Written questions by Holden.

With reference to his Department's guidance entitled Civil Service Inclusive Practice privacy notice, published on 8 May 2025, how many civil servants are members of the Civil Service Inclusive Practice team; what its terms of reference are; and whether they receive Government funding.

The Civil Service Inclusive Practice Team (CSIP) is part of the Cabinet Office Government People Group (GPG). GPG provides a central support function for people based issues for the Civil Service.There are currently circa 13 full time equivalent employees in the team, all of whom are carrying out their primary paid role within the Civil Service. As such, CSIP do not receive any other Government funding nor do they have Terms of Reference.

Pursuant to the Answer of 2 May 2025 to Question 48042 on Great British Energy: Staff, if he will publish the declaration of interests of each of those appointments; and which of those appointments are regulated public appointments.

All appointments were direct appointments, based on Great British Energy’s (GBE) set-up phase needs.All appointees have declared their interests to the Department as part of the appointment process. The Department and GBE are both committed to transparent and accountable governance and will publish expectations to this end in GBE's framework document later this year.

Representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 7 May 2025 to Question 47830 on House of Commons: Morning Star, what estimate the Commission has made of the level of demand for copies of the Morning Star across the Parliamentary Estate.

The Commission does not monitor the use of the copies of the Morning Star or other newspapers provided across the Parliamentary Estate. They are made freely available for Members in the Library and communal areas and there is no means for recording their use.

How many RAF Envoy IV flights have been provided to (a) the Prime Minister and (b) other Ministers for domestic travel since 4 July 2025.

It has been the practice of successive administrations not to publish granular information relating to the official movements of Ministers and those accompanying them within the United Kingdom. Information about official overseas travel is published as part of the Cabinet Office transparency returns and made available on the GOV.UK website.

Pursuant to the Answer of 28 April 2025 to Question 44594 on Ministers: Aviation, how many of the five tasks were (a) domestic flights within Great Britain and (b) flights from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.

None. All tasks were outside of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Whether the records of the (a) Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals, (b) Royal Visits Committee and (c) Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures are reviewed for permanent preservation under section 3 of the Public Records Act 1958; and whether their transfer to the National Archives is governed by an Operational Selection Policy agreed with the Keeper of Public Records in each case.

The Cabinet Office's Records Selection policy, which has been agreed with The National Archives, has been published on the Cabinet Office website. (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/679108aeb1e4f5cbd3a34dfd/Cabinet_Office_Records_Selection_Policy.pdf)This sets out the criteria for selecting Cabinet Office records for permanent preservation.

How many permanent civil servants in her Department are staff without assigned posts; and how many are placed in an equivalent (a) people action team, (b) priority movers list, (c) redeployment register, (d) talent pool and (e) skills match hub in the most recent period for which data is available.

There are 11 permanent civil servants in The Department for Work and Pensions without assigned posts as of 15/05/2025.These are all held on a priority movers list to enable matching against suitable roles and are also on the redeployment register which is shared with Other Government Departments to seek redeployment.

If she will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) section 21 and (b) other provisions within the Renters' Rights Bill on fixed-term asylum accommodation procured by her Department.

The Home Office keeps all aspects of the immigration system under regular review, in consultation with a wide range of experts and stakeholders.

What steps she is planning to take to improve the (a) C2C and (b) Greater Anglia rail networks.

The Cambridge South station project will deliver a new four-platform station on the West Anglia Main Line between the Cambridge Biomedical Campus and Southern Fringe development area. Consideration of further improvements to the C2C and Greater Anglia networks will be informed by Spending Review 2025.

Pursuant to the Answer of 7 May 2025 to Question 48962 on Civil Service: Redundancy Pay, for what reason he decided to close the consultation to reform the Civil Service Compensation Scheme; when the decision was made; and whether he plans to publish a formal response to the consultation.

The consultation began in 2017. As the previous administration did not manage to make progress on this after 7 years of an open consultation, a decision was taken in March 2025 to close the consultation to reform the Civil Service Compensation Scheme on the basis that the process was no longer viable. We will continue to monitor the impact of the existing scheme terms and cost impacts.

With reference to the document entitled HM Treasury: Ministers' Hospitality - February 2025, published 25 April 2025, whether the Economic Secretary to the Treasury discussed the (a) foreign influence registration scheme and (b) China with TheCityUK on 6 February 2025.

