Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to the speech by the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister on 20 January, what the budget will be for the new National School of Government and Public Services.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The National School of Government and Public Services will be part of the Cabinet Office. Its annual budget will be defined through normal Cabinet Office processes with any relevant information published as part of the Cabinet Office annual report and accounts. The creation of the National School is expected to deliver efficiency savings of between £4m-£15m across the spending review period 2026-29.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the Government Property Agency’s total expenditure was in 2024–25 on measuring, collecting, reporting or validating greenhouse gas emissions across the Government estate; and what the Agency’s projected annual expenditure is for each of the next five financial years on those activities.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
This information is not available. GPA do not manage the greenhouse gas emissions data across all of the government estate.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) the introduction of a compensation scheme to support those facing financial hardship as a result of the delays in administering pensions and lump sums and (b) the prioritising of hardship cases including unpaid retirees, people retiring imminently, ill-health retirement cases and bereavement cases.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. Administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme transferred to Capita on 1 December.
The issues and delays facing some civil servants and pension scheme members in accessing their pensions is unacceptable.
In response, we have set up a dedicated a surge team of 150 staff to work alongside the 500 Capita staff to clear the backlog. There is an agreed recovery plan in place that prioritises the most urgent cases including bereavements, ill health and hardship cases and has clear timelines and targets for full-service restoration for all members.
No former civil servant should be facing financial hardship as a result of delays to their pension and we are putting in place direct support for people facing delays in their first payments. We are also actively working with all partners to ensure affected members do not suffer permanent financial loss as a result of this issue.
The Cabinet Office has set out arrangements whereby employing departments are able to make interest-free hardship loans to those who are waiting for their pension benefits.
Asked by: Claire Hanna (Social Democratic & Labour Party - Belfast South and Mid Down)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what resources he has allocated to help ensure the timely and efficient processing of the 86,000 cases inherited by Capita from My CSP.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office awarded the contract to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme to Capita in November 2023 under the previous government. Administration of the Civil Service Pension Scheme transferred to Capita on 1 December.
The issues and delays facing some civil servants and pension scheme members in accessing their pensions is unacceptable.
In response, we have set up a dedicated a surge team of 150 staff to work alongside the 500 Capita staff to clear the backlog. There is an agreed recovery plan in place that prioritises the most urgent cases including bereavements, ill health and hardship cases and has clear timelines and targets for full-service restoration for all members.
No former civil servant should be facing financial hardship as a result of delays to their pension and we are putting in place direct support for people facing delays in their first payments. We are also actively working with all partners to ensure affected members do not suffer permanent financial loss as a result of this issue.
The Cabinet Office has set out arrangements whereby employing departments are able to make interest-free hardship loans to those who are waiting for their pension benefits.
Asked by: Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what estimate they have made of the number of deaths related to climate change in each county in England.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the Permanent Secretary at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Lord Foster of Bath
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
04 February 2026
Dear Lord Foster,
As Permanent Secretary of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what estimate has been made of the number of deaths related to climate change in each county in England (HL14056).
The ONS published Climate-related mortality, England and Wales: 1988 to 20221 in 2023. This release used climate and mortality data from 1988 to 2022 to analyse temperature-related mortality in England and Wales. The analysis estimates the relative risk, numbers and rates of death per 100,000 population associated with changing temperatures, based on a statistical model. Publication of updated estimates based on an enhanced statistical model and including data up to 2025 is provisionally planned for mid-2026.
Data is available for each English region and for Wales. However, data is not available by individual county in England.
Yours sincerely,
Darren Tierney
Asked by: Lord Bird (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government which minister will be responsible for coordinating the implementation of the child poverty strategy across government and accountable for the progress of that strategy.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The responsibility for coordinating the implementation of the Child Poverty Strategy across government lies with the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Secretary of State for Education.
Accountability for delivering constituent measures sits with the relevant Secretary of State.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what progress his Department has made on achieving the Government’s objectives for supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises participation in public procurement.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is determined to ensure the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually delivers economic growth and supports British businesses, especially SMEs.
The Cabinet Office does not hold a central record of the proportion of procurement contracts awarded by each Government Department to SMEs over the last five financial years. The Government is, however, introducing targets for SME spend going forwards.
The Government is also taking a number of further steps to support SMEs.
We have published a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) which requires contracting authorities to consider ways to increase procurement spend with SMEs and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).
The Crown Commercial Service has also published an SME Action Plan which sets out the steps it is taking to support Government Departments maximise their procurement spend with SMEs, by removing barriers to participation and opening up opportunities to SMEs through their commercial agreements.
We have also introduced changes allowing local councils to reserve over one billion pounds worth of lower value contracts to suppliers based locally or within the UK which has recently become law, a step strongly supported by SMEs.
We will set out further reforms, including the response to the recent public procurement consultation, in due course. These reforms will further support British SMEs to bid for contracts.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the assessment criteria the Department uses to determine whether the supplier of externally-contracted services has been responsible for a critical performance failure in delivering its contractual commitments.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office does not utilise a single, universal set of assessment criteria for determining whether a supplier is responsible for a critical performance failure. Instead, specific criteria are defined within each individual contract, generally aligning with the standard definitions in the Model Services Contract.
The Cabinet Office remains committed to promoting high standards of supplier performance and compliance with all relevant procurement legislation.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to counter espionage within the civil service.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government Security Group (GSG) is part of the Cabinet Office and is the centre of the Government Security Function. GSG is responsible for the oversight and coordination of protective security within all central government departments, their agencies, and arm’s length bodies.
GSG works with stakeholders across government to mitigate risks posed to government security from a range of threats, including espionage, and is constantly seeking to develop and strengthen measures to improve its risk mitigation capability.
Asked by: Julia Lopez (Conservative - Hornchurch and Upminster)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government Commercial Agency is taking to help improve access to Government procurement processes for (a) Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and (b) other suppliers with expertise in artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government is determined to ensure the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually delivers economic growth and supports British businesses, especially SMEs.
The Cabinet Office does not hold a central record of the proportion of procurement contracts awarded by each Government Department to SMEs over the last five financial years. The Government is, however, introducing targets for SME spend going forwards.
The Government is also taking a number of further steps to support SMEs.
We have published a National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS) which requires contracting authorities to consider ways to increase procurement spend with SMEs and Voluntary, Community, and Social Enterprises (VCSEs).
The Crown Commercial Service has also published an SME Action Plan which sets out the steps it is taking to support Government Departments maximise their procurement spend with SMEs, by removing barriers to participation and opening up opportunities to SMEs through their commercial agreements.
We have also introduced changes allowing local councils to reserve over one billion pounds worth of lower value contracts to suppliers based locally or within the UK which has recently become law, a step strongly supported by SMEs.
We will set out further reforms, including the response to the recent public procurement consultation, in due course. These reforms will further support British SMEs to bid for contracts.