Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office on 6 June 2025 (HC53886), how much was spent on the Prime Minister’s domestic flights in 2025; and whether this includes expenditure on carbon offsetting.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Ministerial travel is undertaken using efficient and cost-effective travel arrangements. Security considerations are also taken into account.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when his Department plans to launch the Contingent Decision route for members of the Partnership Pension scheme.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government.
The Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) launched the Contingent Decision process for members who opted out of the scheme in July 2025. However, the process for members who switched to the Partnership pension scheme involves additional complexity, requiring the reconciliation of contributions between defined contribution and defined benefit arrangements. Planning is underway to define the process and timeline, and we aim to open the process later in 2026.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether a permanent Director General for the Proprietary and Constitution Group has been appointed; and recruitment process was for that position.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Director General for Propriety and Constitution Group is currently filled on an interim basis, a permanent appointment has not been made. The recruitment campaign is still currently in planning stages and details will be released in due course.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to provide compensation for career damage and financial loss for victims in the infected blood scheme who were unable to complete or build on their training or qualifications.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Financial Loss award is designed to compensate for past and future financial losses suffered as a result of infection. For people infected with HIV or chronic Hepatitis infections, this is calculated based on the average anticipated loss of earnings they would have suffered as a result of their infection and subsequent treatment.
In some exceptional cases, infected people will have suffered greater financial losses as a result of their infection than they will be compensated for as part of their core route award. This might be, for example, where they had particularly high earnings prior to their infection. Infected people in this situation can apply for an Exceptional Loss award through the Scheme’s supplementary route, and if eligible, receive additional financial loss compensation to reflect their circumstances.
The Inquiry’s Additional Report included a recommendation to consult on whether these evidence requirements mean that some people who ought to be eligible for the award are prevented from accessing it, and whether there are ways to address this.
The consultation asked respondents to consider forms of evidence for loss of earnings, fairness for applicants to the Scheme, and the types of evidence the Infected Blood Compensation Authority could take into account when someone no longer has documentary evidence to prove they earned beyond what is provided for under the core route. The consultation closed on 22 January. The Minister for the Cabinet Office hopes to update Parliament soon on the changes the Government intends to make to the compensation scheme, as a result of the public consultation.
Asked by: Baroness Featherstone (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they gave to the treatment of estates in the consultation on the proposed changes to the infected blood compensation scheme which ended on 22 January.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
On 30 October, the Government launched a public consultation on proposed changes to the infected blood compensation scheme. The Government particularly welcomes responses from those in the infected blood community, including estate representatives, and family members who sadly have lost a loved one due to the use of infected blood, or infected blood products.
Some of the proposals set out in the consultation will have an impact on claims made by estate representatives, on behalf of a deceased infected person. The consultation focused on the areas recommended by the Infected Blood Inquiry in its Additional Report. It also asked whether a respondent would like to raise other issues around the compensation scheme that may not have been addressed in the Additional Report.
The Government is carefully considering responses to the consultation, which closed on 22 January. The Minister for the Cabinet Office hopes to update Parliament soon on the changes the Government intends to make to the compensation scheme, as a result of the public consultation.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 10 March (HL15172), on what date the guidance on speaking to the media was last updated.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the noble Lady to the answer given in HL15172:
Question: To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 3 February (HL13976), and with reference to paragraph 223 of the Cabinet Office Guide to Parliamentary Work and paragraph 1.6(d) of the Ministerial Code, what is the reason why current policy development prevents the publication of the previous guidance to the Civil Service about speaking to the media. HL15172
Answer: This guidance is currently under development in a live policy area. Premature release of this information would inhibit the free and frank provision of advice for policy development.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the speech, Move fast. Fix things, delivered on 20 January 2026 by the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, what proportion of the Senior Civil Service had (a) primary career experience in policy roles, (b) primary career experience in operational delivery roles and (c) prior private sector experience; and what the equivalent figures were in each of the previous five years as of 1 January 2026.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
We are unable to provide a response as this information is not captured centrally at the application stage.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many job advertisements were published on the Civil Service jobs website in 2025 which were (a) available on public website and (b) only available to Civil Services within the passworded website.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
In 2025, there were 45,566 job adverts published on Civil Service Jobs. Of these, 24,865 (54.6%) were available to the public. The remaining 20,701 (45.4%) were advised internally and/or cross-government, meaning they were available only to existing civil servants.
Asked by: James Cleverly (Conservative - Braintree)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the number and proportion of pubs that are (a) independent, (b) owned by public companies and (c) owned by breweries.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Rt Hon. Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 10th March is attached.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his speech entitled Move fast. Fix things, delivered on 20 January 2026, whether training delivered under Learning Frameworks 2.0 will cease to be procured from external suppliers.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Many of the Civil Service’s training needs can be delivered in-house, by civil servants. However, it is important to note that the Civil Service will always want to bring in expert knowledge, insight and learning from outside the Civil Service to ensure that civil servants have the right technical knowledge and skills.
The National School of Government and Public Services will deliver more training in house - especially for leadership and management, and core skills. Over the course of the next three years, Government Skills will increase the focus on in-house delivery where it is sensible to do so and, by April 2029, we will have moved to a new delivery model where we work directly with more suppliers.
Over this three year period, the Cabinet Office will use the Learning Frameworks 2.0 contracts to deliver training services to the Civil Service whilst the infrastructure needed by the National School of Government and Public Services is established.