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 July 2025, to Question 63328, on Intelligence and Security Committee: Press Releases, whether the Cabinet Office has now provided (a) additional and (b) independent resource, to the Intelligence and Security Committee and its secretariat; and what the status is of the updating of the Memorandum of Understanding.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Cabinet Office officials engage routinely and constructively with the Committee and will continue to do so. The Cabinet Office has agreed to the Committee’s requested uplift on budgeting and resourcing, which should help it to continue to undertake its critical role effectively. Cabinet Office officials are also working with the ISC to identify the best operating model for the future.
The Prime Minister values the independent and robust oversight which the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) provides. Following discussions with the Committee, the Cabinet Office is conducting a review of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Prime Minister and the Committee. Any changes made to the MOU would need to be agreed by both the Prime Minister and the ISC.
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 115553 on APCO Worldwide and Labour Together, what was the specific allegation and breach of the Ministerial Code that the Independent Adviser was asked by the Prime Minister to consider.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the response to the Urgent Question on 23 February, Labour Together and APCO Worldwide: Cabinet Office Review (Official Report, Column 27), and also to the Terms of Reference for the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards on gov.uk.
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 the Cabinet Office news story published on 26 March 2026, Modernising public procurement: backing British businesses and building a fairer economy, if he will publish his new definition of social value.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
On 26 March, the government announced plans for a new definition of social value that will strengthen the importance of community impact, putting it at the heart of future buying decisions. The Cabinet Office is developing this definition with input from businesses, trade unions, community groups and civil society organisations. We plan to publish this new definition shortly.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what consideration he has given to the potential merits of introducing a national framework with clear criteria for intervention in major cyber incidents to strengthen economic resilience.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Cyber attacks are increasing in scale and impact; they are slowing the UK’s economic growth and damaging our national security. The UK Government has an existing national process to manage the response to major cyber incidents: the national cyber incident categorisation system is published on NCSC.GOV.UK.
The Government, alongside the National Cyber Security Centre, engages with regulators and critical national infrastructure operators to ensure resilience and preparedness to cyber threats, working to better understand and manage cyber risk, and minimise the impact of cyber incidents when they occur.
The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will also support this, by boosting UK cyber defences and improving the cyber security of our essential public and digital services.
Asked by: Chris Bloore (Labour - Redditch)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what cross-government contingency planning is in place for major cyber incidents affecting critical supply chains.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Cyber attacks are increasing in scale and impact; they are slowing the UK’s economic growth and damaging our national security. The UK Government has an existing national process to manage the response to major cyber incidents: the national cyber incident categorisation system is published on NCSC.GOV.UK.
The Government, alongside the National Cyber Security Centre, engages with regulators and critical national infrastructure operators to ensure resilience and preparedness to cyber threats, working to better understand and manage cyber risk, and minimise the impact of cyber incidents when they occur.
The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will also support this, by boosting UK cyber defences and improving the cyber security of our essential public and digital services.
Asked by: Ben Obese-Jecty (Conservative - Huntingdon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, which preparedness plans have been scrutinised by the UK Resilience Academy since April 2025.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The UK Government is committed to enhancing the provision of independent advice and external challenge to UK preparedness plans. The Government has therefore committed to convene a number of independent panels to scrutinise UK whole-system risks. This was announced in the Resilience Action Plan and forms the Government’s response to the COVID-19 Module 1, Recommendation 10.
The Cabinet Office has now developed an independent assurance programme, covering the most significant risks in the classified National Security Risk Assessment (NSRA). This draws on independent experts from across sectors outside government to ensure impartial, credible assurance, and offer recommendations on improvements that can be made.
In December 2025, the Cabinet Office, working with the UK Resilience Academy, delivered a pilot to help us further refine and strengthen our independent assurance processes ahead of launching the full programme. Lessons learnt from this will inform planning for future whole-system risks, as set out in the internal NSRA.
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 his Department's news story entitled Modernising public procurement: backing British businesses and building a fairer economy, published 26 March 2026, if he will publish the hyperlinks to the procurement guidance on the (a) new Public Interest Test and (b) publishing insourcing strategies.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This government is committed to making the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation a reality. To do so, we will introduce a new Public Interest Test, requiring all departments to assess whether a service can be delivered more effectively in-house before any outsourcing decision is made. All departments will be required to also publish insourcing strategies to ensure delivery of this policy is effective.
The Cabinet Office plans to publish detailed guidance on the introduction of this public interest test in the Summer. Guidance on the public interest test and insourcing strategies will be available on gov.uk.
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 has issued guidance on whether accountable grant agreements should be (a) published and (b) subject to (i) tendering and (ii) open competition.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office has published guidance on GOV.UK covering the administration of general grants and the requirement to award funding via a competitive process.
Asked by: Lord Bassam of Brighton (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether Capita were aware of the extent of the backlog of civil service pension payments when they bid for, and were awarded, the pensions management contract.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The procurement process for the Civil Service Pensions Scheme began in 2022, with the award of the contract for administration of the service in March 2023, under the previous government. As part of the procurement process, data was shared with all bidders that outlined the current performance and any work in progress. It should be noted that the transition process was for 2 years after the contract award.
While the initial procurement data suggested a work-in-progress level of approximately 37,300 cases, subsequent instructions from the Cabinet Office in mid-2025 advised the provider to prepare for volumes of up to 100,000. In evidence provided to the Public Accounts Committee, Capita outlined that the full complexity and age of the inherited backlog, which included 89,000 cases at the point of transfer, only became fully transparent to the administrator upon the transfer of services on 1 December 2025.
A joint recovery plan between the Cabinet Office and the administrator is currently in place, supported by surge capacity from HMRC. Further information can be found here:
https://committees.parliament.uk/event/26804/formal-meeting-oral-evidence-session/
And details of the recovery plan can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-pension-recovery-plan-updates
Asked by: Lord Clement-Jones (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assurances they have received, if any, from Palantir that the US government's designation of Anthropic as a supply chain risk will not affect the delivery of their contracts with the UK Government.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Government utilises a range of suppliers based on operational requirements, value for money, and compliance with our security and legal obligations, with all suppliers subject to rigorous due diligence.
It is the responsibility of each contracting authority to ensure that contracts that they award are suitable for their requirements and legally compliant, and to monitor and manage the supplier's performance against their contractual obligations. All contracting authorities are simultaneously encouraged to follow the Government Security Group’s guidance on Tackling Security Risk in Government Supply Chains, which details best practices for procurement, commercial, and security practitioners when selecting and onboarding suppliers.