Baroness Finn

Contracts for Permanent Secretaries and all other SCS are not published publicly so we will not be placing a copy in the Library of the House.

The CO has announced plans to restructure and re-organise, to create a more strategic, specialist and smaller centre of government.

We are currently working with the HR Directorate and our trade unions on the implementation of our directive, and will seek to achieve the necessary reductions through voluntary means and attrition.

As set out in our Written Answers on 22 October 2024 (PQ 6096) and 31 March 2025 (PQ 41100), we have been considering whether the commitment to publish guidance on direct ministerial appointments made by the previous administration was sufficient and appropriate for meeting the Committees’ recommendations. We will provide a further update in due course.

As part of the contract extension, KPMG has not received any new contractual guarantees or assurances.

For the Learning Frameworks 2.0 competition, the procurement is being run as a fair and open competition.

Data collected via the One Big Thing 2023 online platform was deleted by 31 December 2024, in line with the platform’s privacy statement. Beyond 31 December 2024, we retained aggregated data on overall registrations and % registrations by department.

The analysis reported in the Evaluating One Big Thing 2023 report was completed before the data was deleted but publication was delayed due to various factors including the General Election.

Figures in the Evaluating One Big Thing 2023 report were based on actual registrations to the online platform for One Big Thing 2023. Therefore figures did not include any civil servants who engaged with One Big Thing 2023 components without registering on the online platform.

The privacy statement for the One Big Thing 2023 online platform stated that all personal data collected via the online platform would be deleted within 12 months of the initiative ending. The definition of personal data included the grades of individuals who registered to the Platform. The reference on data storage on page 17 in the technical report was therefore an error, which we will seek to correct.

Following the election, this Government has outlined its ambitions through the Plan for Change, which sets out an ambitious set of milestones - across the missions - for this Parliament.

As the House would expect, Government continually reviews its work to ensure that it is delivering the best outcomes for the people of the United Kingdom, and that its policies continue to represent the best value for the taxpayer.

Public reviews will be available on gov.uk as they are published.

In line with Managing Public Money, The Framework Document for the Independent Offices (Civil Service Commission, Advisory Committee on Business Appointments and the Commissioner for Public Appointments) was cleared by the Permanent Secretary of the Cabinet Office and was reviewed by Cabinet Office ministers and by the Treasury Officer of Accounts (TOA) and the Spending Team prior to publication.

The Framework Document for the Independent Offices (Civil Service Commission, Advisory Committee on Business Appointments and the Commissioner for Public Appointments) followed the clearance process set out in Managing Public Money and was reviewed by Cabinet Office ministers prior to publication in the usual way

The House of Lords Appointments Commission is an independent, advisory non-departmental body of the Cabinet Office. The guidance on political donations was approved by the Commission in December 2019 as an internal document for members. It was subsequently published in January 2022 as a result of a Decision Notice by the Information Commissioner following a previous Freedom of Information request.

The position on written assurances is as set out in the previous answer (HL4743).

In our response to the recommendations of the House of Lords Statutory Inquiries Committee, published on 10 February, the Government has committed to publish guidance on inquiries.

As of February 2025 Propriety and Constitution Group has fewer than 10 SCS based outside of London.

The number of senior civil servants that registered for One Big Thing 2023, broken down by department, was collected for engagement purposes while the initiative was live. As per the privacy notice for the One Big Thing 2023 platform where data was submitted, the data was deleted 12 months after the initiative ended.

The Cabinet Office’s Propriety and Constitution Group was created in 2022/23 from parts of three separate business units; the Cabinet Secretary’s Group, Union and Constitution Group, and the Inquiries BU. We have therefore included data from 2022 to present.

Our central data does not record managed moves so we are unable to include information on these.

There were no intra-departmental competitions.

The Civil Service ‘About us’ page on Gov.uk was inaccurate and has been updated.

The Armstrong memorandum of 1985 set out that “it is the duty of civil servants to serve their Ministers with integrity and to the best of their ability”, and that “the British civil service is a non-political and disciplined career service”. This was codified in 1996 with the creation of the Civil Service Code, a document that governs the conduct of civil servants to this day.

The Civil Service ‘About us’ page on Gov.uk was inaccurate and has been updated.

