Written questions by Cooper.

Media and Sport, how many permanent civil servants in her Department are staff without assigned posts; and how many are placed in an equivalent (a) people action team, (b) priority movers list, (c) redeployment register, (d) talent pool and (e) skills match hub in the most recent period for which data is available.

At any point in time, there is likely to be a small number of individuals who have been displaced due to restructures within their business units or who, for example, have returned from a loan from another department and their role no longer exists. The exact number changes on a regular basis. In DCMS, there are currently no permanent civil servants in DCMS without assigned posts, and five members of staff on the department’s redeployment register.

How many permanent civil servants in her Department are staff without assigned posts; and how many are placed in an equivalent (a) people action team, (b) priority movers list, (c) redeployment register, (d) talent pool and (e) skills match hub in the most recent period for which data is available.

At any point in time, there are likely to be a small number of individuals who have been displaced due to restructures within their business units or, for example, have returned from a loan from another department and their role no longer exists. The exact number changes on a day-to-day basis.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the visit by Richard Lochhead MSP to to Beijing.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has made no assessment of the effectiveness of the visit. The delivery of Scottish Government ministers is properly to be assessed by Scottish parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms. The FCDO engaged with Scottish Government officials in support of the visit, as overseas missions routinely do for all overseas visits made by Devolved Government officials.

Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department has taken to implement the Northern Ireland Enhanced Investment Zone.

Since confirmation at Autumn Budget of the continuation of the Enhanced Investment Zone, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has worked in partnership with the Northern Ireland Executive to drive forward the co-development of the design and delivery of the Enhanced Investment Zone. Further detail on the focus of the Enhanced Investment Zone will be confirmed later this year.

What steps he plans to take to (a) reform procurement, (b) make efficiency savings, (c) increase levels of access to defence procurement for SMEs and (d) encourage economic growth through the Strategic Defence Review.

The Strategic Defence Review has been considering the state of the defence industrial base, the approach to be taken to acquisition and support, and the contribution of Defence to the Government's Growth Mission. The Review will make Defence central both to the security, and to the economic growth and prosperity, of the United Kingdom.

Whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of publishing (a) direct and (b) indirect spend on SME by (i) department and (ii) contract type on the Central Digital Platform.

In February, the Government announced new rules requiring all government departments and their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with SMEs from 1 April 2025, and from 1 April 2026 for Voluntary Community and Social Enterprises (VCSEs), and publish progress annually. Our intention is for all targets for spend with SMEs and the annual publication of spend with SMEs to be published on the Central Digital Platform for ease of comparison. This will drive greater transparency and accountability for increasing numbers of SMEs and VCSEs delivering public contracts.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April 2025 to Question 41460 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Equality, what payments (a) her Department and (b) each of its arm’s-length bodies have made to the training company Inclusive Employers Ltd since July 2024; and for what purposes.

MHCLG’s Inclusion Allies network is comprised of 73 (a) staff members and zero (b) ministers. All expenditure by core MHCLG with this supplier since July 2024, and the purpose of that expenditure, is set out in the answer to Question UIN 45669 on 29 April 2025. No ALB sponsored by the MHCLG has made any payments to this supplier since July 2024, except for Homes England who made one payment for a 12-month corporate membership to support their EDI ambitions.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which development programmes he plans to maintain funding for after the planned reduction of the Official Development Assistance budget is implemented.

ODA allocations and the impact on programmes are being worked through following the decision to reduce UK ODA from 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% in 2027.We will be taking a rigorous approach to ensure all ODA delivers value for money.We will set out our spending plans following the completion of the Spending Review and departmental resource allocation processes.

How much (a) her Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold any active contracts awarded under Crown Commercial Service (CCS) agreement RM6125, nor have any contracts been awarded under this agreement in the time period specified.

How much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.

The total MOD, including DE&S, spends since 5 July 2024 against RM6125 Framework via call off contracts is: £3,550,081.59. The suppliers are Identity events Management Limited and Occam Group LTD. The MOD, including DE&S, total spends since 5 July 2024 for external communications, not against RM6125 Framework via call off contract is: £32,702,226.04. The suppliers are listed in the table below. 23RED LIMITEDALL ENGLAND NETBALL ASSOCIATION LIMITEDBE THE BRAND EXPERIENCE LIMITEDBFBSCABINET OFFICECALDER CONFERENCES LIMITEDCAPITA BUSINESS SERVICES LTDCISION GROUP LIMITEDCOGENT SKILLS LIMITEDDEPARTMENT FOR BUSINESS AND TRADEDRUMGRANGE LTDE3 MEDIA LIMITEDENGINE PARTNERS UK LLPFOREIGN COMMONWEALTH & DEVELOPMENT OFFICEFORELAND SHIPPING LTDGATENBYSANDERSON LIMITEDGOVERNMENT PROPERTY AGENCYIDENTITY EVENTS MANAGEMENT LIMITEDKORN FERRY (UK) LIMITEDLEONARDO UK LTDLES CONTAMINES TOURISMELINKEDIN IRELAND UNLIMITED COMPANYMACE CONSULT LIMITEDMALVERN OPTICAL LIMITEDMINISTRY OF JUSTICENEXT 15 GROUP PLCOFFICE DE TOURISME DE PRALOGNAN LA VANOISEOFFICE DE TOURISME DE SERRE CHEVALIEROMD GROUP LIMITEDOPINION RESEARCH SERVICES LIMITEDOPTICALMEDIA LTDPA CONSULTING SERVICES LTDPEOPLESCOUT LIMITEDPRESS DATA LIMITEDPRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLPREPUTATION (RI) UK LTDRUHPOLDING TOURISMUS KURUNTIME COLLECTIVE LIMITEDSHUTTLEBERG GMBH & CO KGSTANDING WITH GIANTSTALKWALKER SARLTELEPERFORMANCE LTDTHE PCC OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS, LONDONTOWERS WATSON LIMITEDTURNER & TOWNSEND PROJECT MANAGEMENT LTDWAVEMAKER LIMITEDWILLIS LIMITED The MOD ALB contractual data is not captured centrally on the Contracting Purchasing & Finance (CP&F) system.

