Question to the Home Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much the Home Office has spent in each year since 2020 under the RM6141 and RM6302 language services frameworks; and whether the department has used or maintained any separate or competing frameworks, contracts or commercial routes for the procurement of language services during the same period, and, if so, how much has been spent through them.

Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)

The information requested is not currently available from published statistics, and the relevant data could only be collated and verified for the purpose of answering this question at disproportionate cost.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to page 43 of their policy paper Spending Review 2025: Departmental Efficiency Plans, published on 11 June, what percentage of the Cabinet Office’s commercial contracts by value are due for renewal or renegotiation by 2028–29; and what proportion of the £3 million efficiency savings relating to procurement has already been contractually secured.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

21% by value of the Cabinet Office’s live contracts are intended for renewal between 1 April 2026 and 31st March 2029.

The Cabinet Office published our technical efficiency delivery plan along with all other departments as part of the Spending Review 2025. This included a commitment to delivering £1m in annual efficiencies related to procurement in 2027/28, increasing to £3m in 2028/29. We are in active negotiations to begin delivery of the efficiencies.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to require their suppliers to use secure container images, in a manner comparable to the United States 2024 executive order on securing the software supply chains of federal government suppliers.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

In February 2025 Cabinet Office published the updated National Procurement Policy Statement (NPPS). The statement requires all public sector contracting authorities in scope to mitigate supply chain and national security risks by ensuring appropriate controls are in place, such as the Cyber Essentials standard for cyber security. Contracting authorities should also follow government guidance on Tackling Security Risk in Government Supply Chains inclusive of software security risk.

In May 2025 DSIT published a voluntary Software Security Code of Practice. The Code of Practice has been developed to improve the security and resilience of software that organisations and businesses rely on. This is not mandatory for government suppliers but we strongly encourage public sector organisations to use the Code of Practice in their commercial engagements.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much the Department for Work and Pensions has spent in each year since 2020 under the RM6141 and RM6302 language services frameworks; and whether the department has used or maintained any separate or competing frameworks, contracts or commercial routes for the procurement of language services during the same period, and, if so, how much has been spent through them.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Framework reference RM6141 is the contract we currently have with DALanguages and the spend associated with this supplier is:

Jun 22 – May 23 £6,877,133

Jun 23 – May 24 £7,139,303

Jun 24 – May 25 £9,878,029

There are no costs from 2020, as the Framework reference for that period is different to what has been requested.

The framework RM 6302 does not begin until May 26.

DAL was selected as the supplier for DWPs interpreting requirements, in a fair and open competition. We have not used or maintained any separate or competing frameworks, contracts or commercial routes for the procurement of language services during the specified period.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many public contracts across all departments currently include the “security schedules” referenced in the Government Cyber Security Strategy: 2022–2030; and what steps they are taking to ensure full implementation of proportionate cyber requirements across all commercial agreements.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

It is long standing policy that Government does not disclose the specifics of its security arrangements, including with suppliers.

In recognition of the fact that not all government departments have the resources or expertise to include bespoke security requirements of every single commercial arrangement, GSG has developed and published Modular Security Schedules. These schedules provide departments with industry best practice security requirements to be included in commercial agreements. They have been tailored to meet a whole range of scenarios and risks.

These schedules are now publicly available on security.gov.uk and have been widely adopted by government departments. We are actively running training sessions for commercial teams to aid their implementation. Furthermore, they are now included in the standard, Model Services Contract, Mid-Tier Contract and Short Form Contract.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to their policy paper Spending Review 2025: Departmental Efficiency Plans, published on 11 June, which states that a zero-based review will help the Treasury "get smaller", whether they will publish the outputs of this review; and what proportion of administrative functions are expected to be outsourced, automated, or removed entirely by 2028–29.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

As part of the Spending Review 2025, HM Treasury, alongside all government departments, undertook a zero-based review (ZBR) of its expenditure. This review was performed as per the requirements of the Spending Review. The outputs are intended for internal decision-making processes, not for publication. The Spending Review settlement for HMT means the department will need to get smaller, delivering a 10% reduction in its admin budgets by 2028-29. The detailed business planning process to achieve those reductions, including a review of administrative functions, over the Spending Review period is currently in progress. The outputs from the ZBR are being used to support this.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to page 40 of their policy paper Spending Review 2025: Departmental Efficiency Plans, published on 11 June, what were the total administrative costs of the Valuation Office Agency in 2024–25; and what is the breakdown between cash-releasing and non-cash-releasing efficiencies of the projected 5–10 per cent savings from integrating the Valuation Office Agency into HMRC by 2028–29.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Valuation Office Agency’s total administrative costs in 2024-25 were approximately £27m.

