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 19 May 2025 to Question 51163 on Prime Minister: Email, whether emails which 10 Downing Street which are automatically removed after 90 days that have not otherwise been saved for long-term storage are still considered to be held for the purposes of Government responses to Humble Addresses.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer you to the Government's response to the Urgent Question tabled on 12th February, the Written Ministerial Statement in the name of the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister that same day, and the Oral Statement on the 23rd February, in the name of the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister, which set out an update on the Government's process and that Departments have been instructed to retain material that may be relevant to the motion.
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 March 2026, to Question 44467, on Government Departments: Social Media, if he will request that the Ethics and Integrity Commission consider this issue as part of their commissioned review into lobbying and transparency.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Prime Minister's letter to the Ethics and Integrity Commission Chair, dated 11 March 2026 and published on GOV.UK, sets out the policy areas the Commission has been asked to review.
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 25 March 2026 to Question 116506 on 9 Downing Street: Repairs and Maintenance, whether (a) all Government Property Agency spending data is published in the quarterly returns by Cabinet Office, or (b) only recharged spending data is published.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
As an Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office, all spend by the Government Property Agency which meets the criteria for disclosure in the Cabinet Office spend data is disclosed in the published reports: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-spend-data
Spend which is recharged to the Cabinet Office group entities which meets the criteria is also published, and would be shown as income with the GPA accounts
Asked by: Steff Aquarone (Liberal Democrat - North Norfolk)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse is of advertising the Digital ID consultation on podcasts.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The digital ID consultation is open to the public, and its success is hinged on open and transparent participation. We have a duty to reach as broad a population as possible and have worked with media partners in order to ensure that the public are aware of the consultation and how to participate. For this campaign, we’ve worked with two podcast partners: Acast and Audioboom, with a combined spend of £62,817 for the duration of the 12 week consultation.
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 24 March 2026, to Question 112179, on Ethics and Integrity Commission and Lobbying, whether the terms of reference will include revolving door issues of civil servants and regulators joining companies which they previous regulated or worked with.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
On 11 March the Prime Minister wrote to the Chair of the Ethics and Integrity Commission, Doug Chalmers, to commission a review into lobbying, disclosure and access to government. As set out in the terms of reference, this includes looking at whether the current Business Appointment Rules are sufficient, in particular in respect of managing potentially improper access to, and influence within, government..
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what systems of artificial intelligence will be used to identify disproportionate consultation and reporting requirements.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
We are using state-of-the-art large language models to identify all duties to consult within the statute book, as well as contextual information such as responsible department and the circumstances under which consultation is required.
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 24 February 2026 to Question 110815 on Special Advisers: ICT, whether (a) special advisers and (b) senior civil servants have auto-delete functionality turned on for (i) corporate and (ii) non-corporate communication devices when discussing government business.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The policy covering non-corporate communication channels is published on gov.uk, available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/non-corporate-communication-channels-for-government-business/using-non-corporate-communication-channels-eg-whatsapp-private-email-sms-for-government-business-html
Asked by: Mohammad Yasin (Labour - Bedford)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to increase the speed at which compensation payments are issued by the Infected Blood Compensation Authority to affected people.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Infected Blood Compensation Authority has paid over £2 billion in compensation payments. As of 1 October 2025, IBCA had asked every living infected person who is registered with a support scheme to come forward and start their claim. IBCA has now opened the service for the first claims from infected people who were never compensated, deceased infected people, and living affected people. This met the Government’s targets for compensation delivery in 2025.
With each new cohort, IBCA are starting small, allowing them to learn what additions to the claim service are needed. This will allow them to open their service to more people as the service is built around specific needs. Whilst the roll out of the scheme is an operational decision for IBCA as an independent body, the Government fully supports its commitment to moving forward as swiftly as possible.
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 12 March 2026 to Question 118784 on Leader of the House: Written Questions, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the Cabinet Office Answer of 24 February 2026 to Question 113610 in light of his answer to Question 118784.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Due to the small size of some teams, releasing this information with the specified detail could create concerns regarding personal data.
Asked by: James McMurdock (Independent - South Basildon and East Thurrock)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, what mechanisms will be in place to allow Parliament to scrutinise decisions to reduce consultation requirements.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The government is committed to protecting the necessary checks and balances to ministerial and Parliamentary decision making. In line with standard processes, Parliament will have the opportunity to scrutinise and challenge any changes to consultation requirements where they are legislative.