I attended TheCityUK’s annual dinner on 6 February 2025. Each year, a minister and/or regulator addresses the dinner. Speakers in previous years have included the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Governor of the Bank of England, and numerous Economic Secretaries to the TreasuryI delivered a speech highlighting the important role of the financial services sector in delivering growth and setting out the Government's vision for the sector's future development and continued global leadershipThe foreign Influence Registration Scheme or China was not discussed.

What assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of the lower price point of very high puff-count vapes on youth vaping.

The Department has not made a direct assessment of the potential impact of the lower price point of high puff-count vapes on youth vaping. However, it is incredibly worrying that 25% of 11 to 15 year old had tried vaping, as of 2023. To address this, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will ban the advertising of vaping and nicotine products, as well as sponsorship agreements which promote them. It also provides powers to limit flavours, packaging, and displays, and provides powers that allow the Government to regulate the tank sizes and refill containers, and the amount of liquid that can be included. The Government intends to consult on these issues soon after Royal Assent.The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs is introducing a ban on single-use vapes, which is defined as a vape that is neither refillable nor rechargeable, and if it has a coil, the coil must be replaceable. This will capture most “big puff” vapes currently on the market.Alongside this, and to discourage non-smokers and young people from taking up vaping, the Government will be introducing the Vaping Products Duty, which will come into force from 1 October 2026. The duty will be set at a single flat rate of £2.20 per 10 millilitre on all vaping liquid.

Whether he plans to take steps to improve the Display Energy Certificate rating for 10 Downing Street.

Across the Cabinet Office Estate, which includes 10 Downing Street, steps are always being taken to maximise energy efficiency.

Whether the utility bills for the Ministerial residences in Admiralty House are individually metered.

The Admiralty House residences are currently individually metered for gas utilities only. However, the gas supply to the residences has been stopped following the removal of all gas appliances. Although not metered individually, water and electricity usage continues to be managed centrally and costs approved as necessary for the residences.

If he will publish guidance provided to members of the Advisory Committee for Business Appointments.

The Business Appointment Rules and the Committee’s guidance on how it applies the Business Appointment Rules are available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-appointment-rules.

With reference to the press release entitled UK Resilience Academy to help secure Britain’s future with generational upgrade in emergency training, published on 28 April 2025, on what statutory basis the academy will operate; and what form of arm’s length body it will be.

The UK Resilience Academy (UKRA) is part of the Cabinet Office National Security Secretariat. It is not an Arms Length Body.

What estimate his Department has made of the current service cost of civil service pensions in the (a) 2023-24, (b) 2024-25 and (c) 2025-26 financial year.

The current service cost for 2023-24 was £6,274,256,000 and is included in the published annual report and accounts found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-superannuation-annual-account-2023-to-2024The current service cost for 2024-25 is not yet finalised and will be disclosed in the annual report and account due to be published by December 2025.The current service cost for 2025-26 will not be available until the end of the financial year and will follow the same publication process as 2024-25.

Pursuant to the Answer of 11 December 2024 to Question 18399, on Media: Meetings, if he will take steps to amend Annex C of the guidance entitled Senior Officials’ business expenses, hospitality received and meetings with external organisations and individuals, published on 2 April 2024, to provide guidance on how social media organisations should be categorised.

The Government keeps the guidance on senior officials' business expenses, hospitality received and meetings with external organisations and individuals under review. However, there are no current plans to amend the guidance to include details on how social media organisations should be categorised.

What steps she is taking to (a) ensure the consistency of the passenger experience on trains on (i) C2C and (ii) Greater Anglia services after they have been nationalised and (b) establish penalties for those responsible for poor passenger experience.

Bringing passenger services into public ownership will ensure services are focused on delivering for passengers, not shareholders. Our priority is to deliver a smooth and safe transition of c2c’s and Greater Anglia’s services into public ownership this year, with no disruption to passengers. We expect public-sector operators to focus relentlessly on improving reliability, punctuality and other aspects of the service that matter most to passengers, and we will hold them to account for doing so.

If she will make a comparative assessment of (a) levels of passenger satisfaction and (b) the number of trains on that have run on time on (i) Northern Rail, (ii) C2C and (iii) Greater Anglia in the last 12 months.

A comparison with Northern is not appropriate as this Government inherited that operation with a long running industrial dispute that the previous Government had taken no steps to resolve. We hold Northern, c2c and Greater Anglia to account for their performance through a variety of contractual measures (including the quality of service, punctuality and how they are managing customer satisfaction). Train performance data can be found on the ORR website and satisfaction data is published by Transport Focus at the following websites: https://dataportal.orr.gov.uk/statistics/performance/passenger-rail-performance/ https://www.transportfocus.org.uk/insight/rail-passenger-scorecard/