Asked by: Iqbal Mohamed (Independent - Dewsbury and Batley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the annual cost is of Government contracts for the licensing of a) Zoom, b) Microsoft, c) Amazon d) Google computing platforms for the civil service.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Information on the annual cost of Government contracts for licensing across the Civil Service is not held centrally.
Asked by: Liz Jarvis (Liberal Democrat - Eastleigh)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of barriers to entry on UK small and medium-sized enterprises in competitive public procurement processes.
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 Procurement Act (PA23) sets, for the first time, a duty for contracting authorities to have regard to the particular barriers facing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to consider what can be done to reduce or remove them. Initial trends show that the proportion of PA23 tender lots with a planning, tender, transparency or dynamic markets notice tagged as suitable for SMEs has increased to around two thirds of all requirements.
To continue to build on this positive trend, this Government has also published a new, more ambitious, 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).
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: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 92 of the Strategic Defence Review, how many meetings officials from their Department have attended on the national conversation on defence and security; which directorate in their Department is responsible for the departmental contribution to that national conversation; and what the job title is of the official responsible.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Cabinet Office Officials regularly attend meetings to discuss matters of national security, defence and resilience as well as the associated public communications required to deliver these lines of efforts. The conversation on National Defence was a recommendation in the 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which the Government accepted. The Ministry of Defence is the lead department for delivering the SDR, with support from the Cabinet Office, and particularly from the National Security Secretariat.
As set out in the Strategic Defence Review, the national conversation will be a multi-year, cross-departmental effort designed to deliver on the whole-of-society approach to national security and defence. This allows the Government, the private sector and public to play their part in strengthening the UK’s resilience to any potential future shocks. This work addresses the risks and threats the UK faces, including those above and below the threshold of an armed attack.
The Cabinet Office is actively leading and coordinating this work through the Home Defence Programme owned by the COBR Director and COBR Directorate, with oversight by the Deputy National Security Advisor (DNSA) for Intelligence, Defence and Security.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if the Prime Minister will discuss with Ministerial colleagues a) the adequacy of security arrangements for Ministers and the Royal Family, b) the adequacy of security arrangements at all UK military installations, and c) the robustness of our continuity of government plans.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As has been the case under successive administrations, the Government does not comment on security arrangements.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 1.3 of the Budget Information Security Review, published on 9 February 2026, if he will publish the recommendations from his Department's leak inquiry.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The recommendations from the Cabinet Office leak inquiry have been published and are included in the HM Treasury Budget Information Security Review.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the National Cyber Security Centre has made of the potential impact of kill switches in Chinese-made (a) cars and (b) buses on cyber security.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Modern vehicles – including cars and buses – are increasingly using software to support safer driving, to improve diagnostics and to provide a host of other services such as navigation and entertainment.
The Government takes national security extremely seriously and recognises the systemic challenges of increased connectivity and the cyber security implications for almost every area of government policy, including vehicles. The National Cyber Security Centre has published guidance to help organisations understand and manage the associated risks, ensuring that system connectivity is approached in a way that balances security with the significant benefits it provides.
The Department for Transport introduced two new regulations: one to strengthen vehicle cybersecurity and one on software updates (UN Reg 155 and UN Reg 156). The cybersecurity regulation sets out requirements to mitigate potential threats in vehicle construction, to monitor emerging threats and to respond to cyber-attacks.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Office for National Statistics sought input from Government departments as part of its review of harmonised standards on ethnicity classification.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon lady’s Parliamentary Question of 3rd March is attached.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether applicants to the Summer Intelligence Internship self-certify their ethnicity; and whether the SIS undertakes an audit.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Applicants for the UKIC Summer Internship state their ethnicity as part of the application process. We do not comment on what checks are conducted by UKIC during the recruitment process.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the material to be disclosed pursuant to Humble Address of 4 February 2026 relating to Lord Mandelson will include internal communications conducted via (a) Signal, (b) Telegraph, (c) Microsoft Teams, including chat messages, group chats, channel conversations, private messages, meeting chat logs and associated message histories.
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, and the Written Ministerial Statement, and the Oral Statement on the 23rd February, in the name of the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister that same day, which set out an update on the Government's process. We will set out further details in due course. The Government wishes to ensure that Parliament’s instruction is met with the urgency and transparency that it deserves.
Asked by: Jo White (Labour - Bassetlaw)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the number of times Peter Mandelson visited 10 Downing Street in each year since 6 May 2010 before he was appointed as the UK Ambassador to the United States of America.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Visitor information for 10 Downing Street is not retained for the time period specified.