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 2 January 2026, to Question 99838, on Senior Civil Servants: Redundancy Pay, what was the business case for making an exit payment greater than that permitted in the model contract.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The severance payment was made in accordance with paragraph 18.1 in the Permanent Secretary model contract. The business case was made on the basis that the Cabinet Secretary departed the Civil Service, and it was calculated on the basis of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme i.e. 1 month’s pay (capped at £149,820 salary) for each year of service.
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 21 November 2025 to Question 90737 on Cabinet Office: Remote Working, if he will publish the members of the Cross-Government Group on Working Flexibly; and whether it meets remotely, in hybrid manner or in person.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Minister for the Cabinet Office does not intend to place a copy of the minutes of the last Cross Government Working Flexibly Group Meeting Minutes in the library as these are considered confidential.
We are unable to disclose membership of the Group on the grounds of data protection, however, the group meets on an ad hoc basis only and does so in a hybrid manner.
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 21 November 2025 to Question 90737 on Cabinet Office: Remote Working, if he will place in the Library a copy of the minutes of the last meeting for which minutes are held.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Minister for the Cabinet Office does not intend to place a copy of the minutes of the last Cross Government Working Flexibly Group Meeting Minutes in the library as these are considered confidential.
We are unable to disclose membership of the Group on the grounds of data protection, however, the group meets on an ad hoc basis only and does so in a hybrid manner.
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 73727 on Civil Servants: Personnel Management, whether that guidance has been published.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Guidance on Mutually Agreed Exits is published on the Civil Service Pension Scheme Administrators website. We have no plans to publish any further guidance.
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 2 January 2026 to Question 100340 on Senior Civil Servants: Recruitment, how many senior civil servants have been recruited to posts not advertised externally in the last 12 months.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2025, there were 90 provisional offers made for Senior Civil Service (SCS) posts (permanent and temporary) that were advertised across government but not advertised externally. This is data obtained from Civil Service Jobs and does not include internal recruitment, which might have been conducted within a department. As per our External by Default policy, SCS vacancies which are not advertised externally must be approved by a Minister or Permanent Secretary equivalent in non-Ministerial departments.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 15 December 2025, to Question 92616, on Admiralty House: Valuation, for what reason the valuation report of a wholly-owned government building is commercially sensitive; and whether he plans to sell Admiralty House in the future.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The valuation report is provided by the valuer to His Majesty’s Government on a confidential basis and is relevant only for that point in time considering prevailing market comparables. The valuer provides their report on condition it is not shared with third parties.
There are no plans to sell Admiralty House.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost is of developing, operating and maintaining the Internal Coaching Service digital platform.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Internal Coaching Service digital platform cost a one-off setup fee of £1,000 (excluding VAT).
The ongoing cost is an annual licence fee of £7,500 (excluding VAT). This fee covers maintenance, unlimited change requests, and support for the internal coaching team.
There is no upper limit to the number of coaches and coaches that can use the platform.
Asked by: Gareth Thomas (Labour (Co-op) - Harrow West)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Outer London Allowance was last reviewed for (a) teachers, (b) police officers and (c) civil servants.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
For teachers, the geographical areas covered by the different teacher pay ranges were defined some years ago to reflect a practical approach to compensate teachers working in London.
The School Teachers’ Review Body has not recommended any changes to London pay ranges in recent years; however, the Department is currently considering what additional flexibilities should be built into the statutory pay and conditions framework as a result of our commitment on changes to pay and conditions through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, and we will keep this matter under review.
For police officers, there’s London Weighting and London Allowance. There’s not an inner and outer London rate – it’s the same across all of London.
London Weighting and London Allowance were last reviewed by the Police Remuneration Review Body in the 2025/26 pay round.
Decisions on pay, including London weighting, are delegated to individual departments for grades below the Senior Civil Service (SCS); departmental policies on London weighting are not collected centrally. The SCS pay framework is managed centrally and only operates a national pay range.
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 1 December 2025 to Question 93376 on Civil Service: Unpaid Work, how the civil service verify self-declarations of the occupation of main household owners when the applicant was 14 years old.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
In line with other schemes of this nature across the public and private sector, The Cabinet Office uses self-certification for the socio-economic data of applicants and does not seek further validation. This is the same approach taken under its predecessor, the Summer Diversity Internship Programme, from 2010 to 2023.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the First Division Association (FDA) has been involved in negotiations on special advisers' salaries; and whether special advisers have collectively had an increase in their salaries since July 2024.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Special advisers have received two annual pay awards since July 2024, one in 2024/25 and one in 2025/26. The FDA has not been involved in negotiations on special advisers' salaries.