How much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.

The following table shows the Department's spend through CCS agreements RM6125 (lots 1 and 2) and RM6123 since 5 July 2024: AgreementContractorSpendRM6125 (Lot 1: end to end campaign solutions)Mullen Lowe£3,929,499.92RM6123 (Media services)Manning Gottlieb OMD£15,232,110.00RM6125 (Lot 2: Media strategy and planning)Wavemaker£212,763.00Source: Department of Health and Social CareInformation on spend by arm’s length bodies is not held centrally. The spend outlined above includes advertising, creative development and production, and media planning. Investment is set as part of the campaign planning process based on the audiences and objectives. This spend includes campaigns such as adult social care recruitment, childhood immunisations, smoking and mental health.

How much (a) her Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.

Total spend on external communications from 5 July 2024 to 6 March 2025 is £35,478,270.30.This includes the following spending:Core department: £35,342,797.68.The Education and Skills Funding Agency: £3,853.24.Standards and Testing Agency: £3,153.39.Total departmental spend: £35,349,804.30.We only have data for arms length body spending through Oak National Academy, which spent £128,465.98.Total spend through the framework is £34,553,792.52.The vast majority of the spend constitutes the department’s key campaigns which are Get in to Teaching, Childcare Choices, Skills for life and Further Education. We are unable to detail the spend by campaign.Top ten supplier spend through the framework is shown here:SupplierSpend (£)% participationWAVEMAKER LIMITED163,975.790.47%KINDRED AGENCY LIMITED180,430.410.52%Verian Group UK Limited308,302.500.89%FOUR COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED536,585.421.55%BLACKBERRY PRODUCTIONS LTD610,447.581.77%SCROLL PROJECTS LTD939,406.872.72%M&C SAATCHI (UK) LIMITED969,646.822.81%BAM AGENCY LTD1,017,463.712.94%HAVAS WORLDWIDE LONDON LTD1,231,164.173.56%OMD GROUP TA MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD LTD28,028,649.2381.12%

Communities and Local Government, what progress her Department has made on implementing the Long-Term Plan for Towns funding for Dumfries.

The Chancellor confirmed at the Budget on 30 October that the Long-Term Plan for Towns will be retained and reformed as part of a new regeneration programme.A revised prospectus for the programme will be published in due course, confirming the associated timelines and a new set of strategic objectives aligned to this government’s missions.All 75 towns have now received an initial £250,000 of capacity funding. A further £200,000 of capacity funding will be issued in the 2025/26 financial year, to support the development of plans in line with our new objectives.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.

Contracts awarded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) are available via ContractsFinder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder) and Find-a-Tender-Service (https://www.gov.uk/find-tender). FCDO spend above £25,000 is available via https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fcdo-departmental-spending-over-25000, and summary figures are available via the FCDO's Annual Report and Accounts (the latest report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fcdo-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024).The FCDO is not responsible for procurement on behalf of our arm's length bodies.

How much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.

To identify the information requested would require a manual review of all transactions made in communications related account categories in the Home Office’s financial system since 5 July 2024, to confirm if they related to Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and other agreements, and then to collate and verify relevant data.This could only be done for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

Pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 27757 on DHSC: cost of external public affairs, how many communications staff work in his Department.

The Department had 90 full-time equivalent staff in post working in the Communications Directorate at the end of January 2025; this is a reduction from a headcount of 110 in July 2021. Staff in this Directorate cover a broad range of communications roles including media relations, marketing and branding, public health and prevention campaigns, internal communications and external publishing on GOV.UK.

Whether her Department is taking steps to ensure that retired police officers affected by the 2018 McCloud judgment receive a Remediable Service Statement by the 31 March 2025.

While the Home Office has responsibility for overarching policy and legislative changes to the police pension regulations in England & Wales, the police pension scheme is locally administered by individual police forces. The Home Office is working with the policing sector to support the effective implementation of the McCloud remedy for all affected individuals.It is for each Chief Constable, in their role as scheme manager for their force, to determine their administrative timetable. This includes the timetabling of when scheme members’ Remediable Service Statements will be distributed, which are produced for each scheme member by the relevant scheme administrator.The devolved governments have overarching policy and legislative responsibility in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

How much (a) his Department and (b) its Arm’s Length Body has spent on external public relations since 5 July 2024; and which firms that funding went to.

The Scotland Office and associated Arm’s Length Bodies has a nil spend on external public relations since 5 July 2024.

How much (a) his Department and (b) each of its Arm’s Length Bodies has spent on external public relations since 5 July 2024; and which firms that funding went to.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has nil spend on external public relations since 5 July 2024. DESNZ conducts all public relations in house and does not use any external providers/firms. The Department’s Arm’s Length Bodies record and publish their own spend data on public relations. This information is not held centrally and can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Media and Sport, how much (a) her Department and (b) each of its Arm’s Length Bodies has spent on external public relations since 5 July 2024; and which firms that funding went to.

Public relations activity is a subset of communication spend. As such, this data is not held. The Government Communication Service encourages the prioritisation of low and no cost public relations activities wherever possible. It is recommended that all external communications support should be procured through approved government frameworks, with strict controls in place to ensure cost-effectiveness.