Written questions by Holden.

Whether ice cream vans parked on red lines on Westminster Bridge are monitored by the Government Secure Zone control room.

The Government can confirm that vehicles are monitored within the Government Secure Zone. However, the Government does not comment in detail on security arrangements within the Government Secure Zone.

With reference to his Department's transparency data entitled Cabinet Office: spend control data for October to December 2024, published on 27 March 2025, what the spending on (a) 35 Great Smith Street, (b) 5 Endeavour Square, (c) Bishopgate House and (d) Exchange Tower was for.

The spend control data relates to four approvals under the National Property Control (NPC) for rent for office space. The NPC requests were all made by the Government Property Agency, an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office, on behalf of the department/s or organisation/s to be located in these sites.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2025 to Question 62339 on Parliamentary and Political Service Honours Committee, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the membership on decision making.

The process for Honours selection is transparent and robust; all nominations are considered by one of ten expert Honours Committees, each chaired by an independent chair, and comprising a majority of independent members each with considerable experience of the area covered by the committee. Once the selections have been made by each Committee, the Chairs take their recommendations to the Main Honours Committee and agree the final List for submission by the Prime Minister to The King for His Majesty’s approval.All independent chairs and members are appointed through an open and transparent public appointments process, in full compliance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments.

What changes his Department made to the Cabinet Office's Government Function: People, Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework, issued 30 June 2025.

A Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework is a management tool designed to provide consistent, comparable management information that supports functional assurance and continuous improvement. The People Function Continuous Improvement Assessment Framework was updated to reflect the updates made in Government Functional Standard GovS 003: People v 2.1 which was published on 16th June 2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2025 to Question HL8409 on special advisers, whether special advisers who wish to undertake industrial action can only do so as part of industrial action undertaken by their appointing minister’s department.

As special advisers have the same legal rights as other employees, their right to take industrial action is not limited to their appointing minister’s department.

Pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2025 to Question 65874 on Prime Minister: Staff, on what date (a) the Implementation Unit and (b) the No10 Delivery Unit were abolished.

There has not been an Implementation Unit in 10 Downing Street for at least 15 years. The No10 Delivery Unit moved to the Cabinet Office and was renamed the Mission Delivery Unit reflecting its focus on the government’s five missions.

When he plans to publish the senior officials high earners salaries list for 2025.

The previous administration did not update this list prior to the General Election. The Cabinet Office will publish a new 2025 list in due course.

With reference to the Cabinet Office spend approvals: October to December 2024, published 27 March 2025, what was the purpose of the spending on Great Campaigns HQ; what suppliers were contracted; and on what media channels.

Since 2011, the Great Britain and Northern Ireland Campaign has successfully encouraged an international audience to visit, trade, invest, live, work and study in the UK and has generated over £7 billion of returns to the UK economy. GREAT HQ’s activity targets cross-cutting drivers of growth. To deliver these campaigns, GREAT HQ works with several approved suppliers via government commercial frameworks, delivering mainly via targeted digital channels.

Pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2025 to Question 64569 on 9 Downing Street: Repairs and Maintenance, whether the (a) provisional and (b) final cost of the works has been agreed.

The (a) provisional cost of works has been approved, but the (b) invoice for the works has not yet been submitted. The final cost of works will be included in the Cabinet Office spend transparency reporting once invoiced by the supplier.

If he will make an assessment of the potential implications for his policies of the timeliness of payments of compensation to the victims of infected blood.

The Government is committed to ensuring that all those eligible to receive compensation receive an award as quickly as possible. As of 15 July, the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) has contacted 2,215 people to begin their claim for compensation, with 1,934 having started the claim process. 808 offers of compensation have been made, with a total value of over £602 million. 587 people have accepted their offer and received payment, with over £411 million paid in compensation. This means approximately 60% of infected people registered with a support scheme have been contacted to begin their claim.For other groups, IBCA will continue their test and learn approach, bringing different people in at different stages to start their compensation claim. They set out further details of this in their community update on 21st July.

How his Department measures the diversity performance of the College for National Security; and whether there are safeguards to help ensure that oversight mechanisms do not (a) create bias and (b) unlawfully process protected data.

The College for National Security provides the national security community and wider civil service access to learning and development. The College’s offer is open to all civil and crown servants and safeguards are in place to ensure content is only accessed by staff with appropriate clearances. Diversity data of learners engaging in this initial offer is not currently collected as standard and is not used for performance purposes. In some cases, additional information such as location, disability or nationality information may be collected for operational purposes, for example to ensure we meet accessibility requirements. Personal data is currently collected and processed in line with the College’s Privacy Notice, which can be accessed on GOV.UK here.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62087 on Lobbying, whether his Department plans to formally respond to the report.

The Government continues to keep transparency around lobbying under review, and we will factor into consideration the recommendations from PACAC's report as any policy reforms are considered. However, the report was conducted and published under the previous administration, and framed in the context of policy restraints imposed by that administration, therefore the Government will not be providing a full report response.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 July 2025 to Question 62334 on Cabinet Office: Labour Party, what the journeys were.

As is longstanding practice, specific details regarding the allocation of vehicles are not disclosed due to security considerations.

Pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2025 to Question 62990 on House of Lords Appointments Commission, what the Government’s policy is on the number of Non-Party Political Life Peers proposed by HOLAC who will be created each individual year of this Parliament.

The Prime Minister will continue to invite nominations from HOLAC, and future appointments will be announced in the usual way.

Whether Number 10 has an operational Bloomberg terminal.

HMT has Bloomberg terminals and subscriptions to support the provision of economic advice to the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Pursuant to the written ministerial statement of 19 June 2025, on House of Lords Appointments, HCWS718, whether the Prime Minister has a target size for the number of sitting peers in the House of Lords.

As appointments are for life, the second chamber has become too big. The Government’s manifesto therefore included a commitment to introduce a retirement age for members of the House of Lords. The Government intends to propose the establishment of a dedicated select committee in the House of Lords to look at how best to implement the manifesto commitments on a retirement age and participation requirement, following the passage of the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill.

Whether he has issued guidance to Ministers on attending office workplaces during periods of strike action.

No such guidance has been issued by the Cabinet Office.

Pursuant to the Answer of 1 July 2025 to Question 62084 on Government Departments: Procurement, which public bodies have undertaken expenditure through framework RM6125 since 4 July 2024.

Information on individual contracts, including any agreed through a Crown Commercial Service framework, are publicly available on Contracts Finder at the following link: https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk. Contracts Finder provides information about contracts worth over £12,000 (including VAT) with the government and its agencies.It is the responsibility of the relevant contracting authority to upload contract information on Contracts Finder.

With reference to page 185 of the report entitled Census 2021: General report for England and Wales, published on 21 June 2025, which local authorities had a confidence interval of (a) up to 5%, (b) up to 6% and (c) 6% or more.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 10th July is attached.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2025 to Question 62083 on House of Lords Appointments Commission, for what reason the competition to recruit members of the House of Lords Appointments Commission is not listed on webpage on gov.uk entitled Apply for a public appointment.

The campaign to recruit up to two independent members to the House of Lords Appointments Commission was launched on 3 January 2025. The competition then closed on 5 February 2025. As such, it is no longer open to new applicants. The advert can be found on the public appointments website: https://apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/roles/8519