Written questions by Wood.

Pursuant to the Answer of 9 September 2025 to Question 75368 on Parliamentary and Political Service Committee: Public Appointments, what the remaining period of time is for each of the independent members’ current terms of office.

The Parliamentary and Political Service Honours Committee (PPS Committee) is one of ten specialist honours committees, made up of individuals with considerable experience of the area the committee covers. The current membership of the PPS Committee comprises an independent chair and four independent members each appointed through a public appointments process, and three official members who are the incumbent chief whips from the three largest political parties in the House of Commons. The current independent committee memberships appointment terms are as follows:Chair: Dame Rosie Winterton DBE. Appointed August 2025 for a 5 year term.Member: Lord Johnny Oates. Appointed July 2024 for a 5 year term.Member:Lord Iain McNicol. Appointed July 2024 for a 5 year term.Member: Professor Stephanie Rickard. Appointed November 2024 for a 5 year term.Member: Craig Stephenson OBE. Appointed November 2024 for a 5 year term.

What the total expenditure was on Government Car Service cars for Ministers in the week of (a) 1 September 2025 and (b) 8 September 2025.

Expenditure details for the period requested are not yet available. Invoicing for Ministerial car usage covering the specified dates has not yet been raised or processed.

What guidance has been issued to employers by (a) his Department and (b) the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service on whether staff who are on strike are permitted to work for other employers during periods of industrial action.

No specific guidance has been issued to employers by the Department for Business and Trade or the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service on whether staff who are on strike are permitted to work for other employers during periods of industrial action. The liability of a worker taking industrial action and working for another employer is likely to depend on their contract with their first employer and on how its terms apply to the circumstances.

With reference to his Department's press release entitled Civil Service staff networks to only meet outside working hours and have all events signed off by senior managers, published on 23 September 2025, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of that policy on the provisions on trade union equality representatives in the Employment Rights Bill.

Civil Service staff networks are separate to trade union activities and duties carried out by trade union representatives in the Civil Service. As such the Civil Service Staff Network Policy does not apply to its trade union representatives.

Innovation and Technology, whether digital ID cards will have centralised logging and verification; and whether public bodies will have access to metadata logs.

The Government has announced plans for a new digital ID to be available to UK citizens and legal residents aged 16 and over. It will be designed with privacy at its core and will follow existing industry standards for security. This includes established standards for cyber security, counter-fraud and data storage.The new service will follow UK GDPR and privacy principles to only collect and store the minimum data required. The Government will start a public consultation on the new digital ID by the end of the year to further inform our approach.Following the Machinery of Government changes of 23/10/2025 policy responsibility now sits with the Cabinet Office.

Pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2025 to Question 74315 on DBT: Social Media, how much has been spent since 4 July 2025; on what campaigns; and through what influencers.

Since 4 July 2025, no money has been spent on influencers by the Department for Business and Trade.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 September 2025 to Question 70506 on Cabinet Office: Contracts, whether the Crown Commercial Service has made an estimate of the number of suppliers increasing prices as a result of the increase in National Insurance.

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) does not hold information that would show whether suppliers have increased prices in response to the April 2025 National Insurance rise, so cannot make an estimate. Pricing under CCS arrangements is determined at contract level by contracting authorities.

With reference to the Freedom of Information Act disclosure reference FOI2025/09531 of 16 September 2025, whether payments have been made to Mr Money Jar for social media activity since July 2024, other than for the Living Wage campaign.

Since July 2024, no payments have been made by the Department for Business and Trade to Mr Money Jar for social media activity, other than the National Minimum and Living Wage campaign.

Pursuant to the Answer of 10 September 2025 to Question 76302 on Lord Mandelson, whether Lord Mandelson's mailbox during his time as Business Secretary, held by Integrated Corporate Services, holds (a) information and (b) correspondence relating to (i) Jeffery Epstein and (ii) the sale of Sempra Commodities to JP Morgan.

The Integrated Corporate Services (ICS) do not hold any records of information or correspondence from Lord Mandelson’s mailbox relating to Jeffrey Epstein or the sale of Sempra Commodities.

With reference to page 169 of the Home Office Annual report and accounts 2024-25, HC 1133, published in July 2025, and page 170 of the Home Office Annual report and accounts 2023-24, HC 184, published in July 2024, what was the business case for the increase (a) in trade union facility time from £1,134,980 in 2023-24 to £1,424,127 in 2024-25, and (b) to FTE numbers of 387 facility time staff; and whether ministers authorised the increase.

The number of Home Office employees elected/appointed to trade union representative positions is for individual trade unions to determine. Additionally, there is no requirement for ministers to authorise increases in the cost of facility time, but, in line with a facility time framework provided to Civil Service departments under the previous administration, if the cost of facility time were to exceed 0.1% of the paybill that would require Secretary of State approval. The cost of facility time in the Home Office in percentage terms was the same in 2024-25 as it was in 2023-24 (0.05%).

