Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 16 June 2026, to Question 4282, on Government Departments: Aviation, on how many occasions have aircraft been commissioned for (a) domestic and (b) foreign travel, since July 2024.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
The department has commissioned an aircraft on 32 occasions, all of which were for foreign travel.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 20 May 2026 to Question 1718 of National Highways: Expenditure, whether the National Highways public affairs contract was approved by the Cabinet Office.
Answered by Chris Ward
The value of this expenditure does not meet the threshold for Cabinet Office Commercial Assurance Review or Approval.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2026 to Question 10738 on collective Cabinet agreement, what metrics his Department will use to assess whether its reforms have succeeded in speeding up the Government's decision-making processes.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
Policy analysis on options for reforming collective agreement is ongoing and we have high ambitions for speeding up the government’s decision-making processes. The operation of the system and efficacy of all changes will be kept under continuous review.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much (a) his Department, (b) its agencies and (c) its public bodies has spent on lanyards since 4 July 2024; what designs of lanyards have been purchased; and what the cost and number of each lanyard design purchased was.
Answered by Chris Ward
The information requested is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Prime Minister's Office has spent on lanyards since 4 July 2024; what designs of lanyards have been purchased; and what the cost and number of each lanyard design purchased was.
Answered by Chris Ward
The information requested is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has issued guidance on arm's length bodies using public funds to appoint public affairs and lobbying consultancies to engage with Ministers, government departments and hon. Members.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office does not issue specific guidance on this matter. Section 4.1 of the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies states that ‘it will always be an improper use of public funds for public bodies to employ consultants or other companies to lobby Parliament, government or political parties.’
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 9 June 2026 to Question 1231 on collective Cabinet agreement, what metrics his Department has proposed for measuring the success of reforms to the process for collective Cabinet agreement of government policy.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
Policy analysis on options for reforming collective agreement is ongoing and we have high ambitions for speeding up the government’s decision making processes. The operation of the system and efficacy of all changes will be kept under continuous review.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department provides on taking factors other than merit into consideration when it comes to civil service (a) appointments and (b) promotions.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
Appointments and promotions in the Cabinet Office are based on the principle of merit. This is required for all external appointments and substantive promotions in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles. Internal recruitment and temporary promotions are also subject to merit-based processes.
There are a small number of specific, legally defined exceptions where the Civil Service Commission permits recruitment outside of the Recruitment Principles of open, fair and merit. This could be, for example, to meet a temporary or urgent business need or to increase the life chances of individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (Government Employability Programmes). These appointments are strictly regulated and audited by the Commission.
An existing employee may be appointed to a role without a merit-based competition as a redundancy mitigating measure and there can be managed moves to a role at the same grade.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the number of people who were employed in the automotive manufacturing sector in each month since December 2025 up to and including the most recent month for which figures are available.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Rt Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 2nd June is attached.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the cats resident in the Prime Minister’s Downing Street apartment are transported to/from Chequers for times when he is resident there.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds
This information is not held centrally. I’d remind the Rt. Hon Member for Basildon and Billericay that previous residents of Downing Street have frequently, and publicly, taken pets between residences.