The Armstrong memorandum of 1985 set out that “it is the duty of civil servants to serve their Ministers with integrity and to the best of their ability”, and that “the British civil service is a non-political and disciplined career service”. This was codified in 1996 with the creation of the Civil Service Code, a document that governs the conduct of civil servants to this day.

A framework is a contract between a contracting authority and one or more suppliers that provides for the future award of contracts by a contracting authority to the supplier or suppliers.

Where a contracting authority is establishing a framework, it needs to assess the value over the lifetime of the framework from any resulting awards in accordance with that framework. This will usually be assessed based on commercial requirements. If the total amount of estimated individual awards is over £2m, this framework should be included on a pipeline notice.

Guidance has been issued on a range of topics relating to the Procurement Act 2023 and there is a specific piece of guidance that relates to the Pipeline Notice.

A Cabinet Office Gateway review in February 2024 of the Falcon Programme recommended a new Programme Business Case should be submitted examining alternative options for the provision of the new OFFICIAL IT platform. Due to the need to explore new options and secure an agreed strategic direction, the programme was moved from a Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) of AMBER to RED.

A Programme Business Case (PBC) was submitted to the December 2024 Investment Committee (COIC) and approved. The Programme is forecast to complete by December 2026.

In January 2025 the Programme DCA was reviewed and moved from RED to AMBER. This was supported by the Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA)

Regulated public appointments to bodies listed in Schedule 1 of the Public Appointments Order in Council follow the recruitment processes set out in the Governance Code on Public Appointments. In the majority of cases, Chairs to such bodies are recruited through open and fair competition.

There is a small group of eight museum and gallery bodies listed within Schedule 1 which do not undertake a recruitment for the role of the body’s Chair. Instead, the role of Chair is an elected position by, and from within, the existing trustees of the body (which are themselves recruited through open and fair competition). These bodies are: the British Museum; the Imperial War Museum; the National Gallery; the National Portrait Gallery; the Natural History Museum; the Royal Museums Greenwich; the Tate; and the Wallace Collection.

The Governance Code, issued by the Cabinet Office, sets out guidance on the composition of Advisory Assessment Panels, including representation from the public body concerned and considerations of potential conflicts of interest. Additionally, for the bodies just mentioned, the published list of significant appointments requires that a Senior Independent Panel Member sit on the Advisory Assessment Panels for all trustee recruitments, on the presumption that any appointed trustee might be elected to the role of Chair. Ministers must agree on the composition of all Panels.

The Cabinet Office does not hold this data. It is not Civil Service practice to provide immunity from disciplinary action in such circumstances. The Cabinet Secretary or departmental Permanent Secretaries may, where appropriate, provide letters of assurance to those giving evidence to inquiries to encourage them to provide open and honest answers to questions posed.

All publicly available data related to completions of the training can be found in the Evaluation of One Big Thing 2023, published on 30 January 2025.

A breakdown of the proportion of senior civil servants (SCS) who registered for One Big Thing 2023 by department is not publicly available.

Tulip Siddiq MP referred herself to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards on 6 January 2025. As is set out in the Independent Adviser’s terms of reference, “Information provided to the Independent Adviser for the purposes of their functions is provided in confidence” (paragraph 4.2).

The Cabinet Office does not hold this data. It is not Civil Service practice to provide immunity from disciplinary action in such circumstances. The Cabinet Secretary or departmental Permanent Secretaries may, where appropriate, provide letters of assurance to those giving evidence to inquiries to encourage them to provide open and honest answers to questions posed.

I refer the noble lady to the answer from the Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office of 24 January 2025, Official Report, PQ 24441.

The pension scheme was made by the then Minister for the Cabinet Office and laid before Parliament on 15 March 2012. A copy of the scheme is held by the Journal Office.

Details of ministerial meetings with individuals are published on gov.uk as part of the government’s transparency agenda. Relevant meetings are also declared in the Special Advisor transparency publications.

Updated guidance on ministers’ meetings was published on 30 January 2025 and includes details of who would be considered senior media figures for these purposes.

The relevant section of the guidance is provided below:

Senior media figures i.e., newspaper, broadcast, and other media proprietors, editors and senior executives are outlined in the table below. Meetings with media figures of equivalent seniority should also be declared in accordance with these guidelines.

a. Where ministers meet with senior media figures, the names of the attendees, their job title, and the organisation they represent should be included regardless of the purpose of the meeting.

b. Official meetings with representatives of media organisations operating below the level of senior media figures must also be declared.

