Cabinet Office

Carbon offsetting is calculated by determining the total tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) emissions that need to be offset. This amount is then multiplied by the cost per tonne of CO2e for the specific offsets being purchased, such as Certified Emissions Reduction offsets. The final cost can vary based on market conditions at the time of purchase.

The Cabinet Office utilises the HMG Crown Commercial Services (CCS) RM6251 Energy Supply Framework with EDF to offset these emissions: https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6251

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

A response to the Hon gentleman or lady Parliamentary Question of 26th March is attached.

Discussions on a data protection agreement between the Cabinet Office and the Labour Party are in progress.

The Government has no current plans to change the provisions relating to whom may make a complaint to the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman or other statutory Ombudsman schemes.

Any hospitality or gifts received by Ministers in their ministerial capacity is declared in accordance with the Ministerial Code. The Cabinet Office publishes details of ministers’ hospitality and gifts on a monthly basis. Hospitality and gifts received by ministers in a non-ministerial capacity are published on the parliamentary registers in line with the parliamentary codes of conduct.

Any hospitality or gifts received by Ministers in their ministerial capacity is declared in accordance with the Ministerial Code. The Cabinet Office publishes details of ministers’ hospitality and gifts on a monthly basis. Hospitality and gifts received by ministers in a non-ministerial capacity are published on the parliamentary registers in line with the parliamentary codes of conduct.

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

A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 21st March is attached.

Sir Alex Chisholm was provided with his final advice from the Advisory Committee on Business Appointments on 30 October 2024. The advice was published on ACOBA’s page on GOV.UK on 12 March 2025, and is available here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/67b318fe7c070e71525f5801/ACOBA_advice-_Alex_Chisholm-_BCG.pdf

Special Advisers are accountable to Ministers who in turn are accountable to Parliament.

As has been the case under successive administrations, the Prime Minister allocates official residences to ministers, either on the grounds of security or to allow them to better perform their official duties.

The Deputy Prime Minister was allocated one of the Admiralty House flats by the Prime Minister. On security grounds, the government does not specify flat numbers.

The Procurement Act has introduced a number of reforms to make it easier for small businesses to access public sector supply-chains and removing unnecessary burdens and costs, including:

• a new duty on contracting authorities to have regard to their participation and consider whether they can remove barriers to entry;

• greater visibility of upcoming public sector opportunities and early market engagement to explain requirements to better help SMEs prepare to bid; and

• 30-day payment terms will apply throughout the public sector supply chain.

The National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) supports Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSEs), giving them greater opportunities to win public contracts by instructing contracting authorities to maximise their spend with these organisations.

To support implementation of the NPPS, I have announced new rules requiring all government departments and their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies to set three-year targets for direct spend with SMEs from 1 April 2025, and from 1 April 2026 for VCSEs, and publish progress annually. This will drive greater transparency and accountability for increasing numbers of SMEs and VCSEs delivering public contracts, supporting local economic growth and innovation and creating jobs in local communities up and down the country.

Self-reported public-sector trade union facility time data, collected under the Facility Time Regulations, will be published in line with our standard timelines for this data set and the timelines under the previous administration.

The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 explain what is included in the published data set as well as the period this data set covers.

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

A response to the Hon. Member's Parliamentary Question of 24th March is attached.

148 people attended the conference on 23 July 2024 and 263 people attended the conference on 10 October 2024.

The salaries of the Senior Civil Servants responsible for the Women’s Equality Unit, Race Disparity Unit and Disability Unit and salary cost of their reports was published in January as part of Cabinet Office transparency reporting and can be found under the Organogram for Senior staff.

https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/ff76be1f-4f37-4bef-beb7-32b259413be1/organogram-cabinet-office

Details of ministers’ and senior officials’ official meetings with all external individuals and organisations, including with social media organisations, are already published on a quarterly basis. Under long-standing guidance, special advisers are only required to declare meetings with senior media figures. There are no current plans to change the guidance.

Special Advisers are provided with guidance regarding Civil Service Pension schemes during onboarding and offboarding, as well as throughout their tenure. This includes details of leaving the scheme within two years. Special Advisers are also directed to published Civil Service Pension scheme resources.

It is for the relevant Minister to decide if policy within their portfolio should be delivered through the creation of a new public body. Departments seeking to establish an Arm’s Length Bodies must submit three business cases as part of the approval process, as outlined in ‘The Approvals Process for the Creation of New Arm’s-Length Bodies’. Once the the Cabinet Office receives a business case for a proposed new body there is a detailed process to ensure there is sufficient due diligence to establish a clear rationale for a proposed body.

