Asked by: Lord Hayward (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask the Senior Deputy Speaker, further to the remarks by Baroness Smith of Basildon on 12 June (HL Deb col 1528), whether the role to oversee the commercial function as a joint department of both Houses is an additional role in the management structure; and if so what is the cost of that role.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Parliamentary Commercial Department will be led by a Chief Commercial Officer. This is a new senior role in the management structure which will be responsible for overseeing Parliament’s portfolio of contracts, developing and implementing commercial strategies, and ensuring high-performance procurement across Parliament. The post was advertised in March with an annual salary of circa £150K, in line with market expectations for a role of this seniority and complexity in the public sector. The outcome of the recruitment process will be announced as soon as possible.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits for recruitment and retention of agreeing a long-term strategy to improve pay in real terms for the workforces covered by (a) the Dentists and Doctors Pay Review Body and (b) the NHS Pay Review Body.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to make these specific assessments. The Government is committed to a credible, independent Pay Review Body (PRB) process as the right mechanism to recommend annual pay increases for most public sector staff. In her statement on the public finances on 29 July 2024, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed that the Government wished to continue to use the PRB process.
The role of the NHS Pay Review Body and the Dentists and Doctors Pay Review Body is to make recommendations to the Prime Minister and ministers on the annual pay award for National Health Service staff and other related matters within their remit. They act independently of the Government.
The PRBs lay out in their reports the reasoning for their recommended awards based on their terms of reference. In reaching their recommendations, the review bodies have regard to recruitment and retention and are required to take careful account of the economic and other evidence submitted by the Government, trades unions, representatives of NHS employers, and others.
The Government is not bound by PRB recommendations, and it's for my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to decide how to respond to the recommendations of PRBs for the NHS in England.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of agreeing a long-term strategy with the (a) Review Body on Doctors' and Dentists' Remuneration and (b) NHS Pay Review Body to help improve pay in the NHS.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are no current plans to make these specific assessments. The Government is committed to a credible, independent Pay Review Body (PRB) process as the right mechanism to recommend annual pay increases for most public sector staff. In her statement on the public finances on 29 July 2024, my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer confirmed that the Government wished to continue to use the PRB process.
The role of the NHS Pay Review Body and the Dentists and Doctors Pay Review Body is to make recommendations to the Prime Minister and ministers on the annual pay award for National Health Service staff and other related matters within their remit. They act independently of the Government.
The PRBs lay out in their reports the reasoning for their recommended awards based on their terms of reference. In reaching their recommendations, the review bodies have regard to recruitment and retention and are required to take careful account of the economic and other evidence submitted by the Government, trades unions, representatives of NHS employers, and others.
The Government is not bound by PRB recommendations, and it's for my Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to decide how to respond to the recommendations of PRBs for the NHS in England.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the real terms value of wages set by Government pay awards in the (a) Dentists and Doctors Pay Review Body and (b) NHS Pay Review Body for 2025-26 on trends in the levels of (i) recruitment and (ii) retention of public sector workforce staff.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This specific assessment has not been made. Pay is an important factor in the National Health Service being able to continue to attract and reward talented staff. Pay review bodies are required to take careful account of the economic and financial evidence submitted by the Government, trades unions, representatives of NHS employers, and others to reach their recommendations on pay.
When considering evidence in order to make pay recommendations, the Dentists and Doctors Pay Review Body and the NHS Pay Review Body pay due regard to many factors, including the potential impact of pay on staff recruitment and retention, as a core component of the terms of reference for pay review bodies.
Asked by: Lee Dillon (Liberal Democrat - Newbury)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what support her Department is providing to schools that are having to reduce costs in Newbury constituency.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Overall school funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core school budget will total £65.3 billion. This is a 6% rise in cash terms compared to 2024/25.
Schools in West Berkshire local authority are attracting £143.6 million through the dedicated schools grant. This represents an increase of 2.6% per pupil compared to 2024/25.
We are providing schools with an additional £615 million in the 2025/26 financial year to support them with the 4% teacher pay award and 3.2% support staff pay offer. Schools will be expected play their part in driving productivity across the public sector and find approximately the first 1% of pay awards by ensuring resources are deployed to maximise support for teaching and learning.
