Every parliamentary written question tabled by Richard Holden this session, with the full answer and department. See how every department answers, or back to the MP page.
Showing 1,961–1,980 of 2,902 · this parliament
Pursuant to the Answer of 4 June 2025 to Question 53888 on Civil Service: Equality, how many civil servants work in the CSIP Team; and what the annual operating cost is of that business unit.
For the year 2024-2025, the CSIP Team had 11.16FTE; the annual operating cost including non-pay costs for that business unit the same year was £1,092,548.37. This includes all staff costs and overheads as well as operational non-pay costs and overheads (such as Estates, IT and Shared Services).
Whether the Government’s Lead Non Executive Director is a member of any Government (a) board and (b) committee.
The Government Lead Non Executive is not currently a member of any Government board or committee. Baroness Casey oversees non-executives from across government to support the delivery of the Plan for Change. She works closely with the Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, the Cabinet Secretary, the Civil Service Chief Operating Officer, and other ministers and senior civil servants across government.
Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 May 2025 to Question 51155 on MI6: Stonewall, if he will make it his policy to request MI6 cancel their Stonewall contract.
I refer the Hon Member to the answer to question 51155.
What steps his Department is taking to help ensure that Capita PLS meets its contractual milestones for the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
The pension scheme administration is transitioning from MyCSP to Capita, with a formal transfer scheduled for December 2025. The Cabinet Office has outlined 12 Transition Milestones to ensure a smooth transfer, with payments to Capita contingent on meeting deliverables to the standards set by the Cabinet Office Future Services Team.After the transition, the new contract includes 38 Performance Indicators that monitor service delivery to ensure accountability and high-quality service throughout the contract period.
Pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2025 to Question 56482 on Civil Service: London allowances, if he will take steps to ensure that the London weighted salaries for his Department's civil servants only apply to employees that work in London.
I refer the Hon Member to the answer on 10 June 2025 (PQ 56482). Pay arrangements, including those for London, are delegated to each department. The Cabinet Office does not have a London Weighting Allowance. There are separate London and National pay ranges. An individual’s pay, paid as a salary, is determined by the location of their designated office, as set out in their contract.
Whether the Government has made an assessment of the potential merits of abolishing the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
There are no plans of this kind.
Pursuant to the Answer of 12 June 2025 to Question 54833 on DCMS: Equality, whether his Department has issued guidance on employing Standalone EDI roles.
The Civil Service Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Expenditure Guidance, published on 14 May 2024, sets out a number of controls in relation to Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) spend and activity across the Civil Service, including: Standalone EDI staffing roles should be incorporated into broader HR.
With reference to the planning application submitted to Westminster City Council on 19 May 2025, reference 25/03467/CLLB, what the nature is of the internal alterations being made to 70 Whitehall; and what the budget is for the works.
As part of the ongoing refurbishment works on the 4th Floor of 70 Whitehall, the Cabinet Office has submitted an application for the installation of a ceiling within the southern lift shaft. The total budget for this work, including all fees and VAT, is £280k.
Pursuant to the Answer of 17 June 2025 to Question 58273 on DESNZ: Aviation, if he will publish details of his domestic travel since 5 July 2024.
Details of internal domestic flights are not published.
Representing the Church Commissioners, what the Church's policy is on the flying of flags from churches.
The Church of England has specific rules regarding the flying of flags from its buildings. These policies relate to exterior flagpoles, and the display and the laying up of military standards or regimental colours.Policies and advice relating to the flying of flags or the laying up of flags can be found on the Church of England website, in the Resources section, under ‘ChurchCare’, and ‘Advice and guidance for church buildings’: https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/churchcare/advice-and-guidance-church-buildings/flags-and-military-coloursThe Government issues its own guidance on flying flags, which also covers churches, and the Flag Institute offers guidance on when and how flags should be flown from churches and other buildings.
How many and what proportion of the Prime Minister’s international flights on (a) the Envoy IV, (b) Voyager and (c) GB-NI have been carbon offset since July 2024.
Official Prime Ministerial flights are carbon offset where that is possible.
