Written questions by Dewhirst.

Pursuant to the Answer of 5 February 2025 to Question 25853 on Public Bodies: Reviews, which four public body reviews are completed; what were the conclusions of each of these; which public body reviews are in progress; and which public body reviews have been paused.

Of reviews planned for 2024/25, the following reviews have completed:Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency, Care Quality Commission, Regulator of Social Housing, Defence Equipment and Support, Submarine Delivery Agency, Nuclear Research Advisory Council, Legal Aid Agency. It is each department’s responsibility to publish its reviews once finalised. The following reviews are in progress:Valuation Tribunal Service, Science Advisory Committee on the Medical Implications of Less-Lethal Weapons, Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service, Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, Intellectual Property Office. In some cases, departments have paused their reviews to give capacity to deliver more ambitious work on improving delivery and value for money , in line with government’s wider commitment to reform arm’s length bodies. This wider reform includes the closure of NHS England as announced by the Prime Minister on 13 March.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 14111 on Public Appointments, if he will place in the Library a copy of all correspondence to and from the Public Appointments Commissioner since 4 July 2024.

Ahead of launching a significant appointment (which are agreed between the Commissioner for Public Appointments and HM Government Ministers and Welsh Government Ministers) departments must correspond with the Office for the Commissioner for Public Appointments to agree the Senior Independent Panel Member. Personal data relating to potential Senior Independent Panel Members is shared with the Commissioner for Public Appointments for the purpose of assessing their suitability and experience for the role, as per the requirement in the Governance Code for Public Appointments. I am unable to publish this correspondence as it would involve disclosing personal information protected under data protection laws in line with practice under previous administration.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2024 to Question 14093 on Special Advisers: Code of Practice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the Code of Conduct for special advisers to reflect changes to the Ministerial Code.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ14093. The Government published the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers 6 November 2024.

With reference to the planned Right to Switch Off, what plans he has for the application of this policy (a) on fallow days for employees, (b) during office hours on Mondays to Fridays for people who work (i) standard working patterns, (ii) part-time and (iii) compressed hours and (c) for people who work four-day weeks on full-pay.

In “Next Steps to Make Work Pay” the Government said it would deliver the right to switch off through a Statutory Code of Practice, rather than through the Employment Rights Bill.A Code of Practice sets out guidelines for employers to follow. A failure to comply with a code of practice can be taken into account by an Employment Tribunal. We are developing the content of a draft Code with key stakeholders including both business representative groups and trade unions. In due course, that draft Code will be subject to a full formal consultation process.

How many people he plans to recruit for the test-and-learn teams funded through the Innovation Fund.

The £100 million Public Service Reform and Innovation Fund will be deploying Test, Learn and Grow teams around the country over the next three years to design and test innovative solutions to our biggest public service challenges in partnership with local places – ensuring that local learning informs national policy decisions. The Cabinet Office will be working across government and with local partners to codesign the detailed approach to the allocation of the Innovation Fund. As part of this co-design, we will formalise our resourcing requirements to provide support on the ground with multi-disciplinary teams helping local places respond to the public service challenges in their areas.

If he will publish the dates that each Mission board meets.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its committees - including mission boards - including how often they have met, is not normally shared publicly.

Pursuant to the Answer of 13 December 2024 to Question 18214 on 10 Downing Street: Social Media, which Civil Service organisations have a Blue Sky social media channel; and what guidance has GCS given on joining Blue Sky.

The Government uses a range of channels to reach and engage the public. Any use of these platforms is assessed against the high standards for digital safety set out in the Government Communication Service (GCS) SAFE framework. Individual departments make their own decisions on the best platforms to communicate with the public within the GCS SAFE framework.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 6057 on Prime Minister’s Office: Vacancies, how many jobs in the Prime Minister's Office were filled by exception without (a) internal and (b) external advertisement since 4 July 2024.

As was the case under the previous Government, where over 9,000 such exceptions were used in the year ending March 2023, exceptions are a long-established part of bringing talent and expertise into the Civil Service. Since 4 July 2024, there have been 3 appointments made via exception.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2024 to Question 14107 on Civil Servants: Pay, if he will publish an anonymised list of the salary of each civil servant by public body.

