance will be shared with departments in due course.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether she plans to bring forward legislative proposals to allow motorcycles to access bus lanes by default.
Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government remains committed to supporting efforts to improve the safety of motorcyclists, but has no plans to bring forward legislation to allow motorcycles to access bus lanes by default. Decisions on this matter are for local highway authorities to make on a case by case basis.
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 11 July 2025, to Question 64828, on Central Government: Empty Property, if he will list the datasets that (a) were previously held on the Electronic Property Information Mapping Service and (b) are now held on InSite.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the Civil Service Board has ceased operation; and whether its functions have been taken over by (a) a new or (b) pre-existing body.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
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.
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 1 April 2025 to Question 40919 on Civil Servants: Personnel Management, if he will publish the Mutually Agreed Exits guidance.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
Guidance on Mutually Agreed Exits will be published in due course.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the (a) Crown Commercial Service and (b) Government Communications Service has (i) a framework agreement for the procurement of social influencers and (ii) roster of preferred or recommended influencers.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The procurement of social influencers in Cabinet Office can be done through the CCS Framework RM6125 - Lot 1 End to end campaign solutions, which can be found on this link here.. There is no roster of preferred or recommended influencers.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether (a) his Department and (b) the Government Communications Service uses third-party providers to (i) assess, (ii) index and (iii) identify disinformation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The Government Communication Service has a contract with Storyzy which can be used to track and identify disinformation trends. This tool is used to understand the threat posed by hostile actors where manipulating the information environment can be a threat to national security, democracy and public safety.