Yes. When establishing a new body, it is for Departments to demonstrate how the proposed body meets at least one of the “three tests”. The Cabinet Office and the Treasury have a detailed process in place for the approval of new public bodies to ensure there is sufficient due diligence to establish a clear rationale for a proposed body.

As set out in the Ministerial Code, the List of Ministers’ Interests is published on a quarterly basis and provides details of those interests held by ministers that are judged relevant for publication by the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards.

Information about the process by which ministers declare interests, including details of the categories of interest declared, is available in the introduction to the List of Ministers’ Interests, which is already published.

I refer the Noble Lady to the answer of 21 January 2025, Official Report, PQ HC 25454.

Question:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 25 November 2024 to Question 13808 on 9 Downing Street: Media, what (a) alterations and (b) other works have taken place in the media room since November 2024; what the cost of those works was; which contractors were used; and which Department authorised the cost of these works.

Answer:

A one-off refresh of the facility was undertaken in December 2024. This has restored the room back to its original politically neutral state. The cost of these works will be published in due course in Cabinet Office transparency returns. The works were carried out by OCS, and authorised by the Cabinet Office.

His Majesty's Government can confirm that:

Each government department is responsible for their own internal Ministerial and Permanent Secretary submission templates.

The Cabinet Office maintains a standard template for submissions to Cabinet Office Ministers and the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary.

The template for both is the same and was revised on 18th October 2024.

The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals (HD Committee) was established by King George VI to provide objective advice to the Sovereign on the operation of the honours system.

The Sovereign is the fount of all honour and the honours system itself operates under the Royal Prerogative. The HD Committee is an advisory body only. The Committee’s advice does not carry the weight that is accorded to ministerial advice; nor does it have the power to take decisions as Ministers do. The Committee has historically recognised the need to reflect the position of the Government and the membership of the Prime Minister’s Principal Private Secretary ensures the Prime Minister's views can be properly represented.

I refer the Noble Lady to my answer of 26 November 2024, PQ 14635.

I refer the Noble Baroness to the written answer to Baroness Chapman of Darlington which highlighted that special advisers are required to follow the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers. We do not retain records on Special Adviser's use of Annual Leave.

The review of governance structures was an internal exercise commissioned as part of wider work to inform decisions for ministers. Disclosure would likely prejudice the effective conduct of public affairs and inhibit free and frank advice and discussion. As a result, a copy of the advice will not be placed in the Library of the House.

The Civil Service Board (renamed the Operations Board), People Board and Senior Leadership Committee have no subcommittees or working groups. The Civil Service Operations Board, Location and Property Board, Data and Digital Board have ceased operation.

Wednesday Morning Colleagues is a regular Permanent Secretary meeting, it is not one of the Civil Service committees that exercise management functions in relation to the Civil Service.

The Committee on the Grant of Honours, Decorations and Medals advises the Sovereign directly.

As noted in our answer to HC 14966, the Prime Minister’s Principal Private Secretary is a member of the committee. This is the mechanism by which the Prime Minister is able to feed into decisions taken by the committee, and the view of the PPS carries equal weight to all other committee members.

This Government is fully committed to transparency and to looking at how the range of information published can be improved and made as useful as possible. As part of this, the government has committed to publishing a new central register of ministers’ gifts and hospitality on a monthly basis. The first register will be published by the Cabinet Office in due course.

It is a long-established precedent that information about the discussions that have taken place in Cabinet and its committees - including mission boards - is not normally shared publicly.

Neither the Cabinet Office nor the Government Car Service (GCS) provides guidance to departmental private offices on the allocation of cars for senior officials. Individual departments determine the criteria for the use of a government car in accordance with the Ministerial Code and the Civil Service Management Code.

The Prime Minister was consulted on the proposal to transfer the responsibility for honours committee appointments from the Prime Minister to the Head of the Civil Service.

As noted in our answer to HL1929, this policy change was made to ensure political independence of process.

I refer the Noble Lady to the Minister for the Cabinet Office's response of 7 November, Official Report, PQ 9001.

The Prime Minister is responsible for the overall organisation of the Executive.

All ministers serve at the discretion of the Prime Minister.