Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2025 to Question 46749 on Cabinet Office: Zero Hours Contracts, which business units the 423 staff work for.

The Cabinet Office uses zero hours contracts to selectively manage temporary demand. The Cabinet Office Pillars that the 423 contingent labour workers who can be classed as having zero hours contracts are as follows:

National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority (NISTA) – formerly known as the Infrastructure and Projects Authority – 255. Following a recent Machinery of Government change, NISTA is now part of HM Treasury, and these workers will be transferred over to HM Treasury over the summer of 2025. Workers are engaged in this area to assist with external Gateway Reviews, where expert advice is required to review programmes and projects. These external gateway reviewers are only engaged under these contracts when there is no availability within the pool of civil servant gateway reviewers.

Productive and Agile State – 155. Workers are engaged in this area to bring in commercial expertise to help run the GCF Assessment Development Centres, to assess Civil Servants’ commercial abilities for both contract management and wider commercial skills.

Propriety and Constitution – 13. Workers engaged under this Pillar are for the Covid-19 Inquiry, which engages expert witnesses whose services are only required on an ad hoc basis.

Contingent labour contracts should only be used in government where better value alternatives are not available. The Government is continuing to take steps to reduce the use of contingent labour.