Written questions by Wood.

Pursuant to the answer of 17 December 2025 to Question 99835 on Cabinet Office: Facilities Agreements, whether (a) his and (b) the Permanent Secretary's approval is required for the use of paid facility time for trade union activities in Arms Length Bodies.

The Cabinet Office’s centrally issued facility time framework states that should a department wish to provide paid time off for activities, it will need to be agreed by the Secretary of State or Chief Executive. Chief Executive refers to the head of the organisation, e.g. Permanent Secretary or Chief Executive of an Arms Length Body.The framework also states that these principles are expected to be applied across the Civil Service including all departments and agencies employing civil servants. NDPBs outside of this scope are also expected to adopt these principles.

How many staff in his Department work on the team that collates trade union facility time data; and what databases are used to store the information (a) requested and (b) collected.

The Cabinet Office team whose responsibilities previously included, amongst other duties, collating public sector trade union facility time data has five members of staff. Each year the data was published on gov.uk (here). The information is not stored on any databases maintained by the Cabinet Office.

Pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2026 to Question 103795 on Government Property Agency: Empty Property, if he will list the addresses of the 13 vacant properties and their last Government occupier.

Details of vacant space across the government estate, aggregated from departmental submissions, are published annually in the State of the Estate Report. This includes total square metre figures by department, but not individual property-level occupancy or address data. Members of the public can view information on vacant or surplus government-owned properties via the Government Property Finder: https://www.gov.uk/find-government-property

Pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 103787 on Governments Departments: Advertising, if he will provide a breakdown of spending by (a) programme and (b) campaign.

Please see below for the category breakdown of the figure provided in Question 103787: Digital - £144,968,019Out of Home - £21,566,434Press - £6,200,349Radio - £10,760,710Television - £31,404,544 This spend is across a number of government departments and a campaign breakdown is not readily available to the Cabinet Office.

Pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2026 to Question 103786 on Admiralty House: Official Residence, which business unit of the Cabinet Office determines which individual civil servants may use Admiralty House for accommodation; and whether his Department holds data on those civil servants that have used the accommodation in Admiralty House, including the dates of such use.

Admiralty House is occasionally used overnight by Civil Servants where there is operational need. This is in-line with the usage of Admiralty House across successive governments. Temporary overnight stays require permission from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 104797 on WPP Media: Contracts, what the latest estimated value is of each individual Lot of the RM6364 framework between 2026 and 2030; and whether the total framework for government Media and Creative Services remains £2,340,000,000 including VAT.

For the Crown Commercial Service (CCS) framework RM6364 Media and Creative Services, the estimated maximum values for each of the eight lots over the 2026-2030 period are available at the following links: https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/003578-2026https://www.find-tender.service.gov.uk/Notice/000238-2026?origin=Dashboard The total estimated framework value remains £2,340,000,000 including VAT (calculated at the rate of 20%). It should be noted that these are maximum estimated values; actual spend on each lot will be determined by individual public sector bodies based on their specific requirements over the life of the framework.

Whether there is a list of extant desk notes held by his Department.

The Cabinet Office does not collect a list of extant desk notes.

Pursuant to the answer of 13 January 2026 to Question 103794,on Ministers: Aviation, which business unit of his Department holds the data referenced in the VIP International Flights privacy notice.

The data referenced is held by Cabinet Office Commercial.

Pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026, to Question 104805, on Senior Civil Servants: Redundancy Pay, whether the former Cabinet Secretary’s exit payment was made through the (a) the Civil Service Compensation Scheme, (b) the Injury Benefit Scheme or (c) another Civil Service scheme.

As set out in the Cabinet Office accounts (page 86), the payment for the former Cabinet Secretary was a severance payment, with the value calculated using the Civil Service Compensation Scheme tariff.

How he plans to change the hiring criteria for Senior Civil Servants.

Our approach to hiring for the Senior Civil Service (SCS) is changing to place greater value on frontline delivery, innovation, and private sector experience.

Whether his Department has issued guidance on the provision of official cars to Ministers outside the Government Car Service by (a) the Metropolitan Police and (b) private contractors.

The Government Car Service does not provide advice or guidance on the provision of cars outside its remit, including arrangements made by the Metropolitan Police or private contractors.

Pursuant to the answer of 16 December 20254 to Question 98794 on Mission Boards, which Secretary of State leads each Mission Board.

Missions Boards are the responsibility of each of the lead Secretaries of State: Kickstarting Economic Growth - Chancellor of the ExchequerAn NHS Fit for the Future - Secretary of State for HealthSafer Streets - Secretary of State for the Home DepartmentBreak Down Barriers to Opportunity - Secretary of State for Education and Minister for Women and EqualitiesMake Britain a Clean Energy Superpower - Secretary of State for Energy and Net Zero

Pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026 to Question 104803, how much the two annual pay awards were; and whether the FDA is recognised as a trade union.

As set out previously (UIN 54797), the government’s policy is that pay awards for special advisers are considered annually, and any such award is linked to the approach taken for the Senior Civil Service. In line with the headline award for senior civil servants, the 2024/25 pay award for special advisers was 5% and the 2025/26 pay award for special advisers was 3.25%. The FDA is recognised as a trade union for special advisers.

If he will make an assessment of the potential impact of dynamic alignment with the EU electricity market on deregulation.

We will negotiate an electricity agreement with the EU to cut the cost of trading electricity with European partners, strengthen our energy security, drive investment in the North Sea, and help to achieve our Clean Power 2030 Mission. The detail of commitments in this agreement, as with other areas, is a matter for negotiations. This does not change the Government’s plans to ensure regulators and regulation support growth.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2026, to Question 101383, on Government Actuary's Department: Freedom of Information, what the total cost would be in cash terms over 99 years without net present value discounting.

I refer the Hon Member to the answers I gave on this and other matters during the Urgent Question debate on 26 January. As an expert in the financial services industry, he will understand that it is simply wrong to ignore the effects of inflation and the changing value of money on the real costs of a deal that lasts 99 years.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department uses the Global Disinformation Index service.

No.

Pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2026 to Question 105247 on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who took the decision to recall the papers.

The redactions to the information were agreed at the appropriate level by Cabinet Office officials, following engagement with The National Archives. Papers were not recalled from The National Archives, which is where the closed extracts remain.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether her Department has received representations from Inter Mediate on sanctions on the Syrian government.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer given on 3 June 2025 to the question 52690.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 15 September 2025, to Question 69770, if he will publish information on meetings held with officials.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) already publishes quarterly transparency data on the external meetings held by the department's permanent under secretaries, directors general, and finance and commercial directors. Publishing comprehensive lists of all the external meetings held by every member of FCDO staff based in the UK and overseas could only be done at disproportionate cost.

Pursuant to the answer of 9 April 2025 to Question 42994 on Government Departments: Aviation, whether helicopter travel under the Central Cabinet Office Corporate Travel Agency Contract has been commissioned since April 2025.

Ministerial travel is carefully considered to ensure both efficiency and the interests of the taxpayer are prioritised.While the Cabinet Office can facilitate helicopter travel in exceptional circumstances, routine helicopter journeys for ministers are no longer carried out under this Government.Helicopter travel has been commissioned under the Cabinet Office Central Travel Contract on five occasions since April 2025. Only one of these flights was for a government minister.24 Prime Ministerial helicopter tasks were facilitated under the Command Support Air Transport Fleet between 01 February 2021 and 04 September 2023.