As was the case under the previous administration (a) summary data that includes £5k salary band headcounts and median and mean salary measures by department and grade are published here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics and(b) Salary data reported within 5k salary bands for individual SCS at paybands 2 and 3 are published reguarly by departments on data.gov.uk as part of departmental transparency organograms. These data also include the salary pay scales for junior staff. The Cabinet Office organograms can be found here https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/ff76be1f-4f37-4bef-beb7-32b259413be1/organogram-cabinet-office There are no current plans to publish further data.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2025 to Question 25918 on UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Consultants, what consultants are commissioned by his Department to (a) assist the EU Relations Secretariat and (b) work on the renegotiations with the European Union.

The Cabinet Office has not commissioned consultants to assist the EU Relations Secretariat or work on resetting the relationship with the European Union.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2024 to Question 14099 on Permanent Secretaries: Dismissal and Recruitment, what his planned timetable is for the implementation of the recommendations in 2025.

I have nothing to add to my answer to question 14099 on 26 November 2024.

Pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2025 to Question 30473 on Prime Minister: Press Conferences, for what reason members of the Labour party were invited to the event; and whether the Labour party contributed to the cost of the event.

I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 20 February 2025, Official Report, PQ 30473. The Labour Party did not contribute to the cost of the event.

Whether he plans to lay a new Official Statistics Order to designate Great British Railways’ statistical outputs as official statistics.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th March is attached.

If her Department will (a) make an assessment of and (b) have discussions with the National Cyber Security Centre on the potential impact of the decision of Apple to discontinue the advanced data protection facility in the UK on (i) cybersecurity for (A) individuals and (B) companies and (ii) UK-US cybersecurity international relations.

I refer the Honourable Member to the response given to UIN 33378 answered on 3rd March 2025.The government regularly engages with the NCSC, as the national technical authority for cyber security, for its expert advice on a range of cyber security matters to help make the UK the safest place to live and work online.

What progress he has made on the new integrated transparency platform.

This Government is fully committed to transparency and ensuring information published is as useful as possible. For example, the Government introduced a central register of ministers’ gifts and hospitality on a monthly basis. These registers are published by the Cabinet Office and are available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/register-of-ministers-gifts-and-hospitality#:~:text=The%20Register%20details%20the%20gifts,available%20on%20departmental%20web%20pages.

What the status is of the industrial action in the Office for National Statistics over workplace attendance.

The Trade Unions PCS and Prospect are currently taking industrial action short of a strike with the Office for National Statistics.

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2025 to Question 24653 on Arms Length Bodies, which financial years Phase 2 savings apply to; whether those savings are from the RDEL budget; what the baseline is for those savings; and whether those savings are in addition to Phase 1 savings.

Phase 2 of the Spending Review covers financial years 2026/27 to 2028/29 on RDEL to 2029/2030 on CDEL, whilst Phase 1 covers 2025/26. Over Phase 2, a 5% minimum RDEL savings target has been set for all departments and arm’s-length bodies. This is in addition to the 2% productivity, efficiency, and savings target the government set departments in Phase 1 of the Spending Review. The outcomes of the Spending Review will be set out at its conclusion in June.

Pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 25452 on Cabinet Office: Staff, what the longest period of time is that a member of the Skills Match Hub has been signed up excluding maternity leave.

I refer the hon. member to the answer of PQ 25452, given on 29 January 2025.

If he will list the full membership of each Mission Board.

The membership of the Mission Boards - as outlined on gov.uk - is the lead Secretary of State as the chair of their respective Mission Board and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster as Deputy Chair; other Ministers will be invited according to the agenda.

Whether his Department provides guidance to departmental social media accounts on liking party political posts by (a) Ministers and (b) hon. Members.

The Government Communication Service has published guidance on propriety in digital and social media. It states that official social media accounts managed by departments must not be used for the further dissemination of messages from party political or otherwise partisan accounts. The guidance can be found at https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/guidance/professional-standards/propriety/propriety-in-digital-and-social-media/.