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 15 May 2025, to Question 50576 on Cabinet Office: Recruitment, whether members of the Senior Civil Service can be permanently promoted up a grade without open and fair competition.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Promotion on a permanent basis can only take place after fair and open competition. Senior Civil Service vacancies are advertised externally by default and exceptions must be approved by a Minister or Permanent Secretary equivalent in non-Ministerial departments. Civil Service Commissioners chair all competitions for SCS3 and SCS4 posts to ensure appointments are made on merit.
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 publish the Civil Service Recruitment Framework.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service Recruitment Framework exists to ensure vacancies are consistently accessible to the widest possible pool of talent. There are no plans to publish this internal-facing framework to the public domain, as it constitutes HR-to-HR guidance designed for departments to integrate into their respective policies and processes.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what is the timetable for Departments to implement the Civil Service diversity network guidance in their own departmental diversity networks; and whether the diversity policies adopted by individual departments are centrally monitored or held by the Cabinet Office.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Responsibility for, and management of, departmental diversity networks, is delegated to individual departments as the employer. This includes the decision to adopt or align with the Staff Network Policy. The Cabinet Office has not set a timetable for departments. Departmental policies are not monitored or held centrally by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department operates a code system to determine when and what replies are given to written parliamentary questions.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
It is for the answering Minister to determine how to reply to a written parliamentary question.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether any publications have failed SAFE assessments due to gender-critical content.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There have been no such instances of failure.
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 2 December 2025, to Question 92612, whether Tim Allan is required to recuse himself from government policy or communications on matters relating to the clients of Strand Partners.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Before joining the government, Mr Allan sought and received advice on his interests. He has followed every element of the advice received.
As a result of that advice, he resigned his directorship with Strand and ceased any involvement in its governance or operations. Mr Allan has recused himself from engagement with Strand Partners in relation to the firm’s business, and from involvement in any procurement relating to Strand Partners during his period of employment.
Asked by: Alison Bennett (Liberal Democrat - Mid Sussex)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what is his planned timetable for the publication of the triennial report into the operation of the Honours and Memorialisation secretariats.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The next report into the operation of the UK Honours System is expected in due course.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the correspondence from the Permanent Secretary to his Department to the Hon Member for Thirsk & Malton of 24 November 2025.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
There are no plans to publish this correspondence.
Asked by: Kevin Hollinrake (Conservative - Thirsk and Malton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many months each of the Ministerial flats in Admiralty House have been empty for.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Official residences are allocated to Ministers at the Prime Minister's discretion, to support them in their official duties. This has been the case under decades of successive governments, and it is not usual practice to publish specific dates of their occupation.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the regional representation of new peers appointed for each year since 2015 to the current December 2025 list.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The House of Lords works best when there is a diversity of perspectives represented, including from all the nations and regions of the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister published a statement in June 2025, setting out the roles and responsibilities of those involved in the appointments system, in which he emphasised that party leaders should consider national and regional representation when making nominations, to ensure the second chamber better reflects the country it serves.
As a first step in reform of the House of Lords, the Government introduced the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill which removes the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords. The Government’s priority is to get this Bill on the statute book as soon as possible.