We are supporting schools to make savings and bring down operating costs. For example, 400 schools participating in the department’s new energy offer are projected to save an average of 36% compared to previous contracts.
We are also working to secure better banking solutions and provide services such as Get Help Buying for Schools and the Teaching Vacancies Service to reduce procurement and recruitment costs.
We know workforce deployment is the biggest component of school budgets. We will support schools to benefit fully from the tools we already offer to benchmark and integrate resourcing and curriculum planning, such as the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. We will also introduce a new toolkit to support schools to adopt evidence-based deployment models.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the evidential basis is for her assessment that schools can make efficiency savings within budgets without reducing headcount.
Answered by Catherine McKinnell - Minister of State (Education)
Overall school funding is increasing by £3.7 billion in the 2025/26 financial year, meaning the core school budget will total £65.3 billion. This is a 6% rise in cash terms, or a 3.3% increase in real terms, compared to 2024/25. We are providing schools with an additional £615 million in the 2025/26 financial year to support them with the 4% teacher pay award and 3.2% support staff pay offer.
Schools will be expected play their part in driving productivity across the public sector and find approximately the first 1% of pay awards by ensuring resources are deployed to maximise support for teaching and learning.
There is already evidence that schools are making savings and bringing down operating costs. For example, 400 schools participating in the department’s new energy offer are projected to save an average of 36% compared to previous contracts.
We are also working to secure better banking solutions and provide services such as Get Help Buying for Schools and the Teaching Vacancies Service to reduce procurement and recruitment costs. This support has evolved from the School Resource Management Programme, which helped schools realise £1 billion of savings between 2018 and 2022.
We know workforce deployment is the biggest component of school budgets. We will support schools to benefit fully from the tools we already offer to benchmark and integrate resourcing and curriculum planning, such as the Financial Benchmarking and Insights Tool. We will also introduce a new toolkit to support schools to adopt evidence-based deployment models.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing regularised direct negotiations with workforce trades unions on (a) recruitment and (b) retention.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Pay for most public sector workforces is set based upon recommendations produced by respective independent Pay Review Bodies (PRBs). The PRBs consider a range of evidence when forming their recommendations, including the need to recruit, retain and motivate suitably able and qualified people; the financial circumstances of Government; the Government's policies for improving public services; and the Government's inflation target.
The last government neglected public sector pay for 14 years, leaving public services unable to recruit and keep the staff they need. That is why going forward, we want to make sure our public services can attract and keep the talent they need, as to ensure that those services provide a firm foundation for economic growth.
As part of achieving this, every 2025/26 pay award announced by the Government to date is above forecast inflation over the 2025/26 pay year, delivering another real-terms pay rise on top of the one the Government provided for 2024/25.
Furthermore, this Government remains committed to the independent Pay Review Body process as the established mechanism for determining pay uplifts for most public sector workers. It has operated for over four decades, provides independent advice and is a neutral process in which all parties play a role; which the unions campaigned to establish in the first place.
However, we recognise that faith in the Pay Review Body process had fallen in recent years, and so we are committed to bringing pay awards earlier in the pay year. That is why this Government announced pay awards for many workforces over two months earlier than last year. Additionally, we will be remitting PRBs for the next pay round shortly to put an end to pay awards being delivered late, ensuring that our valued public sector workers receive pay awards closer to the start of the pay year.
Asked by: Andy McDonald (Labour - Middlesbrough and Thornaby East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of public sector pay awards in the 2025-26 financial year on trends in the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of public sector staff.
Answered by Darren Jones - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Pay for most public sector workforces is set based upon recommendations produced by respective independent Pay Review Bodies (PRBs). The PRBs consider a range of evidence when forming their recommendations, including the need to recruit, retain and motivate suitably able and qualified people; the financial circumstances of Government; the Government's policies for improving public services; and the Government's inflation target.
The last government neglected public sector pay for 14 years, leaving public services unable to recruit and keep the staff they need. That is why going forward, we want to make sure our public services can attract and keep the talent they need, as to ensure that those services provide a firm foundation for economic growth.
