Cabinet Office

The National Security Adviser regularly engages with a range of government stakeholders on national security matters. The Government does not routinely comment on the meetings or correspondence of the National Security Adviser, which are often sensitive due to their national security implications.

The Armed Forces flag was flown in Downing Street for Armed Forces Day.

10 Downing Street has not spent money on social media influencers since July 2024.

I refer the Hon Member to the Prime Minister's words on 3 September 2025, Official Report, column 291.

I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 28 July 2025, Official Report, PQ 57266.

I refer the Hon gentleman to the answer for PQ HL9163 of 21 July 2025.

The Union Flag is flown in Downing Street every day, weather permitting.

The Cabinet Office does not centrally hold information or data on this topic.

In line with the Model Contract for Special Advisers, when a special adviser’s appointing minister leaves office special advisers’ contracts are automatically terminated.

The Model Contract states special adviser severance entitlement. The cost of severance payments is stated in the Annual Report on Special Advisers.

This is a matter for Parliament. The House of Commons was in recess during the state visit of President Trump.

Allocation of official residences will be confirmed in due course.

Guidance for the Management of Private Office Information and Records is published on www.gov.uk. The guidance was last updated in December 2023. Previous versions are available on the website of The National Archives.

It would not be appropriate to comment on private conversations held with Ministers who left the Government.

Any associated costs would be noted in the next Cabinet Office Annual Report and Accounts in the usual way.

No funding has been provided to DigiGov Expo 2025 by either the Crown Commercial Service or the Cabinet Office.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 8th September is attached.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 2nd September is attached.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 29th August is attached.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 29th August is attached.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon Gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 2nd September is attached.

Details of official meetings held in a ministerial capacity with external organisations or individuals are declared quarterly on GOV.UK. This includes the meetings of the former Prime Minister.

I refer the Hon Member to the answer on 23 June 2025 (HL 8406).

As has been the practice in previous administrations, the arrangements for performance-related pay for the Senior Civil Service (SCS) are published in annual SCS pay practitioner guidance. The 2025-26 guidance, including the controls on performance related pay, can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-on-the-senior-civil-service-pay-award-202526

For grades below the SCS, departments have delegated authority to determine their own performance-related pay arrangements.

The Cabinet Office annual pay awards are not performance related.

The Department operates an in-year reward and recognition scheme throughout the year.

The total value of all in-year rewards received during this period should not exceed £2000. This does not include Long Term Service Awards.

Three FOIs, two PQs and a number of letters have been received regarding the guidance in question.

Elections guidance for civil servants is kept under review and will be published in advance of local elections in 2026.

Downing Street is connected to the National Grid, which uses a range of energy sources, including renewable energy.

The Seventh National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP7) will be developed next year with final publication by 31 December 2026. Simultaneously, the UK is co-chairing the OGP Action Framework Task Force with the goal of making the action framework more user-friendly, agile and less bureaucratic.

During the implementation of the UK National Action Plan for Open Government 2024-2025 (NAP6), the UK Multi-Stakeholder Forum for Open Government (MSF) met on two occasions on 24th January 2024, and 17th July 2024, with further meetings under development, and Government teams responsible for commitments continued engagement with their stakeholders throughout implementation.

The former Deputy Prime Minister referred herself to the Independent Advisor on Ministerial Standards on Wednesday 3 September.

Greg Jackson has disclosed his interests in line with all of the relevant guidance and has declared no political activity.

Greg was appointed via a fair and open recruitment competition in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments, overseen by the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

In line with longstanding process, it would not be appropriate to comment on individual members of staff.

In line with longstanding process, it would not be appropriate to comment on individual members of staff.

In line with longstanding process, it would not be appropriate to comment on individual members of staff.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 4th September is attached.

Data on the number of officials in the Cabinet Office is published monthly at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-workforce-management-data-2023-to-2024 and Business Unit level data including for Business Units in Number 10 Downing Street is published quarterly at https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/ff76be1f-4f37-4bef-beb7-32b259413be1/organogram-cabinet-office

As was the case under the previous Administration, information about Special Adviser numbers is published in the Annual report on Special Advisers.

