Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress has been made on making the Government Communications Service a new function that helps deliver the annual Government Communications Plan by filling in essential roles for priority communications campaigns.

The Government Communication Service has been running, in various formats, since its establishment in 1917. There are no plans to make the Government Communications Service a new function that fills capacity gaps on priority communications campaigns.

HMG staff can be redeployed across government departments to cover priorities where feasible. The Government Communications Plan was published on 23rd August 2017 and can be found here: https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/communications-plan/