Written questions by Dewhirst.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2024 to Question 14107 on Civil Servants: Pay, if he will publish an anonymised list of the salary of each civil servant by public body.

As was the case under the previous administration (a) summary data that includes £5k salary band headcounts and median and mean salary measures by department and grade are published here https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics and(b) Salary data reported within 5k salary bands for individual SCS at paybands 2 and 3 are published reguarly by departments on data.gov.uk as part of departmental transparency organograms. These data also include the salary pay scales for junior staff. The Cabinet Office organograms can be found here https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/ff76be1f-4f37-4bef-beb7-32b259413be1/organogram-cabinet-office There are no current plans to publish further data.

Pursuant to the Answer of 26 November 2024 to Question 14093 on Special Advisers: Code of Practice, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of amending the Code of Conduct for special advisers to reflect changes to the Ministerial Code.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to PQ14093. The Government published the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers 6 November 2024.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2025 to Question 25918 on UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement: Consultants, what consultants are commissioned by his Department to (a) assist the EU Relations Secretariat and (b) work on the renegotiations with the European Union.

The Cabinet Office has not commissioned consultants to assist the EU Relations Secretariat or work on resetting the relationship with the European Union.

Pursuant to the Answer of 20 February 2025 to Question 30473 on Prime Minister: Press Conferences, for what reason members of the Labour party were invited to the event; and whether the Labour party contributed to the cost of the event.

I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 20 February 2025, Official Report, PQ 30473. The Labour Party did not contribute to the cost of the event.

What the status is of the industrial action in the Office for National Statistics over workplace attendance.

The Trade Unions PCS and Prospect are currently taking industrial action short of a strike with the Office for National Statistics.

Whether he plans to lay a new Official Statistics Order to designate Great British Railways’ statistical outputs as official statistics.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th March is attached.

If her Department will (a) make an assessment of and (b) have discussions with the National Cyber Security Centre on the potential impact of the decision of Apple to discontinue the advanced data protection facility in the UK on (i) cybersecurity for (A) individuals and (B) companies and (ii) UK-US cybersecurity international relations.

I refer the Honourable Member to the response given to UIN 33378 answered on 3rd March 2025.The government regularly engages with the NCSC, as the national technical authority for cyber security, for its expert advice on a range of cyber security matters to help make the UK the safest place to live and work online.

What progress he has made on the new integrated transparency platform.

This Government is fully committed to transparency and ensuring information published is as useful as possible. For example, the Government introduced a central register of ministers’ gifts and hospitality on a monthly basis. These registers are published by the Cabinet Office and are available at:https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/register-of-ministers-gifts-and-hospitality#:~:text=The%20Register%20details%20the%20gifts,available%20on%20departmental%20web%20pages.

Pursuant to the Answer of 30 January 2025 to Question 24653 on Arms Length Bodies, which financial years Phase 2 savings apply to; whether those savings are from the RDEL budget; what the baseline is for those savings; and whether those savings are in addition to Phase 1 savings.

Phase 2 of the Spending Review covers financial years 2026/27 to 2028/29 on RDEL to 2029/2030 on CDEL, whilst Phase 1 covers 2025/26. Over Phase 2, a 5% minimum RDEL savings target has been set for all departments and arm’s-length bodies. This is in addition to the 2% productivity, efficiency, and savings target the government set departments in Phase 1 of the Spending Review. The outcomes of the Spending Review will be set out at its conclusion in June.

Whether his Department provides guidance to departmental social media accounts on liking party political posts by (a) Ministers and (b) hon. Members.

The Government Communication Service has published guidance on propriety in digital and social media. It states that official social media accounts managed by departments must not be used for the further dissemination of messages from party political or otherwise partisan accounts. The guidance can be found at https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/guidance/professional-standards/propriety/propriety-in-digital-and-social-media/.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 14712 on Honours: Public Appointments, who has been (a) appointed and (b) appointed by open and fair competition to the Parliamentary and Political Service honours Committee since 5 July 2024; and what recruitment is ongoing.