The Civil Service Jobs website advertises job vacancies on behalf of government departments. The Civil Service currently makes limited use of home-working contracts for certain roles and/or adjustments for people with disabilities.

In October 2024, Heads of Departments agreed that Civil Servants should continue to spend a minimum of 60% of their time in the office.

The Government is committed to supporting British businesses and the products they produce, ensuring they have the best opportunities to win UK public contracts and deliver high-quality goods and services.

Cabinet Office are consulting on a package of further reforms to public procurement to support the Government’s Industrial Strategy.

The government maintains robust standards across a range of categories of spend, these are set out by the Government Buying Standards, including for Paper & paper products. Furthermore, Government has also implemented a Timber Procurement Policy to ensure that only timber and wood-derived products (including paper) originating from an independently verifiable Legal and Sustainable source will be used on the government estate.

I refer my Hon Friend to the answer of 23 July, Official Report, PQ 68481.

On 1 September the Prime Minister announced changes to the Downing Street operation supporting the government’s next phase of delivery.

The Prime Minister has established a reformed Delivery Unit, led out of Downing Street, to drive forward the Plan for Change.

As set out in the 2025 Resilience Action Plan, the Emergency Alerts system is one of many public warning and informing capabilities that the UK Government, Devolved Governments and Category 1 responders have at their disposal. It is an integral part of keeping the public safe as it allows for quick sharing of life-saving information.

Since the launch of Emergency Alerts in 2023, the system has been activated five times, in conjunction with other local warning methods, during emergencies to minimise risk to life.

On Sunday 7th September at around 3pm tens of millions of phones across the country received the test message, marking the largest simultaneous public communications event since the Second World War.

The UK Government will continue to ensure that Emergency Alerts capability is maintained and it is expected that the funding of the system will continue through routine departmental spend.

The UK is facing an ever-changing and growing set of risks. The National Risk Register focuses on the reasonable worst case ‘acute’ risks, which are discrete events requiring an emergency response and likely to occur over the next two-five years. All risks in the National Risk Register are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity. Part of that process is considering the chronic, longer term risks and trends which could change the likelihood and impact of the risks set out in the Register.

The January 2025 National Risk Register recognises climate change and biodiversity loss as drivers of chronic risk. For example, climate change can lead to an increase in the frequency and severity of weather conditions that cause floods and wildfires, biodiversity loss and global instability. During every update, policy makers are encouraged to consider the potential implications of these chronic risks on their policy areas, including how it might interact with acute risks.

The Government published its first bespoke Chronic Risks Analysis (CRA) in July 2025 to enable the resilience community, businesses and organisations more broadly to consider these long-term challenges in their planning.

The socio-economic duty will require specified public bodies to actively consider how their strategic decisions might help to reduce the inequalities of outcome associated with socio-economic disadvantage. We are currently working toward commencement of the duty, which includes drafting statutory guidance that will clarify how the duty can be applied effectively and include more detail on which public bodies the duty applies to.

The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Expenditure Guidance requires that departments consider whether any standalone EDI related roles should be incorporated into broader HR. Recruitment is a delegated matter where departments make their own decisions to reflect their individual circumstances.

Recruitment is delegated to departments and the Cabinet Office would not be involved in relation to recruitment within the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

OCS will complete their own Social Value Outcome and Diversity reports. The GPA does not have any other plans or routes to publish Social Value delivery or diversity reports.

The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster announced a full review of all UK government ALBs on April 6, 2025. This review is ongoing, with outcomes to be announced in due course.

The UK government announced on 21st July 2025 that Ofwat would be abolished and replaced by a new, single, more powerful regulator, combining the water-related functions of several agencies. Additionally, on 20th August 2025, the UK government announced that the UK Space Agency will be absorbed into the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology by April 2026.