Written questions by Wood.

With reference to the Written Statement on Government of service, HCWS870, of 21 July 2025, whether he plans to amend the Civil Service Management Code to reflect the transfer of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments' functions to the Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service Management Code will be updated in due course to reflect the transfer of the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments' functions to provide independent advice on the application of the Business Appointment Rules in respect of the most senior civil servants and special advisers to the Civil Service Commission.

With reference to the Written Statement of 21 July 2025, HCWS870, on Government of service, whether he plans to amend the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 to implement the changes on Ministerial severance payments.

The government does not intend to amend the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 to implement changes on ministerial severance payments. These changes will be implemented via a waiver system.

With reference to the Written Statement on Government of service, HCWS870, of 21 July 2025, whether the new Business Appointment Rules administered by the Civil Service Commission will apply to (a) special advisers below SCS Pay Band 2, (b) special advisers at other pay bands and (c) special advisers previously covered by the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments.

The transfer of responsibility for the administration and advice on applications for the most senior civil servants and special advisers from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments to the Civil Service Commission, will only affect those at the SCS Pay Band 3 and equivalent, and above. Applications from those civil servants and special advisers at the SCS Pay Band 2 and equivalent, and below, will continue to be processed by their respective departments.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Answer of 12 November 2024 to Question HL2064 on Diego Garcia: Military Bases, how many letters were sent between the two governments on the draft treaty that have not been published alongside the treaty.

In line with the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, the government published the treaty and documentation required to inform the ratification of the treaty, including the full costs of the deal, on the day of signature.

Pursuant to the Answer of 21 July 2025 to Question HL9163 on Government Departments: Regulation, how many authorisations have been made within this Department.

I refer the Hon gentleman to the answer for PQ HL9163 of 21 July 2025.

With reference to the Written Statement of 21 July 2025 on Government of service, HCWS870, whether the Prime Minister plans to issue a direction under section 17 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 to give the Civil Service Commission new statutory functions relating to Business Appointment Rules.

As Minister for the Cabinet Office, I wrote to the First Civil Service Commissioner, Baroness Stuart, on behalf of the Prime Minister, on 9 July formally inviting the Civil Service Commission, under Section 17 of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010, to take on responsibility for the administration and advice on applications from the most senior civil servants (and equivalent special advisers) under the business appointment rules system. The First Civil Service Commissioner responded on 11 July on behalf of the Commission to formally agree to take on these additional responsibilities. The relevant correspondence is published on the Civil Service Commission website. These changes took effect on 13 October 2025.

Whether the (a) Crown Commercial Service and (b) Government Communications Service has (i) a framework agreement for the procurement of social influencers and (ii) roster of preferred or recommended influencers.

The procurement of social influencers in Cabinet Office can be done through the CCS Framework RM6125 - Lot 1 End to end campaign solutions, which can be found on this link here.. There is no roster of preferred or recommended influencers.

How much her Department has allocated (a) overall, (b) to the Ministry of Defence and (c) to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to fund payments under the UK/Mauritius: Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia [CS Mauritius No.1/2025] in each year of the agreement.

The overall cost of the agreement can be found in the document ‘UK/Mauritius: Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia’ published by the government on 22 May 2025, available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ukmauritius-agreement-concerning-the-chagos-archipelago-including-diego-garcia-cs-mauritius-no12025. The payments to Mauritius will be split between the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Ministry of Defence. They will be published in the normal manner alongside other departmental spend in the annual accounts.

Whether her Business Engagement Lead is a (a) special adviser, (b) direct ministerial appointment, (c) civil servant appointed by open and fair competition and (d) civil servant appointed by recruitment principles exemption.

There is a business engagement team in HMT made up of civil servants recruited via fair and open competition.

Whether the students from Gaza granted permission to study in the United Kingdom under the Chevening scheme will be subject to any security checks or vetting.