All appointments are announced on the Honours Committee page of GOV.UK, which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/honours-committees. All appointments to the honours committees are made following a fair and open competition. This includes utilising reserve lists where appropriate.

Pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2024 to Question 7442 on Prime Minister: Communication, how many staff work on digital communications in Downing Street; and at what cost.

As of 17 March 2025, there are 43 FTE Civil Servants in the overall communications team, covering a range of disciplines including digital, planning, press and private office. 15 FTE Civil Servants work on digital communications covering a number of responsibilities, as part of the wider communications team.

With reference to his Department's guidance entitled The Approvals Process for the Creation of New Arm’s-Length Bodies, updated on 15 March 2018, whether his Department's public bodies team assessed the National Energy Systems Operator against the guidance that the creation of a new ALB should only be considered as a last resort; whether the Department provided evidence of whether alternative delivery models were considered; and which of the three tests outlined in chapter 2 of that guidance it met.

The National Energy Systems Operator (NESO) is a public corporation and is therefore not administratively classified as an arm’s-length body. The guidance entitled ‘The Approvals Process for the Creation of New Arm’s-Length Bodies’ did not apply to NESO for this reason.The NESO will support the UK’s energy security, help to keep bills down in the long term, and accelerate the government’s clean power mission.

Whether he plans to reduce barriers to making civil servants redundant who do not deliver efficiency savings.

The Government remains committed to the 2016 Protocol and the need to avoid compulsory redundancies as far as possible. Separately to redundancies, the Government has set out plans to introduce mutually agreed exits to allow Civil Service employers to come to a sensible and pragmatic agreement with an employee regarding their future when it is clear that things aren’t working.

How much and what proportion of the Innovation Fund he plans to allocate to (a) staffing, (b) logistics, (c) management of the test-and-learn teams and (d) other administrative costs.

The Government is committed to reforming the state to deliver better public services. The work underway includes the £100 million Public Service Reform and Innovation Fund, which will be deploying Test and Learns teams around the country over the next three years to design and test innovative solutions to our biggest public service challenges in partnership with local places – and ensuring that local learning informs national policy decisions. The Cabinet Office will be working across government and with local partners to codesign the detailed approach to the allocation of the Innovation Fund.

If he will list the full membership of each Mission Board.

The membership of the Mission Boards - as outlined on gov.uk - is the lead Secretary of State as the chair of their respective Mission Board and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster as Deputy Chair; other Ministers will be invited according to the agenda.

Pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2025 to Question 25452 on Cabinet Office: Staff, what the longest period of time is that a member of the Skills Match Hub has been signed up excluding maternity leave.

I refer the hon. member to the answer of PQ 25452, given on 29 January 2025.

Innovation and Technology, what discussions he has had with his EU counterparts on UK participation in the EU Space Programme.

A Government priority is for a ‘reset’ in relations with the European Union, with a particular focus on driving economic growth, and improving our security and trade relationship.Space has a fundamental role to play in achieving these ambitions, and we will continue to work closely with EU counterparts to identify areas to strengthen our space cooperation for mutual benefit. Discussions are taking place across Government regarding future UK participation in the next EU Space Programme, ahead of the next Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). We will continue to engage with the EU Commission as this work progresses.

What his policy is on releasing details of ministerial meetings with external organisations in response to (a) Parliamentary Questions and (b) the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Details of ministers’ meetings with external individuals and organisations are published quarterly in arrears on GOV.UK. All freedom of Information requests are considered on their individual merits and in accordance with the legislation in all circumstances. Section 9 of the Ministerial Code sets the standard of conduct expected of ministers in relation to Parliament and how they discharge their duties, including for government responses to written parliamentary questions.

How many times the Cabinet Office’s Information Rights User Group (IRUG) has met since 5 July 2024; if he will publish minutes of the IRUG's meetings; when the IRUG's next meeting is; and whether a Cabinet Office Minister will attend the next meeting.

This Government is committed to freedom of information and to listening to its users. The Government will set out its plans for the Information Rights User Group, which last met in April 2024, in due course.