As part of achieving this, every 2025/26 pay award announced by the Government to date is above forecast inflation over the 2025/26 pay year, delivering another real-terms pay rise on top of the one the Government provided for 2024/25.
Furthermore, this Government remains committed to the independent Pay Review Body process as the established mechanism for determining pay uplifts for most public sector workers. It has operated for over four decades, provides independent advice and is a neutral process in which all parties play a role; which the unions campaigned to establish in the first place.
However, we recognise that faith in the Pay Review Body process had fallen in recent years, and so we are committed to bringing pay awards earlier in the pay year. That is why this Government announced pay awards for many workforces over two months earlier than last year. Additionally, we will be remitting PRBs for the next pay round shortly to put an end to pay awards being delivered late, ensuring that our valued public sector workers receive pay awards closer to the start of the pay year.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of the withdrawal of funding for the Level 7 Chartered Town Planner Apprenticeship on the recruitment of planning officers.
Answered by Matthew Pennycook - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government recognise that Chartered Town Planner Apprenticeships (Level 7) are a valuable entry point into planning careers. However, the government has decided to prioritise levy funding for young people entering the labour market, who need skills and training to get started in their careers.
We will continue to fund Level 7 apprenticeships for those aged 16-21 when they start their apprenticeship; support apprentices already on a Level 7 apprenticeship through to completion; and ensure local authorities can still access the Level 7 apprenticeship route for those aged 22 and over until 1 January 2026.
Supporting local planning authorities to attract, retain and develop skilled planners is crucial to ensuring they provide a proactive, efficient planning service for local communities and that new developments are well designed and facilitate local growth.
The government appreciates that planning departments across the country are experiencing challenges with recruitment, retention, and skills gaps and that in many cases these issues are having a negative impact on service delivery.
At the Budget last year, the Chanceller announced a £46 million package of investment into the planning system as a one-year settlement for 2025-2026.
Our manifesto committed us to appointing 300 new planning officers into LPAs. We are on track to meet that commitment through two routes, namely graduate recruitment through the Pathways to Planning scheme run by the Local Government Association and mid-career recruitment through Public Practice.
On 27 February 2025, the government announced funding to support salaries and complement graduate bursaries. Further information can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 27 February 2025 (HCWS480).
On 25 February 2025, the draft Town and Country Planning (Fees for Applications, Deemed Applications, Requests and Site Visits) (England) (Amendment and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2025 were agreed. These regulations increase planning fees for householder and other applications, with a view to providing much-needed additional resources for hard-pressed LPAs.
More broadly, the Department’s established Planning Capacity and Capability programme is also developing a wider programme of support, working with partners across the planning sector, to ensure that LPAs have the skills and capacity they need, both now and in the future, to modernise local plans and speed up decision making, including through innovative use of digital planning data and software.
Lastly, the Planning and Infrastructure Bill includes provisions that will allow LPAs to set planning fees or charges at a level that reflects the individual costs to the LPA to carry out the function for which it is imposed and to ensure that the income from planning fees or charges is applied towards the delivery of the planning function.
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 26 November 2024 to Question 14769 on Civil Servants: Secondment, which of the recommendations from the Boardman report which have not been implemented will not be taken forward by the Cabinet Office.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The 2021 Boardman report recommended the interchange of resources between government and the private sector. We are committed to promoting the recruitment of external employees into roles in government at all levels of the Civil Service to fill critical skill gaps.
A number of secondments programmes have been set up across government to bring in critical skills across a range of sectors, to include the private sector, enabling talented individuals from outside the Civil Service to contribute to the work of Government.
For example, the Digital and Data profession launched the Digital Secondments Programme. Department for Science, Innovation and Technology’s (DSIT) Expert Exchange programme brings in experts for a variety of roles, including digital, technology and AI, and GO-Science is exploring a scheme to bring greater scientific expertise into policymaking roles through STEM futures.
More broadly, this government is committed to restoring honesty and integrity in public life and has already introduced a number of changes to strengthen standards across government. This includes issuing a new Ministerial Code which highlights the importance of the principles of public life, strengthening the terms of reference for the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, and introducing a new monthly Register of Ministers’ Gifts and Hospitality. We will continue to take necessary and proportionate steps in this area.