Written questions by Wood.

Pursuant to the answer of 3 November 2025, to Question 84247, on Public Appointments: Political Impartiality, what communications has the Cabinet Office had with the Commissioner for Public Appointments in relation to previous political activity, which is outside the scope of the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies but in scope of the Governance Code for Public Appointments, not being publicly declared.

The Governance Code on Public Appointments covers the processes departments should follow for recruiting public appointees, whereas the Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies covers the behaviour of such appointees once they are in post. The codes set out processes for the publication of political activity for successful candidates and existing public appointees respectively. Candidates for public appointment roles are asked to declare potential conflicts of interest in their applications - and are advised to err on the side of declaring if in doubt - so that the Advisory Assessment Panel can take a view on whether any actual or perceived conflicts can be appropriately managed. These wider declarations cover a full range of interests, including financial interests, and are for assessment as part of the recruitment process, not for publication. As mentioned above, the Governance Code sets out the political activity that needs to be published.

Pursuant to the answer of 27 October 2025, to Question 73829, on Admiralty House: Council tax, if he will publish a copy of the council tax bills issued by Westminster City Council to the Government Property Agency or Cabinet Office for each of three Admiralty House residences in March 2025, redacting the reference/account numbers.

The Government Property Agency (GPA) does not routinely publish invoices under £25k. Admiralty House sits within Council Tax Band H and details of the bands, current Council Tax charges, additional premiums and published notices about Council Tax can be found at the following page: https://www.westminster.gov.uk/council-tax/council-tax-band-and-charges

Pursuant to the answer of 13 October 2025, to Question 73729, on Ministers: Aviation, which other Government-financed planes have their carbon offset.

The Government does not lease any other government-financed aircraft outside of the wet-leased A321neoLR (G-GBNI) and Ministry of Defence (MOD) assets.

If the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister will make it his policy to ask the (a) Rt hon. Member for Ashton-under-Lyne, (b) Rt hon. Member for Sheffield Heeley, (c) hon. Member for Hampstead and Highgate and (d) hon. Member for Bethnal Green and Stepney to donate a book to Gladstone's Library.

Gladstone's Library, based in North Wales, was established by William Ewart Gladstone and is the only Prime Ministerial library in the UK. There has never been a formal practice of former ministers donating books to the library, excluding the The Gladstone Foundation Collection which holds Gladstone’s original library. Any decision to do so would not be a matter for the government. I would refer the Hon Member to the Gladstone's Library website, which states that "Gladstone’s Library is currently closed to all donations" to their collection.

What the recruitment process was for the new Director General of the Propriety, Ethics and Constitution Group; and whether it is a permanent promotion.

The appointment of the interim DG, Propriety and Constitution in August was a temporary promotion. A full recruitment campaign will be launched in the new year.

Further to the deposited letter from the Acting National Statistician of 22 May 2025, pursuant to the answer of 29 May 2025, to Question 53545, on Office for National Statistics: Buildings, and with reference to the Table 1 statistics on daily attendance in each of (a) Darlington, (b) Manchester and (c) Edinburgh, how many civil servants do the figures relate to in each building, and what was the frequency of their attendance on which the 5% statistic was calculated by ONS.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of the 26th November is attached.

Pursuant to the answer of 17 November 2025 to Question 88705, on the Spectator: Advertising, whether the SAFE framework permits government advertising on the (a) Daily Express, (b) GB News and (c) the Morning Star.

Following assessment under the SAFE Framework, government advertising is permitted on The Daily Express (now express.co.uk). No SAFE framework assessment has been conducted on GB News or the Morning Star.

What the annual cost is of the Senior Leaders Scheme; and how many deputy directors participated in the last year.

This year there are 114 deputy directors taking part in the Senior Leadership Programme established in 2018. The programme is 14 months’ long and costs a total of £1,373,401.91.

Whether the due diligence on the appointment of special adviser, Tim Allan, included the work of his company, Portland, for the Russian Government.

