Neil O'Brien

There are 6 full time equivalents working in standalone EDI roles. Otherwise, this information is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman Parliamentary Question of 13th of February is attached.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon. Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 20 November is attached.

Government Departments are responsible for their own social media content. The Government Communications Service does not provide a central resource for this. The Cabinet Office employs two digital officers who are responsible for producing social media content, including videos, for the Department's policies and in support of the Department's Ministers.

Cabinet Office Communications total spend (pay and non-pay) was £2,988,971.49 in FY 23/24, and it has a total budget (pay and non-pay) of £2,460,684.00 in FY 24/25.

Marketing including paid advertising is necessary to reach a target audience of senior business decision makers, raising awareness of the UK’s new modern industrial strategy and the opportunities it presents for business growth. The Department of Business and Trade declares all advertising and media spend above £25,000 through its monthly transparency reporting process. These figures are published on gov.uk.

In DBT, we do not have any roles in HR or Corporate Services with job titles which include the words ‘equality’, ‘diversity’, ‘inclusion’, ‘gender’, ‘LGBT’ or ‘race’.

Within our Trade Policy, Implementation and Negotiations Group (TPIN), we have 8 roles which include the word ‘gender’ in the job titles – these roles cover FTA chapters rather than a corporate/HR role.

Within our Domestic and International Markets and Exports Group (DIME), we have one role which includes the word ‘diversity’ in the job title – this role is an administrative one as of the King’s Award for Enterprise Team.

The Government recognises that the UK’s aerospace and space industry is world-leading. Although the Government cannot comment on individual commercial cases, where appropriate officials will work with companies and administrators to consider how best to retain valuable Intellectual Property in the UK.

Local Authorities are responsible for enforcement and central Government has no current plans for legislation that can be used to amend these fees.

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT), including spend by predecessor Department for International Trade (DIT), spent £24,299,000 on communications in financial year 2022-2023 as reported in the Department’s annual report and accounts, available on GOV.UK.

This spend has supported DBT’s strategic efforts to promote the UK’s international trade agenda and achievements, position it as a destination for inward investment, and boost export promotion.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero has fewer than five staff with job titles that include the words equality, diversity, inclusion gender, LGBT or race. These roles play an important part in the Department’s commitment to supporting equality, diversity and inclusion.

The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority have 4 roles that include "diversity and inclusion" as their job title’

The CNC have 5 roles with the acronym EDI in the job title (Equality Diversity and Inclusion).

The UKAEA manages Equality, Diversity and Inclusion alongside Wellbeing, and there are 3 members of staff who have the words 'equality,' 'diversity' and 'inclusion' plus wellbeing in their job titles.

There are no roles with the words gender, LGBT or race in the job titles.

Bidirectional chargers for electric vehicles to enable them to export as well as import energy from their batteries is an emerging technology area. It will enable electric vehicle drivers to sell electricity back to the grid, as well as power their homes or business. This can save money for electric vehicle drivers and will contribute to delivering this Government’s clean energy superpower mission.

Whilst Government does not currently hold data on the total number of bidirectional chargers installed, over 650 were installed in homes and workplaces across the UK as part of the UK vehicle to grid innovation programme which ran from 2017 to 2022. Ongoing UK government funded innovation is supporting the further development and deployment of this important technology.

For the financial year 2023/24 the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spent £7.6m on communications including payroll and advertising.

(a) There are 4 staff within DSIT with one or more of the terms in their job title, the individual breakdowns are as follows - Equality: 0, Diversity: 0, Inclusion: 4, Race: 0, Gender: 0, LGBT: 0.

(b) There are 20 staff within UKRI and its research councils with one or more of the terms in their job title, the individual breakdowns are as follows: (note: some staff have multiple terms in their job title, while some staff only have one term in their job title, so the numbers below are greater than 20) - Equality: 18, Diversity: 18, Inclusion: 19, Race: 1, Gender: 0, LGBT: 0

This public R&D regional investment target is committed to in legislation via the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.

Increasing productivity right across the UK is fundamental to our mission to kickstart economic growth. Through our Industrial Strategy and the development of Local Growth Plans, we will build on local strengths to ensure that public and private R&D investment right across the UK helps local places to reach their potential.

