Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will undertake a public consultation on the proposed duty of candour.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government has committed to implement a ‘Hillsborough Law’ which will place a legal duty of candour on public servants and authorities, and criminal sanctions for those who do not comply.
We remain fully committed to bringing in this legislation and we will continue to work with families and stakeholders.
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the differing compensation payments for deceased infected blood scandal victims based on whether they contracted HIV or Hepatitis C.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The impact of a Hepatitis infection can range from very mild to very severe, including liver failure and death as a direct result of the infection. In its second interim report, the Infected Blood Inquiry recommended that the compensation scheme should reflect the different impacts of infection by developing severity bandings.
The Expert Group provided the Government with clinical advice on the distinctions between these impacts. This meant the Government could set severity bands for Hepatitis infections based on clear clinical markers.
As set out in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025, where someone’s experience of Hepatitis, whether it is historic or in the present day, has been more severe, they will receive more compensation. In its Additional Report, published 9 July, the Inquiry stated that “that tiers are relevant to Hepatitis in a way in which they are not in cases of HIV.”
Asked by: Jess Brown-Fuller (Liberal Democrat - Chichester)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of the differing compensation payments for infected blood scandal victims based on whether they contracted HIV or Hepatitis C.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The impact of a Hepatitis infection can range from very mild to very severe, including liver failure and death as a direct result of the infection. In its second interim report, the Infected Blood Inquiry recommended that the compensation scheme should reflect the different impacts of infection by developing severity bandings.
The Expert Group provided the Government with clinical advice on the distinctions between these impacts. This meant the Government could set severity bands for Hepatitis infections based on clear clinical markers.
As set out in the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme Regulations 2025, where someone’s experience of Hepatitis, whether it is historic or in the present day, has been more severe, they will receive more compensation. In its Additional Report, published 9 July, the Inquiry stated that “that tiers are relevant to Hepatitis in a way in which they are not in cases of HIV.”
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 26 June 2025 to Question 62083 on House of Lords Appointments Commission, on what date the public appointments process opened; whether it has been extended; and whether any people who applied have been informed that they have not been appointed.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer the Hon Member to the answer to Question 66291, which sets out when the campaign was launched and subsequently closed to applications.
The Government announced on 19 August 2025 that, as a result of the campaign, Professor Adeeba Malik CBE DL had been appointed as an independent member of the House of Lords Appointments Commission with effect from 1 September 2025. All candidates who applied as part of this campaign have been notified of the outcome accordingly.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2025 to Question 63329 on Cabinet Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution, what the (a) title and (b) purpose of that training was.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The title of the training course was Team Facilitated Conversations.
The purpose of the training was for the individual to gain the necessary skills and processes to resolve team conflicts across various sectors.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December 2024 to Question 16512 on Government Communication Service, and with reference to the FOI Internal Review response IR2025/05101 of 29 May 2025, if she will place in the Library a list of the Government Communication Service staff broken down by (a) department and (b) agency.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Government Communications is made up of around 6,000 professional communicators from across the UK, supporting and promoting the work of 25 ministerial departments, 21 non-ministerial departments and over 300 agencies and other public bodies. The list provided for the response to IR2025/05101 breaks this down further, and will be submitted for entry into the House of Commons library.
The Government Communication Service headcount can be found on Gov.uk at this link here.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate he has made of the number of headcount members of the Government Communication Service; and what estimate he has made of the number of embedded communications across central government that are not included with the Government Communication Service.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Government Communications is made up of around 6,000 professional communicators from across the UK, supporting and promoting the work of 25 ministerial departments, 21 non-ministerial departments and over 300 agencies and other public bodies. The list provided for the response to IR2025/05101 breaks this down further, and will be submitted for entry into the House of Commons library.
The Government Communication Service headcount can be found on Gov.uk at this link here.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the headcount of staff included within the Government Communications Service is.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Government Communications is made up of around 6,000 professional communicators from across the UK, supporting and promoting the work of 25 ministerial departments, 21 non-ministerial departments and over 300 agencies and other public bodies. The list provided for the response to IR2025/05101 breaks this down further, and will be submitted for entry into the House of Commons library.
The Government Communication Service headcount can be found on Gov.uk at this link here.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2025 to Question HL8627 on Cabinet Office: Managers, which business units the 540 staff leaving are from.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The 540 refers to the number of applications that were approved and is subject to the individual's final acceptance.
The voluntary exit process has not yet concluded, so we are unable to report on which business units individuals will be leaving from.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the eligibility criteria for the MI5, MI6 and GCHQ Summer Intelligence Internship on people from disadvantaged white working class backgrounds.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
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 experience, 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.