Asked by: Scott Arthur (Labour - Edinburgh South West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including timber supply metrics in the National Security Risk Assessment.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA) is the government’s principal tool for identifying and assessing the most serious malicious and non-malicious risks facing the United Kingdom and its interests overseas.
Whilst timber supply is not currently included as a discrete risk, both threat to domestic timber and critical supply chain disruption are considered from a range of causes across the NSRA. Malicious risks impacting imports and a plant pest affecting UK forestry, for example, currently assess this topic.
Furthermore, all risks are assessed for their economic and macroeconomic impacts, and a disruption to construction materials sufficient to disrupt the UK economy (regardless of cause) may be identified here.
Both the NSRA and the publicly available version, the National Risk Register (NRR), are kept under continual review to reflect the changing risk landscape. During every update, policy makers are encouraged to consider the potential implications of their risk across a range of sectors.
The Lead Government Department (LGD) model ensures departments with the day-to-day responsibility for an issue or sector are responsible for leading work to identify serious risks and ensuring that the right planning, response and recovery arrangements are in place.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to give the Intelligence and Security Committee the power to (a) summon witnesses and (b) sanction individuals in the event that any person from the security and intelligence services provides misleading information to that committee.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government values the independent and robust oversight which the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) provides. The Justice and Security Act 2013 (JSA2013) was designed to ensure the ISC has the necessary access to highly classified material while protecting national security. The Government remains confident current arrangements remain fit for purpose.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what lessons his Department has learned about the impact of recent global conflicts and pandemics on UK strategic autonomy.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK National Security Strategy is clear that we need to increase our preparations for potential threats, from future pandemics to energy and supply chain disruption.
The UK's alliances and partnerships are critical to our safety and our collective security is a source of significant strength. But it must be delivered in the right way, mitigating against areas of over-dependence and moving instead towards interdependence.
We are embedding lessons from COVID-19, including those of the COVID-19 Inquiry. The largest ever national pandemic response exercise was conducted last year, testing coordination efforts across all regions and nations of the UK and we published the new Pandemic Preparedness Strategy in March 2026, alongside £1 billion of investment in health protection.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to publish an updated National Resilience Strategy covering food, energy, health, critical minerals and supply chain vulnerabilities.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government published the Resilience Action Plan on 8 July 2025 to set out its resilience strategy. It set out three core objectives to improve the UK’s resilience to the full range of risks we face: (1) continually assess how resilient the UK is in order to target interventions and resources; (2) enable the whole of society to take action to improve their resilience; and (3) strengthen the core public resilience system. These objectives inform a series of activities to deliver greater resilience across the whole of society.
Designated Lead Government Departments are responsible for leading work to identify risks within their sectors and ensuring that planning, response and recovery arrangements are in place.
Asked by: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to update national resilience standards for (a) transport, (b) water, (c) energy and (d) digital infrastructure.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Responsibility for updating standards for individual infrastructure sectors sits with the Lead Government Departments for those sectors.
In the 2025 Resilience Action Plan, the Cabinet Office committed to mapping the standards that apply to Critical National Infrastructure sectors, which includes transport, water, energy and some aspects of digital infrastructure. This work is ongoing. Cabinet Office will work with relevant departments as they identify and address any gaps in resilience standards that emerge from that mapping.
Mar. 31 2026
Source Page: Procurement Compliance & OversightMar. 31 2026
Source Page: Procurement Compliance & OversightMar. 31 2026
Source Page: Procurement Compliance & OversightAsked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the average staffing complement is for a ministerial private office within their Department; what grades those staff are appointed at; what the typical remuneration and contracted working hours are for those posts; and what the staff turnover rate is.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The average size of a ministerial private office is 5, although some private office staff are shared between two ministers, working for both. Private office staff are found at all civil service grades from EO to SCS1. Over the last 12 months there has been an average turnover rate of circa 25% for ministerial private offices.
The base annual salary for all private office staff is set by the same policy as all civil servants in the Cabinet Office, according to their grade. A non-consolidated Private Office Allowance is payable to staff working in Private Offices; rates are grade-dependent and not linked to general pay awards.
For staff appointed to the Civil service prior to the 01 April 2013, full-time conditioned hours are 36 hours. For those appointed to a post in Cabinet Office advertised on or after 01 April 2013, or who are promoted into a role advertised on or after 01 July 2013 full-time conditioned hours are 37 hours. All Cabinet Office employees can apply for flexible working, including part time working, from their first day of employment. All staff working in ministerial private offices currently work full time hours.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Government launches consultation on making public services quicker, easier and more secure to access with digital ID, published on 10 March 2026, how long existing capacity for traditional contact methods for accessing public services will continue when digital ID is introduced.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Government is committed to an inclusive digital identity system where existing routes to public services will continue to be available for those who prefer them.
The design and rollout of digital ID will be accompanied by an inclusion programme across the UK. This is an opportunity to empower the vulnerable and left behind in our society - inclusion will be at the heart of the design and delivery of the national digital ID.