With reference to Cabinet Office FOI disclosure FOI2025/05753 of 12 June 2025, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of cancelling the (a) Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and (b) Help Us Help You: Cancer the communications campaigns on health outcomes.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has not conducted a formal assessment regarding the potential impact of cancelling the Keep Antibiotics Working campaign. UKHSA remains committed to promoting the importance of using antibiotics correctly, and in Spring launched a new pilot campaign to re-engage priority audience groups with the correct behaviors in terms of antibiotic usage. The evaluation of this campaign will support plans to develop the campaign further, if funding becomes available. UKHSA is planning proactive public and system facing activity for World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, from 18 to 24 November 2025, and is using all relevant opportunities to build understanding of antimicrobial resistance and what the public can do to combat it. For these reasons, UKHSA has not conducted a formal assessment regarding the potential impact of cancelling the Keep Antibiotics Working campaign, specifically.NHS England runs Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptoms and address barriers to acting on them, to encourage people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The campaigns focus on a range of symptoms as well as encouraging body awareness to help people spot symptoms across a wide range of cancers at an earlier point. The Department has not made a formal assessment of the potential impact of cancelling the Help Us Help You campaigns.
Whether he plans to install customer experience machines in his Department to measure staff morale.
The Department currently has no plans to install customer experience machines to measure staff morale.The Department does, however, have mechanisms to measure staff engagement. The Department uses the annual Civil Service People Survey to understand staff attitudes to, and their experience of, working in the Department. This provides insight on staff engagement across a range of topics including health and wellbeing, culture, and change management. Business areas will also run their own ad hoc pulse surveys on specific topics when needed. The Department also holds regular all staff calls where staff can feed back their views on various topics.
Pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 52906 on Department of Health and Social Care: Permanent Secretaries, whether she has been employed under the terms of the model permanent secretary contract; for how long the fixed term period is; and whether she is classified as a (a) temporary or (b) permanent civil servant.
The Department launched a fair and open competition to appoint a Permanent Secretary in January 2025. As a result of this process, Samantha Jones was found to be an appointable candidate for this role. However, during the recruitment process, it was announced that NHS England would be brought back into the Department. This significantly changed the scale and objectives required of this role. In light of these changes the Civil Service Commission agreed a three-year fixed term appointment by exception, on the Senior Civil Service Model contract.
With reference to his Department’s publication entitled Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023: second progress report, published on 16 June 2025, what steps he is taking to remove (a) false, (b) misleading and (c) incorrect information from the Companies House register.
The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 has given Companies House new powers to tackle false, incorrect or misleading information on its registers. To 31 May 2025, the use of these powers by Companies House has impacted 121,800 companies and has seen the removal of information including 100,500 registered office addresses.In addition to removing information from its registers, Companies House is developing new capabilities to detect, track and block suspicious information pre-registration. These steps have already prevented over 10,000 suspicious filings.
With reference to the transparency data entitled Government Procurement Card spend over £500 - April 2025 (Cabinet Office Core), published on 29 May 2025, for what reason his Department spent £729.99 at Maray Albert Dock.
The referenced cost declared in the Cabinet Office transparency return was associated with the UK-Ireland Summit.
How the Crown Commercial Service determines when to insert break clauses in procurement contracts.
This information is not held by the Cabinet Office. Contracts are established by the contracting authority (customer) with the supplier. It is the contracting authority's responsibility to assess the need for, and timing of, any break clauses in the contract based on their specific requirements.
Pursuant to the Answer of 18 June 2025 to Question 59753 on Civil Servants: Media and Public Speaking, whether guidance has been provided on Permanent Secretaries giving press conferences with Ministers.
The Government Communication Service (GCS) Propriety & Ethics Guidance applies to all civil servants.
Pursuant to the Answer of 28 May 2025 to Question 52687 on Pay: Publicity, which digital influencers were commissioned for the campaign; and how much was paid to each.
As part of the National Minimum and Living Wage Campaign, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) selected six digital influencers who could reach the campaign’s target audiences through their social media channels.We are unable to provide details of how much was paid to each person due to confidentiality provisions in the individual agreements. This used 3% of the total budget of the campaign.
Pursuant to the Answer of 28 May 2025 to Question 52687 on Pay: Publicity, which (a) publications, (b) channels and (c) sites paid-for advertising was undertaken on.
a). Publications: No paid advertising for this campaign ran in print publications.b). Channels: These were:o Online digital display advertisingo Digital online video (YouTube)o Social media (Snapchat, Meta - Facebook/Instagram, Reddit)o Radioo Out of home: train card panels in national rail/bus interiors, beermats in 1000 pubs and digital screens in gymso Paid search (Google)o Use of six digital influencers (Instagram/TikTok)c). Sites: Online digital display advertising is bought programmatically by audience, not by site, and it is thus not possible to provide details of the sites that users saw such advertising appearing on. In addition, advertising appeared on the social media and search sites listed in answer to part b) above.