Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Chapman of Darlington on 17 September 2025 (HL10206) and 23 September 2025 (HL10204), what definition of a woman they use when engaging in joint UK-EU programmes relating to women; whether it differs from the self-identification policy adopted by the European Institute for Gender Equality; and whether they plan to change the UK definition in light of the Supreme Court ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Minister of State (Development)
The Supreme Court decision concerned the definition of a woman in the context of the UK Equality Act 2010.
If the Noble Baroness wishes to specify the UK-EU programmes that she has in mind, I will be happy to examine whether her question arises in relation to those programmes.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether individuals whose parents were middle class when the applicant was aged 14 seeking to apply to the Civil Service Summer Internship Scheme in 2026 will self-certify as working class to sidestep the new working-class requirements; and whether there will be any audit of self-certified declarations of the socio-economic background of summer interns to verify whether applicants are falsely claiming to be working class.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Cabinet Office uses self-certification for the socio-economic data of applicants and we expect the highest levels of integrity from all Civil Servants. This is the same approach taken under the programme's predecessor - the Summer Diversity Internship Programme - from 2010 to 2023.
Any candidate who is found to have misrepresented their circumstances in their application will face a disciplinary investigation.
We will be assessing the impact of our changes at the end of this year's programme as part of our test and learn approach.
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 14 January 2026 (HC104152), what is the constitutional basis for the National Security Adviser to (1) act as management, and (2) issue directions on behalf of the Prime Minister, given the statutory prohibitions under Section 8(5)(c) of the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010 on exercising any power under any Act or any power under His Majesty's prerogative.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Code of Conduct for Special Advisers states that special advisers 'convey to officials ministers’ views, instructions and priorities' and that they may 'hold meetings with officials to discuss the advice being put to ministers'. In line with the Code, the National Security Adviser does not line manage civil servants.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government whether officials or special advisers assign any marking, code or traffic light, other than date, to incoming parliamentary Written Questions to assess or advise how they may be answered.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The way in which departments triage incoming parliamentary questions is a matter for each individual department. There is no specific centralised guidance on assigning codes or traffic light ratings to questions.
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 21 November 2025 (HC91378), and with reference to paragraph 223 of the Cabinet Office Guide to Parliamentary Work and paragraph 1.6(d) of the Ministerial Code, and the MOD guidance "Contact with the media and communicating in public", why the Cabinet Office did not disclose to Parliament the updated guidance to Civil Servants on public speaking and speaking to the media, even though it is the ongoing policy of the Ministry of Defence to publish their equivalent guidance on gov.uk.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are currently no plans to publish this guidance as the area remains subject to ongoing policy development.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what guidance the Cabinet Office have issued to departments since the start of December 2025 about the approach to answering Written Questions about direct ministerial appointments; whether the Cabinet Office has made departments aware of expectation of transparency on direct ministerial appointments in the Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, published October 2025; and what assessment they have made of compliance with that guidance of (1) the original, and (2) the corrected, Written Answer by the Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office on 7 January (HC98100).
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Cabinet Office wrote to departments when the Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments was published, highlighting the contents of the guidance. As the guidance sets out, the responsibility for the publication of information about direct ministerial appointments rests with individual departments.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to paragraph 23 of Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, published in October 2025, whether (1) the Cabinet Office Permanent Secretary, and (2) the Cabinet Propriety and Ethics Team, have approved any individual exemptions to the publication of details of direct ministerial appointments for appointees who are currently in post.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
There are no such cases.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to Permanent secretary model employment contract, deposited in the House of Commons Library on 4 December 2025 (DEP2025-0830), whether they will place the model contract for the Senior Civil Service in the Library of the House.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
A copy of the model contract has been placed in the House Library.
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 23 December 2025 (HL13096), who took the decision not to include any political activity information in Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25, published on 2 December 2025; and why page 41 of The Commissioner for Public Appointments Annual Report 2024-25, published on 17 December 2025, contained political activity data on regulated public appointments that was not listed in the Cabinet Office's Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The decision not to include political activity data in the Public Appointments Data Report 2024-25 was taken by officials, due to a data collection issue which limited the data that was available.
The Commissioner for Public Appointments sources data from the Cabinet Office. As an independent regulator, he reports separately to the government and decided to include this limited data.
The data collection issue has been rectified, and this information will be considered for inclusion in the 2025-26 data report. In the meantime, information about the political activity of individual public appointees is available on the announcement page of the public appointment digital service.
Asked by: Baroness Finn (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is the reason why the public statement on 6 January about the appointment of Axel Heitmueller as Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and Expert Adviser on Delivery does not include his (1) remuneration, or (2) expected end date, in line with paragraph 21 of Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments, published October 2025.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This information was published by the government on the new Direct Ministerial Appointments Announcements Portal.