There is a rigorous process to ensure any potential conflicts of interest are captured, and have appropriate mitigations in place to reflect specific circumstances. Ahead of his appointment, the new Executive Director of Communications in 10 Downing Street fully complied with this process.This is set out in the Special Adviser Code of Conduct and lists of Special Adviser interests are published annually.Mr Allan is not a shareholder in Portland, and hasn’t been since 2019, and has no interest in it.

Pursuant to the answer of 20 October 2025, to Question 81325, on Baroness Shafik, and further to the revised Cabinet Office guidance on Direct Ministerial Appointments of October 2025, para 21, whether the remuneration of Direct Ministerial Appointments will be published.

In the new Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, which was published on 30 October 2025, it is stated that all Direct Ministerial Appointments announcements should include “remuneration details, where such is incurred”.

With reference to the Deposited Paper DEP2025-0726, committed on 21 October 2025, what was the cause of the breakdown in the toilet macerator.

The toilet macerator was found to be leaking and upon investigation the pump was defective. The macerator was 10 years old and it was concluded that the unit should be replaced.

With reference to the Cabinet Office Publication of Special Adviser Interests 2024-2025, published in 17 July 2025, what shareholdings Varun Chandra has declared.

There is an established system in place for the declaration and management of special advisers' interests. As has been the case under successive administrations, interests deemed relevant for publication for special advisers in No10 and the Cabinet Office are published on an annual basis by the Cabinet Office.

Further to the Cabinet Office Annual report and accounts 2024-2025, HC1372, 23 October 2025, page 33, whether the external audit for ISO 14001:2015 accreditation identified any non-conformities or required actions; and if he will publish the audit’s results.

The Cabinet Office was found to have no nonconformities and no required actions. Currently, there are no plans to publish ISO14001:2015 audit results as they contain sensitive information for the building management.

Pursuant to the answer of 31 March 2025, to Question 40580, on Trade Union Officials: Facilities Agreements, what is the current target date for the publication of the 2024-25 statistics by the Cabinet Office, based on the standards timelines for this dataset.

The public-sector trade union facility time data for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 was published on 27 November 2025.

Whether (a) Commons Ministers, (b) Lords Ministers or (c) special advisers are eligible for any form of salary sacrifice in relation to additional voluntary contributions to their pensions.

There is no eligibility for any form of salary sacrifice in relation to additional voluntary contributions to pensions for (a) Commons Ministers, (b) Lords Ministers, or (c) special advisers.

For what reason the Mission Boards do not appear in the List of Cabinet Committees, published on 19 November 2025.

Following a review of the Cabinet committee system, the Prime Minister announced a number of changes to the committee structure. Mission Boards have been reformed to become delivery-focused forums benefitting from external and industry expertise, led by the relevant Secretary of State. The Government remains committed to delivering the missions.

Pursuant to the answer of 1 July 2025, to Question 62993, on King Charles III: Artworks, whether (a) NHS England and (b) Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust accepted the offer from the Cabinet Office of a free portrait of the King to place in their offices.

I refer the Honourable Member to the information published on GOV.UK on 28 November 2024 which provided a summary of the His Majesty The King’s Official Portrait Scheme, including the number of portraits provided by type of public institution, and the total cost of the scheme: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/conclusion-of-his-majesty-the-kings-free-portrait-scheme

What information the Crown Commercial Service holds on Government use of the Starlink network.

Starlink is not a supplier on any Crown Commercial Service (CCS) commercial agreement.

With reference to the Cabinet Office Annual report and accounts 2024-2025, HC1372, 23 October 2025, page 16, what proportion of the £203 million underspend in DEL arose from projects that failed to deliver to plan and are now expected to require re-profiling or supplementary funding in 2025–26.

None of the underspend requires re-profiling or supplementary funding in 2025-26.

Whether applications for the Government Communication Service Apprenticeship in 2026 will be restricted on the basis of (a) socio-economic background and (b) ethnicity.

Applications for the GCS Apprenticeship are not restricted on the basis of socio-economic background or ethnicity.