Written questions by Wood.

Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the answer of 19 November 2025 to Question 88283 on Simon Case, what his remuneration is; and whether it includes pension contributions.

Lord Simon Case was directly appointed Chair of the Barrow Delivery Board by the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in February 2025. In line with Cabinet Office guidance around direct ministerial appointments, published in October 2025, Lord Case is renumerated at a daily rate of £725.00 with a time commitment of 3 to 4 days per month. Renumeration does not include pension contributions.

Pursuant to the Answer of 18 November 2025 to Question 88691 on Jeffrey Epstein, whether the records are searchable by keyword.

Yes, digital records are searchable by keyword.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, who the members are of the Quint working group.

The Hon Member may be referring to the informal grouping of the United Kingdom, United States, France, Germany and Italy which, for example, works alongside the EU and NATO on promoting stability in the Western Balkans.

Further to the deposited letter from the Acting National Statistician of 22 May 2025, pursuant to the answer of 29 May 2025, to Question 53545, on Office for National Statistics: Buildings, and with reference to the Table 1 statistics on daily attendance in each of (a) Darlington, (b) Manchester and (c) Edinburgh, how many civil servants do the figures relate to in each building, and what was the frequency of their attendance on which the 5% statistic was calculated by ONS.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of the 26th November is attached.

What the annual cost is of the Senior Leaders Scheme; and how many deputy directors participated in the last year.

This year there are 114 deputy directors taking part in the Senior Leadership Programme established in 2018. The programme is 14 months’ long and costs a total of £1,373,401.91.

Pursuant to the answer of 17 November 2025 to Question 88705, on the Spectator: Advertising, whether the SAFE framework permits government advertising on the (a) Daily Express, (b) GB News and (c) the Morning Star.

Following assessment under the SAFE Framework, government advertising is permitted on The Daily Express (now express.co.uk). No SAFE framework assessment has been conducted on GB News or the Morning Star.

Pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2025, to Question 81325, on Baroness Shafik, and further to the revised Cabinet Office guidance on Direct Ministerial Appointments of October 2025, para 21, whether the remuneration of Direct Ministerial Appointments will be published.

In the new Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, which was published on 30 October 2025, it is stated that all Direct Ministerial Appointments announcements should include “remuneration details, where such is incurred”.

Whether the due diligence on the appointment of special adviser, Tim Allan, included the work of his company, Portland, for the Russian Government.

There is a rigorous process to ensure any potential conflicts of interest are captured, and have appropriate mitigations in place to reflect specific circumstances. Ahead of his appointment, the new Executive Director of Communications in 10 Downing Street fully complied with this process.This is set out in the Special Adviser Code of Conduct and lists of Special Adviser interests are published annually.Mr Allan is not a shareholder in Portland, and hasn’t been since 2019, and has no interest in it.

What guidance has been issued by (a) his Department and (b) NHS England on expenditure on flags.

The Department follows general Government guidance on flying flags, which is available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flying-flags-a-plain-english-guide/flying-flags-a-plain-english-guide Neither the Department nor NHS England has issued guidance regarding expenditure on flags.

Whether applications for the Government Communication Service Apprenticeship in 2026 will be restricted on the basis of (a) socio-economic background and (b) ethnicity.

Applications for the GCS Apprenticeship are not restricted on the basis of socio-economic background or ethnicity.

With reference to the Cabinet Office Publication of Special Adviser Interests 2024-2025, published in 17 July 2025, what shareholdings Varun Chandra has declared.

There is an established system in place for the declaration and management of special advisers' interests. As has been the case under successive administrations, interests deemed relevant for publication for special advisers in No10 and the Cabinet Office are published on an annual basis by the Cabinet Office.

What guidance has been given to Departments and Arm's Length Bodies on trade union facility time for union learning representatives.

The Cabinet Office provides guidance to departments on the subject of facility time for trade union learning representatives within its facility time framework. This guidance simply outlines the statutory rights of these representatives.

Further to the Cabinet Office Annual report and accounts 2024-2025, HC1372, 23 October 2025, page 33, whether the external audit for ISO 14001:2015 accreditation identified any non-conformities or required actions; and if he will publish the audit’s results.

The Cabinet Office was found to have no nonconformities and no required actions. Currently, there are no plans to publish ISO14001:2015 audit results as they contain sensitive information for the building management.

With reference to the Cabinet Office Annual report and accounts 2024-2025, HC1372, 23 October 2025, page 16, what proportion of the £203 million underspend in DEL arose from projects that failed to deliver to plan and are now expected to require re-profiling or supplementary funding in 2025–26.

None of the underspend requires re-profiling or supplementary funding in 2025-26.

If he will publish the Freedom of Information Act response released by Cabinet Office, reference FOI2025/05758 of 10 July 2025 on criminal offences by Ministers.

A copy of the response will be placed in the House Library.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Government gave assurances to the Chinese Government on the proposed Chinese Embassy in London after 4 July 2024 and before the previously refused planning application was resubmitted by the Chinese Government.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 14 July 2025 to Question 65869.

With reference to the Deposited Paper DEP2025-0726, committed on 21 October 2025, what was the cause of the breakdown in the toilet macerator.

The toilet macerator was found to be leaking and upon investigation the pump was defective. The macerator was 10 years old and it was concluded that the unit should be replaced.

What information the Crown Commercial Service holds on Government use of the Starlink network.

Starlink is not a supplier on any Crown Commercial Service (CCS) commercial agreement.

Pursuant to the answer of 1 July 2025, to Question 62993, on King Charles III: Artworks, whether (a) NHS England and (b) Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust accepted the offer from the Cabinet Office of a free portrait of the King to place in their offices.

I refer the Honourable Member to the information published on GOV.UK on 28 November 2024 which provided a summary of the His Majesty The King’s Official Portrait Scheme, including the number of portraits provided by type of public institution, and the total cost of the scheme: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/conclusion-of-his-majesty-the-kings-free-portrait-scheme

For what reason the Mission Boards do not appear in the List of Cabinet Committees, published on 19 November 2025.

Following a review of the Cabinet committee system, the Prime Minister announced a number of changes to the committee structure. Mission Boards have been reformed to become delivery-focused forums benefitting from external and industry expertise, led by the relevant Secretary of State. The Government remains committed to delivering the missions.