The Government publishes information on the operation of the National Security and Investment Act in the NSIA Annual Report. The most recent report, covering the 2023/24 reporting period, can be found on GOV.UK. The government received 120 voluntary notifications in this period.

Data on the number of voluntary notifications received between 1st April 2024 and 31st March 2025, broken down by month, will be published in the next Annual Report later this year.

FOI compliance statistics for all government departments are published on a quarterly basis on GOV.UK at https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/government-foi-statistics. Between July-September 2024, across all departments, 90% of requests were responded to in time (up from 88% in Q3 2023). The outcomes of resolvable requests vary between departments and reflect the protections the legislation provides for sensitive information.

As has been the policy of successive governments, the government does not comment on matters relating to the intelligence agencies. The Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament scrutinises the policies, expenditure, administration and operations of the intelligence agencies on behalf of Parliament.

The Ministerial Code already requires ministers to declare the estimated value, where possible, of any hospitality received above de minimus levels.

As has been the case under successive administrations, special advisers and senior officials are not required to declare the value of hospitality received.

As set out in my previous Written Answer on 22 October 2024 (PQ 6096), we are still considering whether the commitments made by the previous administration are sufficient and appropriate for meeting the Committees’ recommendations. We will provide a further update in due course.

The Lord Chancellor issued a response on 19 February 2025.

The Government always seeks to conclude reviews under the National Security and Investment (NSI) Act as swiftly as possible. Reviews under the NSI Act are subject to statutory timelines. The Act is also kept under regular review to ensure it is operating as efficiently as possible.

DEFRA sets these methodologies through yearly carbon indices across government, including for the Cabinet Office, in line with the Greening Government Commitments.

The publication of job titles is compatible with data protection obligations.

It is noted that SCS organograms are published. However, the SCS data is anonymised at Deputy Director level (SCS1). Although the details are published for SCS2 and above, there are provisions within the guidance for redactions or further anonymity for data privacy and security purposes.

A repair project is underway to preserve the integrity of this Grade 1 listed building. This followed a survey in December 2023 which indicated that work must be completed for safety reasons, with the work commencing in January 2024. Repair of exterior window frames will be undertaken at the same time.

I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 6 March 2025, Official Report, PQ 34453.

The Cabinet Office records when Sustainable Aviation Fuel is used, and on which flights. The Government uses sustainable aviation fuel wherever possible.

In recent years, UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) has run a number of internships and placement schemes. They are designed to provide insight about what it is like to work in UKIC to individuals who have particular skills and expertise, want to work in a particular area and/or are from demographics and backgrounds under-represented across Government.

Any internship participant wishing to subsequently apply for employment with UKIC or the Civil Service is required to take part in a fair and open competition, in the normal way, with selection based on merit.

An internal awayday, staff days and celebrations policy was introduced in September 2023, under the previous administration. The previous administration did not publish this policy externally, and as with many internal staff policies, there are no current plans to publish it.

The policy seeks to provide a framework that delivers benefits of collaborative ways of working whilst prioritising and demonstrating value for money to the taxpayer. This policy is separate from the official hospitality policy.

The policy states that staff must exercise care when spending taxpayers’ money and ensure that value for money can be clearly evidenced. The public rightly expects to see civil servants setting modest standards for all expenditure, especially for internal meetings and events. Budgets holders must demonstrate a clear business justification, value for money and that they have sufficient budget. Approval from the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) is also required in some instances.

All public servants are bound by the Civil Service Code, Management Code and must operate within the guidance of Managing Public Money.

Senior Responsible Officers for each of the five Missions were selected by the Cabinet Secretary and relevant Permanent Secretary, in consultation with their Secretary of State, on the basis of their expertise and experience. They remain on their current salaries and have not received any increase.

I refer the Honourable Member to the answer of 17 September 2024 (UIN 4672), which sets out the responsibilities of the Propriety and Ethics Directorate.

There are currently 20.47 FTE working on propriety and ethics functions within the directorate. Within that headcount, 2 FTE staff currently work in the Independent Adviser's Secretariat.

This information is not held centrally. However, the Civil Service Nationality Rules govern eligibility for employment in the Civil Service and must be followed by government departments in their recruitment and appointment procedures.

Employment in the public sector was estimated at 6.14 million in December 2024. This is an increase of 50,000 (0.8%) since June 2024.

This trend is due in part to the conversion of some local authority schools (classified in local government) becoming academies (classified in central government), with an estimated 17,000 (2.4%) people in employment converting during this period. Without these conversions, there would be an estimated employment increase of 8,000 (0.4%) in local government between June and December 2024.