The cash releasing and non-cash releasing breakdown (by 28/29) of efficiencies from integration with HMRC is yet to be determined as detailed plans are still being developed.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with reference to the Spending Review 2025, whether they will publish a full breakdown of how the £50 million Transformation Fund allocation for civil service learning and development will be spent, including any evaluation criteria, delivery partners, expected cost per learner, and projected savings against current spend.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The Cabinet Office has secured £50 million from the Transformation Fund to increase workforce productivity, including supporting the implementation of a future skills model for government by May 2029 when the next iteration of the learning framework contracts will expire. We are now establishing the programme of work to make this phased transition, including undertaking full business cases where appropriate.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many times since 2020 the Pension Protection Fund has had to replace an external fund manager for reasons of performance, governance failure, or credit downgrade and what the financial and administrative cost of each replacement was to the Fund.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The day-to-day fund management of Pension Protection Fund (PPF) assets is performed both by the Chief Investment Officer (with authority to delegate to an in-house team of investment professionals) and by reputable external professional fund managers (each of which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority or a similar local regulatory authority as required).

At any point in time, PPF will have approximately 70-80 external fund managers working on its behalf, across 140 different strategies within 15 separate asset classes.

Since 2020, PPF has changed 10 external managers on performance grounds. PPF has not replaced any managers on grounds of governance failure or credit downgrade.

The administration cost of changing a manager varies between strategies. However, PPF works to a budget of approximately £30,000 per change of manager.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether any departments or government agencies monitor the use of insecure or vulnerable container images within government IT systems; and, if so, whether they will publish the latest audit data on the number of container images in use that contain critical or high-severity vulnerabilities.

Answered by Baroness Jones of Whitchurch - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

All government departments and their Arms Length Bodies must meet the Government Cyber Security Standard, which specifies that organisations shall meet or exceed the security outcomes specified in the National Cyber Security Centre’s Cyber Assessment Framework (CAF). Principle B4 of the CAF on system security requires departments to manage vulnerabilities on their systems.

His Majesty’s Government does not hold a central view of departmental or agency vulnerabilities.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to page 39 of their policy paper Spending Review 2025: Departmental Efficiency Plans, published on 11 June, how many legacy IT systems and platforms are (1) currently operated by HMRC; and (2) scheduled for decommissioning by 2028–29 under the software as a service transition strategy.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

HMRC is in the process of finalising its implementation plan of the Spending Review 2025 following receipt of the settlement. The department is planning the sequencing and prioritisation of activity to ensure they can deliver the departments commitments, tackle technical debt and mitigate risks. This will include assessing the impact of legacy IT systems and platforms as part of the Software as a Service (SaaS) transition strategy.

HMRC is taking a phased approach to meet its efficiency target whilst balancing and maintaining operational resilience. To support this, HMRC has undertaken a detailed assessment of its digital estate, which includes over 4 million physical assets (i.e., network equipment, disk arrays, servers, laptops, desktops).

The complex IT estate HMRC operates requires careful coordination to identify systems for decommissioning or migration by 2028-29. Therefore, decommissioning and upgrading activities are being delivered through several different change programmes. The long-term delivery plan will be finalised in the autumn, at which point there will be a clearer indication of the number of IT systems which will be decommissioned by 2028-29.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what explains the increase in Departmental Expenditure Limit reserves between the Spring Statement 2025 and Spending Review 2025.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The change in the 2025 Departmental Expenditure Limit Reserves between Spring Statement 2025 and Spending Review 2025 is a result of changes to department budgets authorised by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

This includes Reserve claims paid at Main Supply Estimates, which are detailed in departments individual Main Estimates memoranda and surrenders made from department budgets back to the Reserve at the Spending Review.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria will be used to release the £7.1 billion in unallocated Departmental Expenditure Limit reserves by 2028–29, and whether they intend that such allocations will be subject to parliamentary approval or set out in a Written Ministerial Statement.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The £7.1bn in Departmental Expenditure Limit Reserves in 2028-29 will be allocated subject to approval from the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and in line with the criteria set out in chapter 2 of the Consolidated Budgeting Guidance, the 2025-26 version of which can be found on GOV.UK.