Pursuant to the Answer of 11 September 2025 to Question 73349, on Unite: Conference Centres and Hotels, if he will publish a copy of the report that the Certification Officer received in the Library.

The Certification Officer has no plans at present to publish the report authored by BDO auditors due to ongoing work. The report was provided to him in order to assist him in delivering his statutory obligations. The Certification Officer has appointed an inspector to investigate the financial affairs of Unite the Union, including in respect of certain matters raised in the report referred to. Upon conclusion of the inspection, the Certification Officer will publish the inspector's report on his website.

Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the security of A2P messaging used for two-factor authentication by gov.uk websites.

Security is a key priority for all government services, alongside accessibility and inclusion (i.e. points 4, 5 and 9 of the Service Standard). There isn't a cross-government standard or mandate, as use of A2P depends on the particular needs and user base of individual services. While there are more secure methods of 2FA / MFA, use of A2P for 2FA significantly reduces the risk of account compromise and ensures the widest compatibility and usability across all user bases.Though we note that the NCSC has affirmed it's acceptable as a second factor in certain cases.

Whether Policy Lab will fund the MANIFEST programme in 2025-26.

There are currently no commitments by Policy Lab to fund the MANIFEST programme further in 2025/26.

Pursuant to the Answer of 23 September 2025 to Question 71198 on Unherd: Advertising, whether the Government Communication Service SAFE framework currently permits government advertising on the websites of (a) The Sun, (b) The Daily Star, (c) Spiked and (d) Ladbible.

SAFE framework assessments have been conducted on The Sun, The Daily Star, and Ladbible, and they have been assessed as appropriate for government advertising. No SAFE framework assessment has been conducted on Spiked.

Pursuant to the answer of 4 September 2025 to Question 70468 on Government Communication Service: Staff, what is the most recent estimate of the headcount size of the Government Communication Service, using the same methodology used by the Cabinet Office in the response to FOI IR2025/05101.

The figures cited in the parliamentary question and the FOI Internal Review of Government Communications remain the most up to date information available as the 2025 Data Collection is still undergoing validation.

Pursuant to the Answer of 4 August 2025 to Question HL9337 on Ministers: Official Residences, if he will publish the internal document which states that the sponsoring department will pay the council tax bill for the Minister.

Ministers are advised on allocation of an official residence that the responsibility for payment of council tax depends on whether the property is their primary or secondary residence. This is a long-standing policy position in place for successive administrations, reflected in a parliamentary question to the then Prime Minister the Rt Hon Sir Tony Blair as follows: “The level and responsibility for payment of council tax is determined on whether the property is the Minister's main or secondary residence. If a main residence, the responsibility for payment of the tax falls to the Minister. If the property is a secondary residence, responsibility for payment falls to the responsible Department.” This question is available at the following link: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo000605/text/00605w14.htm#00605w14.html_spmin0.

What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on making the appointment of Ambassadors subject to the regulated public appointments process.

Heads of Mission are civil servants and as such are subject to different recruitment and appointment rules and processes to public appointees. The Cabinet Office has no plans to make such roles subject to the regulated public appointment process.

Pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2025 to Question 71214 on Permanent Secretaries: Pay, if he will publish the salaries for the two roles that were approved; and what was the business case of the exceptional salaries.

Details of senior salaries are published in individual departmental Annual Reports and Accounts.

Pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2025 to Question 65148 on Bank Notes, whether (a) her Department or (b) the Bank of England has an equality, diversity and inclusion policy on the (i) design of and (ii) selection of characters to appear on banknotes.

The Bank of England is responsible for all aspects of banknote design and character selection, as set out in the Currency and Bank Notes Act 1954 and the 2025 Memorandum of Understanding between HM Treasury and the Bank of England, which can be found online here: Financial relationship between HM Treasury and the Bank of England Memorandum of Understanding. As a result, HM Treasury is not involved in decisions on banknote designs or character selections. Recently, the Bank of England announced that they will be launching a new series of banknotes and over the summer concluded a public consultation on possible themes to be featured on the new series:Help us design our next series of banknotes | Bank of England

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 April 2025 to Question 47195 on Environment Protection: Finance, what is the policy of the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure in relation to investment in (a) defence and (b) nuclear weapons.

The UK government formally endorsed the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework in 2021 and has mandated TCFD-aligned disclosure for large entities in the private sector since 2022. The FCA also refers to the TCFD framework in its listing rules and has required TCFD aligned reports since 2021 for listed companies. The new International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) Standards, so called S1 and S2, are designed to replace the TCFD framework. These draft standards, which will be known as UK Sustainability Reporting Standards (UK SRS) were published for consultation in June 2025, closing in September 2025. Both UK SRS, and the TCFD framework that they will replace, are disclosure standards that ask firms to disclose financially material climate related risks to their business. The objective of these is to provide investors with consistent, comparable and reliable information about companies' sustainability-related risks and opportunities. These standards are designed to enhance transparency and do not dictate how a company should invest. They do not prevent or impose restrictions on investment in specific sectors, including defence or nuclear weapons.