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 4 September 2025 to Question 70468 on Government Communication Service: Staff, what is the most recent estimate of the headcount size of the Government Communication Service, using the same methodology used by the Cabinet Office in the response to FOI IR2025/05101.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The figures cited in the parliamentary question and the FOI Internal Review of Government Communications remain the most up to date information available as the 2025 Data Collection is still undergoing validation.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when he plans to publish an updated list of Ministerial responsibilities.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer the Hon Member to the response given to Question HL10390 of 26 September.
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 paragraph 3.14 of the report by the National Audit Office entitled Investigation into the administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme, published on 16 June 2025, HC 951, when he expects the track my case function to be available for members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office expects the ‘Track My Case’ function to be available for members of the Civil Service Pension Scheme after the full service transition to Capita in March 2026.
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 23 September 2025 to Question 71198 on Unherd: Advertising, whether the Government Communication Service SAFE framework currently permits government advertising on the websites of (a) The Sun, (b) The Daily Star, (c) Spiked and (d) Ladbible.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
SAFE framework assessments have been conducted on The Sun, The Daily Star, and Ladbible, and they have been assessed as appropriate for government advertising. No SAFE framework assessment has been conducted on Spiked.
Asked by: James Cartlidge (Conservative - South Suffolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department had discussions with Lord Mandelson on defence procurement contracts between 10 February and 11 September 2025.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As Ambassador to the United States, Lord Mandelson met regularly with senior officials to discuss a range of issues across the UK-US relationship, including opportunities for closer collaboration on technology partnership, AUKUS and other ways to deepen the UK-US bilateral relationship.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to support the estates of deceased infected blood victims to access interim payments of compensation.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Following the publication of the Inquiry’s Additional Report, the UK Government has announced further interim payments of £210,000 for eligible estates of someone registered with an IBSS or predecessor scheme (on or before 17 April 2024) who sadly passed away.
This is in addition to the £100,000 interim payments to the estates of deceased infected beneficiaries which opened in October 2024. Since then, 600 interim payments of £100,000 have already been paid to estates.
On 26 September, the Government announced that applications for these interim payments will open on 23 October.
These payments will be made by the administrators of the existing Infected Blood Support Schemes, on behalf of the UK Government. The UK Government is working closely with the devolved administrations and the Infected Blood Support Schemes to make the necessary arrangements to make these payments as swiftly as possible.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of bringing forward the timetable for full compensation payments to (a) infected blood victims and (b) their estates.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The delivery of compensation is a matter for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA). As of 7 October, IBCA has contacted 3,614 people to start their compensation claim, and 3,350 have started the claim process. 2,204 offers of compensation have been made, totalling over £1.6 billion, and so far 1,761 people have accepted their offers with more than £1 billion paid in compensation.
The IBCA Framework Document, published in March, sets out the timelines agreed between IBCA and Cabinet Office; namely for the bulk of infected people to be paid no later than the end of 2027 and the bulk of affected people to be paid no later than the end of 2029.
These timescales have been agreed with IBCA, to ensure that the door is kept open for those who have not yet identified themselves as being infected or affected. In my oral statement to the House on 21 July, I set out that these dates are not targets for delivery, but ‘backstops’.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to ensure that all (a) interim and (b) full infected blood compensation scheme payments are made sooner than 2029.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The delivery of compensation is a matter for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA). As of 7 October, IBCA has contacted 3,614 people to start their compensation claim, and 3,350 have started the claim process. 2,204 offers of compensation have been made, totalling over £1.6 billion, and so far 1,761 people have accepted their offers with more than £1 billion paid in compensation.
The IBCA Framework Document, published in March, sets out the timelines agreed between IBCA and Cabinet Office; namely for the bulk of infected people to be paid no later than the end of 2027 and the bulk of affected people to be paid no later than the end of 2029.
These timescales have been agreed with IBCA, to ensure that the door is kept open for those who have not yet identified themselves as being infected or affected. In my oral statement to the House on 21 July, I set out that these dates are not targets for delivery, but ‘backstops’.
Asked by: Edward Morello (Liberal Democrat - West Dorset)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has set a target date for making full compensation payments to all living victims of the infected blood scandal.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The delivery of compensation is a matter for the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA). As of 7 October, IBCA has contacted 3,614 people to start their compensation claim, and 3,350 have started the claim process. 2,204 offers of compensation have been made, totalling over £1.6 billion, and so far 1,761 people have accepted their offers with more than £1 billion paid in compensation.
The IBCA Framework Document, published in March, sets out the timelines agreed between IBCA and Cabinet Office; namely for the bulk of infected people to be paid no later than the end of 2027 and the bulk of affected people to be paid no later than the end of 2029.
These timescales have been agreed with IBCA, to ensure that the door is kept open for those who have not yet identified themselves as being infected or affected. In my oral statement to the House on 21 July, I set out that these dates are not targets for delivery, but ‘backstops’.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many (a) unallocated cases and queries, (b) cases and queries allocated but not yet in progress and (c) cases and queries in progress but not yet completed being dealt with by the Civil Service Pension Scheme administrator, MyCSP Ltd. were still in progress as of 1October 2025.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
MyCSP; the Civil Service pension scheme administrator, does not record the data in the format requested. It reports to the Cabinet Office on a monthly basis. 85,503 new work items were received for the month of September. A work item reflects an individual piece of work or task. There are 67,540 outstanding items - 13,783 cases awaiting a response and 53,757 items assigned for work to be completed.
The outstanding volumes are in line with what we would expect to see based on the differing clearance targets for certain tasks, such as retirements which can take up to 4 months to process. This is what the Cabinet Office expects to see and monitors on a monthly basis.
The Cabinet Office continues to emphasise to MyCSP the importance of meeting contractual performance levels and improving member experience.