Robust security checks will be undertaken on the Chevening Scholars and all students who enter the UK through this process. Biometrics will be collected as part of the visa application process and prior to the final decision on granting entry to the UK as a student.

What assessment (a) HM Treasury and (b) the Government Actuary Department has made of the accuracy of the GDP deflator forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Economic forecasts, including assessments of the impact of policy decisions, are the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The OBR are required to produce a Forecast Evaluation Report (FER) each year under the Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act (2011). The OBR are required to explain reasons for divergence between its forecasts and subsequent outturns, to support future forecast improvements. The latest FER can be found here: Forecast evaluation report 2025 - Office for Budget Responsibility. This includes information about the GDP deflator on Page 29-30.

How many times the Treasury Board has met since 4 July 2024; and on what dates she attended.

There are no plans for the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury to meet. As set out in the Annual Report and Accounts, the Treasury Board met once since July 2024 and the Chancellor of the Exchequer was in attendance.

Commonwealth and Development Affairs, in what circumstances would the (a) Mauritius and (b) UK Government be able to terminate the UK/Mauritius: Agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago including Diego Garcia once it is in force.

Details of grounds for termination can be found under Article 15 of the Agreement.

With reference to the press release entitled Internship Scheme To Get More Working Class Students Into Civil Service, published on 1 August 2025, whether children of (a) NHS doctors and (b) NHS nurses will be able to apply for the Summer Internship Programme in (i) DHSC and (ii) NHS England in 2026.

The Summer Internship Programme (SIP) is a Cabinet Office run scheme. The scheme places interns into Government departments. The Department of Health and Social Care participates in the scheme and is allocated interns from the Cabinet Office.

What his Department's planned timetable is for the publication of the seventh UK National Action Plan for Open Government; and what consultation his Department has undertaken in relation to the sixth UK National Action Plan for Open Government since it was published in December 2023.

The Seventh National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP7) will be developed next year with final publication by 31 December 2026. Simultaneously, the UK is co-chairing the OGP Action Framework Task Force with the goal of making the action framework more user-friendly, agile and less bureaucratic. During the implementation of the UK National Action Plan for Open Government 2024-2025 (NAP6), the UK Multi-Stakeholder Forum for Open Government (MSF) met on two occasions on 24th January 2024, and 17th July 2024, with further meetings under development, and Government teams responsible for commitments continued engagement with their stakeholders throughout implementation.

Pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2025 to Question 37808 on Prime Minister: Recruitment, if he will list the job title of each position in the Prime Minister’s Office that was filled by exception 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. A list of appointments by exception (SCS2 and above) are published and updated on the Commission’s website available here: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/publications/pb2-recruitmentexceptions/

What the cost to the public purse was of each official reception in 10 Downing Street since 4 July 2024.

As under previous administrations, details of official receptions are published in quarterly transparency returns on gov.uk.

If he will make an estimate of the total cost of the Civil Service paybill in the (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 financial years.

Salary data for the Civil Service is published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics, an Accredited Official Statistics release, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/civil-service-statistics-2025

If he will publish the name of each of the Prime Minister's (a) special representatives, (b) envoys and (c) direct ministerial appointments who were in post on 2 September 2025.

The names of special representatives, envoys and direct ministerial appointments are published on gov.uk at the time of their appointment.

With reference to the document entitled Statistical bulletin - Civil Service Statistics: 2025, published on 30 July 2025, for what reason the proportion of staff in his Department who have self-reported a disability have risen from 8.9% in 2015 to 16.9% in 2024; and if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of his Department's recruitment policies on the number of staff self-reporting a disabilitiy in this time period.

The figures referenced are Civil Service wide, rather than Cabinet Office departmental statistics. The correct 2025 figure is 17.9%. This increase is most likely due to a range of activity conducted by departments to increase self-reporting rates as well as any recent recruitment activity. Recruitment is delegated to departments. The Cabinet Office would not be involved in relation to the assessment of recruitment policies within departments. However departments should continually monitor impacts in accordance with the Public Sector Equality Duty.