Within central government, the NHS is the single biggest contributor to the increase, with employment up 24,000 (1.2%) between June and December 2024.

For 2024/2025, the Cabinet Office has now received 12 business cases. Of these, four have been approved to date, one has been rejected, and seven are ongoing.

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

Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.

The Lord Kamall

House of Lords

London

SW1A 0PW

21 March 2025

Dear Lord Kamall,

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking for an estimate of the number of days of work that were lost due to asthma in the UK in each year since 2010 for which there are data available (HL5962).

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) collects information on the labour market status of individuals through the Labour Force Survey (LFS), which is a survey of people resident in households in the UK. The LFS also collects information on whether respondents have missed days off work due to illness and/or injury.

Unfortunately, we do not collect information regarding the type of sickness at a level of detail to identify those suffering from asthma specifically, but we can provide the number of working days lost due to respiratory conditions.

We publish estimates of the number of working days lost through sickness absence, including the number of working days lost due to respiratory conditions, in our Sickness absence in the UK labour market: 2022 article1. This article is due to be updated to include 2023 and 2024 estimates on 1 May 2025. This update will also include revisions to estimates from 2019 to 2022. We will send the updated data to you once it has been published.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Table 1 contains LFS estimates of the number, and percentage, of working days lost due to respiratory conditions from 2012 to 2022, the latest data currently available.

Table 1: Number and percentage of working days lost due to respiratory conditions, between 2012 and 2022.

The primary focus of the Emergency Planning College (EPC) is to build resilience through training and exercising. It helps organisations to build capabilities to manage emergency and crises situations. All learning material is regularly reviewed to ensure alignment with the latest government direction, policy and legislation. The EPC does not have a role in assessing risks to Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) but uses the National Risk Register (NRR) in the development of its training materials and courses.The NRR is the external version of the government’s internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment. All risks in the NRR, including those related to CNI, are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity.

The UK Resilience Academy (UKRA) will be established in April 2025 to ensure that all those who work on resilience have the capability, knowledge and skills they need to play their part in making resilience a ‘whole of society’ endeavour.

The Government publishes information on the operation of the National Security and Investment Act in the NSIA Annual Report. The most recent report, covering the 2023/24 reporting period, can be found on GOV.UK. Of the 847 notifications reviewed by the Government in this period, 810 (96%) were told within 30 days that no further action would be taken. The other 37 (4%) were called in for further assessment.

The Cabinet Office Commercial team is responsible for managing and operating the Central Cabinet Office Corporate Travel Agency Contract, which includes provisions for the booking of aviation assets. This contract has not been used for helicopter travel by this Government.

All risks in the internal, classified National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) are kept under review to ensure that they are the most appropriate scenarios to inform emergency preparedness and resilience activity and to reflect the risk landscape. The National Risk Register, which reflects the NSRA, was last updated in January 2025 and will be updated regularly to reflect changes to the risk landscape.

I refer the honourable gentleman to my previous response for PQ 14099.

The National Procurement Policy Statement supports Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) and Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSEs), giving them greater opportunities to win public contracts by instructing contracting authorities to maximise their spend with these organisations.

We are clear that we want public contracts to deliver value for money in procurement through stronger expectations around commercial capability and contract management. The NPPS asks contracting authorities to ensure they have the appropriate procurement and contract management skills and capability necessary to deliver public contracts and encourages the use of collaborative procurement frameworks, where appropriate, to deliver value for money. To support this, a new online register of commercial agreements will increase visibility of frameworks and fees, curbing excessive profits.

The Cabinet Office undertook a programme of stakeholder engagement to inform the development of the NPPS. This included an online survey which received over 436 responses and a series of roundtables with key stakeholders from contracting authorities, businesses and civil society. I have met with the Federation of Small Businesses, Enterprise Nation and a large number of SMEs across various sectors to discuss how the government can continue to break down barriers to procurement opportunities through the new procurement regime, supporting jobs and growth across the country.

To support implementation of the Procurement Act, the Government has provided a programme of free training to procurement teams on its provisions and flexibilities. Additionally, the Government hosted a series of supplier webinars and published instructional videos and user-manuals, aimed specifically for suppliers, to help them understand the key changes including how to use the new central digital platform - working with trade associations and other business representative organisations to help distribute the materials.

The Department for Business and Trade leads on the Employment Rights Bill. Impact assessments undertaken for the Employment Rights Bill can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/employment-rights-bill-impact-assessments.