In financial year 2023/2024 the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) spent a total of £8,316,561.37 on communications. This is inclusive of £3,516,253.54 which are payroll related costs for staff who work in the Communications Directorate.

The DSIT Communications Team is responsible for all communications conducted by the department and its Ministers to help inform, promote and explain departmental policies through traditional and new media channels. This includes a number of paid-for marketing campaigns such as those designed to encourage uptake of R&D funding made available through Horizon Europe and campaigns to build skills required for the jobs of the future.

The requested figures are

On the 22nd of January, I was pleased to announce that the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme would continue from March 2025 to March 2026. Further details can be found here in the Written Statement.

Departmental settlements have been set following the Budget announcement on October 30. Individual programmes will now be assessed during the departmental Business Planning process.

Communications supports the government in delivering for the public, ensuring information is shared widely and effectively, informed by data and using a broad range of channels. In DCMS, an in-house team delivers communications with a limited supporting budget, used for example to help deliver campaigns that reach members of the public who don’t frequently engage with traditional media. In addition, internal communications ensures staff are informed and engaged - a proven driver of productivity - in support of delivering government and departmental priorities.

Spend on communications for the Department for Culture, Media & Sport during the 2023/24 financial year was £552,010.27 as outlined below:

To note, the figures for 2023/24 are still being audited and so could be subject to change. The Annual Report and Accounts to be published in November 2024 post audit.

The department has asked the Careers and Enterprise Company (CEC) to collect national baseline data on the delivery of two weeks’ worth of work experience for every secondary pupil, across schools in England. CEC plan to publish this data by the end of 2025.

The most recently published data by CEC regarding work experience relates to the 2023/24 academic year. 76% of schools self-report that the majority of their pupils have had an experience of the workplace by the end of year 11.84% of schools report that the majority of their pupils had received experience of the workplace in year 12 or year 13.

The department recently updated careers statutory guidance to set out expectations for the 2025/26 academic year, including multiple, high quality experiences of the workplace for every pupil.

Earlier this year, we updated the careers statutory guidance reflecting the revised Gatsby Benchmarks of good careers guidance and included the new definition of meaningful workplace experiences to raise the quality of work experience.

In this guidance we also set out the vision for this government’s priority for the delivery of two weeks’ worth of meaningful work experience for all pupils over the course of their secondary education, irrespective of background.

Building on the Gatsby Benchmark 6 definition for Experiences of Workplaces, we will ensure that all pupils have multiple, meaningful and varied high-quality workplace experiences, including one weeks’ worth of workplace activities between years 7-9 and one weeks’ worth of work placement between years 10-11, progressively increasing their exposure to different places of work.

We are currently piloting a new flexible model of work experience, designed to reduce barriers for young people, schools and employers. The department will set out more details of the work experience guarantee in due course.

Cheating of any kind is unacceptable. It threatens to undermine the reputation of our world-class education sector and devalues the hard work of those who succeed on their own merit.

Ofqual require Awarding Organisations to have robust policies and procedures in place to prevent, detect, and deal with malpractice, including plagiarism.

The Joint Council for Qualifications have published guidance to support schools and colleges to identify and address concerns about plagiarism in exams and assessments, which can be found at: https://www.jcq.org.uk/exams-office/malpractice/plagiarism-in-assessments---guidance-for-teachersassessors/.

Higher education providers are independent bodies responsible for their own approaches to preventing academic misconduct by students, including plagiarism, but are regulated in relation their assessment practices by the Office for Students (OfS). The OfS sets the expectation that assessments must be designed in a way that minimises opportunities for misconduct and facilitates its detection where it does occur.

As part of our Plan for Change, the government is investing in skills in order to drive economic growth and break down barriers to opportunity. The overall programme resource budget for apprenticeships, further education and higher education in the 2025/26 financial year is £15.8 billion. This includes funding for the National Careers Service, the Education and Training Foundation, WorldSkills UK, and the Careers and Enterprise Company.

Information on the number of looked after children, including unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (UASC), is submitted to the department on an annual basis and is published at local authority level in our statistical release at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/children-looked-after-in-england-including-adoptions.

Figures on the number of UASC in each year since 2005 can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/32f71e7b-83b1-4494-96d7-08dd85738b16. This table also provides data on all children looked after at 31 March from which the number and proportion of non-UASC can be calculated. Similarly, the percentage of UASC can also be derived from this table.