Depending on when in the financial year the Chief Secretary agrees to allocate funding, Reserve allocations will be included in Main and Supplementary Estimates, which are voted on by Parliament. Departments will include these amounts in their Estimates memorandum.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what the current responsibilities of accounting officers are, and where these responsibilities are formally set out in statute, guidance, or other official publications.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Accounting Officer in a central government organisation is the person whom Parliament calls to account for stewardship of its resources. The standards the Accounting Officer is expected to deliver are set out in Managing Public Money, which more broadly sets out the main principles, specific requirements and good practice for dealing with public resources.

Furthermore, section 5(7) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 places statutory responsibility on each department’s accounting officer for;

• preparation of their department’s resource accounts, and
• transmission of those accounts to the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government what changes have been made to the duties, responsibilities or expectations of accounting officers following the publication of the "Dear Accounting Officer" letter 02/25 on 12 June, and the revised version of Managing Public Money to which it refers.

Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)

The key themes and principles underpinning previous versions of Managing Public Money are unchanged, and likewise the core duties, responsibilities and expectations of accounting officers remain the same.

The update to Managing Public Money incorporates a number of clarifications and changes, and accounting officers should ensure these are followed as appropriate as part of their duties to ensure regularity and propriety in the use of public resources.

As set out in the Dear Accounting Officer letter DAO 02/25, the 2025 edition of Managing Public Money includes the following revisions and additions.

1. New guidance on the circumstances in which it might be appropriate to ‘pre-fund’ future liabilities, aligned with guidance set out in Dear Accounting Officer letter 05/23.
2. Revised guidance on subsidy control to reflect changes to the wider UK subsidy control regime.
3. Updated guidance on how accounting officers should manage risk in their organisations.
4. Revised references and guidance on the importance of evaluation in government.
5. Updated guidance on the use of models in government.
6. Updated guidance on access to information by the National Audit Office, and clarifying rules on communication with the Public Accounts Committee.
7. Revised guidance on the propriety of using the Companies Act 2006 to establish government owned companies.
8. Revisions permitting the setting of delegations by the Treasury for the approval of special severance payments.
9. Revised guidance, to align with that in Consolidated Budgeting Guidance, on the disposal of public sector land.
10. An uprated threshold for the definition of ‘modest’ expenditure which may rest on the sole authority of the Supply and Appropriation Act, to reflect inflation.
11. Updated guidance on fees and charges reporting to ensure that these are backed by appropriate powers.
12. Updated guidance on the treatment of Public Corporations.
13. Updated wording to confirm the scope of the rules in Managing Public Money – in line with existing Clear Line of Sight guidance.
14. More detailed definitions of Regularity, Propriety, Value for Money and Feasibility.
15. Wider corrections and amendments including updated links to wider government guidance.

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, with regard to page 43 of their policy paper Spending Review 2025: Departmental Efficiency Plans, published on 11 June, what was the average span of managerial control across the Cabinet Office by grade in 2024–25; and how many line management posts they expect will be removed to achieve the £5 million saving identified through organisational restructure by 2028–29.

Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)

The average span of control of line managers by grade in FY 2024/25 has been presented in the table below.

In line with the 2025 Spending Review, we are restructuring the Cabinet Office into a more strategic, specialised, and smaller department. Our focus is on identifying budgetary savings rather than meeting a specific headcount target.

So far, 540 employees have been approved to leave through the Voluntary Exit Scheme.

Found: Tuesday 1 July 2025 3.10 pm Watch the meeting Members present: Lord Wood of Anfield (The Chair); Lord Agnew of Oulton

Found: LORD NASH LORD AGNEW OF OULTON 279_ Clause 31, page 57, line 16, at end insert— “(c) allow the local

Found: Letter dated 09/07/2025 from Lord Livermore to Lord Agnew of Oulton regarding the number and proportion