Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Consultation principles: guidance, last updated March 2018, what supplementary advice or guidance has been given by the Cabinet Office to departments on whether consultations should give any material weight to responses from organisations or individuals which are deemed extremist or otherwise, or which are subject to a policy of non-engagement under the Government’s engagement principles; and what is the Cabinet Office’s departmental policy on this.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Responsibility for decisions and due diligence around who departments engage with sits with those departments and the appropriate policy areas. It is for individual government departments to decide to use these principles, or their own due diligence processes around engagement.
I refer the Noble Lady to PQ HC105789:
Question: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he will take steps to prevent organisations with which the Government has a policy of non-engagement from submitting written evidence to (a) ministers, (b) officials and (c) public consultations.
Answer: The government does not and will not engage with organisations with whom they have a policy of non-engagement.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government for what reason the Prime Minister has an active TikTok account in the light of the TikTok ban on government electronic devices.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
All Government departments must follow the Mobile Device Management policy. This directs that no third-party mobile application can be downloaded onto Government devices, unless security requirements can be met and there is a business case for doing so.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Minister for the Cabinet Office on 24 February (HC113702), what is the public interest reasoning for not providing to Parliament the internal guidance on the change from the default branding from HM Government to UK Government.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The guidance is part of routine internal government communications and administrative advice. Its release could inhibit the free and frank provision of internal advice and exchange of views within government.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, in regard to the Civil Service Summer Internship Programme, how is the main household earner determined for an applicant who spent an equal amount of time with two households with different socio-economic backgrounds in the case of separation or divorce at the time the applicant was 14 years old; and whether the applicant is able to choose which household to nominate in that instance.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
We require candidates to list the ‘main household earner’ using the ONS definition. In cases where a candidate had multiple households we advise candidates to use the ‘main householder earner’ in the household that best reflects their circumstances.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office on 14 January (HC102820), in what circumstances visits by the Prime Minister to offices of external organisations which are not foreign governments are not required to be listed in the list of ministerial meetings; and whether the Prime Minister had discussions with representatives of (1) Palantir, and (2) Global Counsel, relating to government businesses during his visit to their offices in Washington with Lord Mandelson on 27 February 2025.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
To clarify, it was not a meeting, and so minutes were not taken, therefore no reward was made.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether their response to the Humble Address on 4 February regarding Lord Mandelson will make redactions on grounds other than matters likely to prejudice international relations or national security; whether other exemptions similar to those under the Freedom of Information Act will be applied; and whether there is guidance to officials which sets out what information is and is not in scope of the response to the Humble Address.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the Noble Lady to the Government's response to the Urgent Question tabled on 12th February (Hansard Volume 853, Column 364), the Written Ministerial Statement in the name of the Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister that same day (HLWS1344), and the Oral Statement on the 23 February (repeated on 24th February, Hansard Volume 853, Column 494), which sets 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: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 3 February (HL13976), and with reference to paragraph 223 of the Cabinet Office Guide to Parliamentary Work and paragraph 1.6(d) of the Ministerial Code, what is the reason why current policy development prevents the publication of the previous guidance to the Civil Service about speaking to the media.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This guidance is currently under development in a live policy area. Premature release of this information would inhibit the free and frank provision of advice for policy development.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office on 2 December 2025 (HC92608), whether the Prime Minister’s recusal covers all matters relating to government policy on football or only the Football Governance Act 2025 and the Independent Football Regulator; and whether they will set out the full terms of the Prime Minister’s recusal.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the Noble Lady to the Prime Minister’s letter to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards of 12 November which states that in Autumn 2024 the Prime Minister agreed to recuse himself from decisions relating to the Football Governance Bill.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the correction and original Written Answer by the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office on 7 January (HC98100), and with reference to paragraph 21 of Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, published October 2025, what is (1) the annual remuneration, and (2) the expected end dates, of each of the direct ministerial appointments in the Cabinet Office; and whether they will provide relevant hyperlinks to that information in line with paragraph 234 of the Guide to Parliamentary Work, updated November 2024.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Cabinet Office holds information on 21 incumbents who were appointed under a direct ministerial appointments process and are recorded on the Cabinet Office's departmental list as of the 30 January 2026. A full list of current appointments is provided below. Information relating to their terms of reference, remuneration and end dates are updated regularly on the Public Appointments webpage.
Name of appointee |
Helen Gillett |
Maura Sullivan |
Clive Smith |
Mike Goodman |
Lord Janvrin GCB GCVO PC |
Sandy Nairne CBE FSA |
Anna Keay OBE |
Sir William Shawcross CVO |
Baroness Valerie Amos LG PH PC |
Dame Amelia Fawcett CBE CVO |
Johnson Garner |
Alex Holmes |
Sir Stephen Lovegrove |
Sir Ian Andrews |
Linda Miller |
Paul Davis |
John Smart |
Baroness Shafik |
Oli de Botton |
Axel Heitmueller |
Michael Barber |
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 19 January (HL13419), what the specific issue was that limited the available political activity data and prevented the inclusion of that data in the Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25, published on 2 December 2025; whether that issue has been resolved; and whether they will retrospectively publish that data.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Political activity information is collected from candidates as part of the public appointments digital service’s online application process. Political activity data was not included in the Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25 due to a data collection issue which meant it could not be extracted in a usable format for reporting. The data collection issue has now been rectified, and political activity data will be considered for inclusion in the 2025-26 data report.
The last government did not publish a data report after 2021-22, but under this administration, the government has restarted publishing these reports in order to provide transparency.
I also refer the Noble Baroness back to PQ HL13974 and PQ HL13979:
Questions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 19 January (HL13419), what was the title and grade of the most senior official who approved the removal or omission of political impartiality data from the Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25, published on 2 December 2025.
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Swansea on 19 January (HL13419), whether Ministers were informed or consulted on the decision not to include political activity data in the Cabinet Office Public Appointments Data Report 2024–25; and for what reason the headline political activity data published in the Commissioner for Public Appointment’s Annual Report of 17 December was not included in the Cabinet Office report of 2 December.
Combined answer:
As was the case under previous governments, and in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments, the political activity of successful candidates is published by government departments as part of the public announcement regarding the appointment.
The last government did not publish a data report after 2021-22, but under this administration, the government has restarted publishing these reports in order to provide transparency.
Political activity data was not included in the Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25 due to a data collection issue which limited the data that was available. The data collection issue has now been rectified, and this information will be considered for inclusion in the 2025-26 data report.
The Commissioner for Public Appointments, as the independent regulator, decided to include the limited data for 2024-25 in his own reporting.
The Cabinet Office did not publish a data report in either 2022-23 or 2023-24, so political activity data was also not published in a collated form for these years.