Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what meetings the Prime Minister's chief of staff has held with the Center for Countering Digital Hate and Hope not Hate while in post.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
In line with longstanding process, relevant meetings are declared in the Special Advisor transparency publications. The Prime Minister’s chief of staff has not held meetings with the Center for Countering Digital Hate and Hope not Hate.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what overseas visits the Prime Minister’s chief of staff has made, without the Prime Minister and at public expense, since being appointed, and at what cost.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Special Adviser travel expenses are not routinely published, as was the case under previous administrations.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether income levels affect socio-economic classifications and, therefore, whether train drivers earning £80,000 per year should be classed as working class under State of the Nation 2024: Local to national, mapping opportunities for all, published by the Social Mobility Commission in September 2024; and what assessment the Office for National Statistics has made of the classification of train drivers under the national statistics socio-economic classifications.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
Please see the letter attached from the National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority.
Emma Rourke | Acting National Statistician
Lord Jackson of Peterborough
House of Lords
London
SW1A 0PW
30 September 2025
Dear Lord Jackson,
As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking whether income levels affect socio-economic classifications and, therefore, whether train drivers earning £80,000 per year should be classed as working class under State of the Nation 2024: Local to national, mapping opportunities for all, published by the Social Mobility Commission in September 2024; and what assessment the Office for National Statistics has made of the classification of train drivers under the national statistics socio-economic classifications (HL10733).
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) does not incorporate income in the methodology or derivation of the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification (NS-SEC).
The ONS classifies Train Drivers to the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) 2020 code 8231, which corresponds to " Train and tram drivers”. Under the simplified NS-SEC framework, this occupation is classified as analytic class 5: Lower supervisory and technical occupations.
There are 8 analytic classes in the NS-SEC used by the ONS:
· Higher managerial, administrative and professional occupation
· Lower managerial, administrative and professional occupations
· Intermediate occupations
· Small employers and own account workers
· Lower supervisory and technical occupations
· Semi-routine occupations
· Routine occupations
· Never worked, unemployed, and not elsewhere classified
The Social Mobility Commission groups these into 5 categories: ‘higher professional and managerial’, ‘lower professional and managerial’, ‘intermediate’, ‘higher working class’, and ‘lower working class’.
Yours sincerely,
Emma Rourke
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what information is passed to the employer once a senior civil servant has undergone developed vetting.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The decision on whether to grant developed vetting will be taken either by United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV), the department or police force that requires the individual to hold clearance, or by the sponsoring authority that carries out this task on behalf of departments. Vetting information required for the decision to be made is strictly controlled and access limited to those directly responsible for the decision reached. Upon successful application for clearance, the sponsor, who is often but not always exclusively within the individual’s employer, is notified.
In line with the practice followed by successive administrations, the Government does not otherwise comment on security matters.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, following the letter of 16 September from the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, why the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office was not asked to contribute to the due diligence process on the appointment of Lord Mandelson as Ambassador to the United States; and whether any other bodies were involved in that due diligence process.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Due diligence was undertaken prior to the appointment of the former Ambassador to the United States, and was part of an established process to collate relevant information as part of the identification and selection of the appointee.
Following the announcement of the appointment, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office started the ambassadorial appointment process, including national security vetting, in the usual way.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the former Ambassador to the United States, Lord Mandelson, provided advice to the Prime Minister's Office during the Cabinet reshuffle on 5 September.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Prime Minister’s Office did not seek or accept any advice from the former Ambassador in respect of the reshuffle on 5 September.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the duties of the civil servant listed in the Cabinet Office organogram published on 20 February as “Deputy Director – Meaningful Work”.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
I refer the Noble Lord to the answer on 9 June 2025 (PQ HC54763).
PQ 54763: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 12 May 2025 to Question 49766 on Cabinet Office; staff, what are the job responsibilities of the Deputy Director for Meaningful Work.
Answer: There is no Deputy Director for Meaningful Work. Meaningful work refers to work that an employee must be provided with and undertake during the redeployment process. The nature of the work should be appropriate for their grade, skills and competencies and may take place within or outside of their existing business area.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what correspondence the Prime Minister’s Office has had with Greta Thunberg since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
It is not routine to publish correspondence between the Prime Minister and any individual or organisation.
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th June is attached.
Dear Lord Jackson,
As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking what steps are being taken to expedite the timely publication of marriage and divorce statistics by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL8355), and what assessment has been made of the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom (HL8356).
The latest published statistics on marriages[1] and divorces[2] in England and Wales are for 2022. Divorces and Dissolutions in England and Wales, 2023[3] will be published on 2 July 2025. Marriages in England and Wales, 2023[4] is provisionally scheduled for publication in November 2025, alongside Civil partnerships in England and Wales, 2023[5].
The Marriages, Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Act 2019 (which came into force on 4 May 2021) has resulted in a new electronic registration system replacing the paper marriage register. This has improved the timeliness of the submission of religious marriage entries to the General Register Office (GRO) who in turn supply these to the ONS. Following this change to the way marriages are recorded, the ONS have been working to improve the timeliness of publication of marriage statistics and to consolidate the release of marriage and civil partnership statistics to improve accessibility for users and to bring the reference periods in line.
Marriage, civil partnership and divorce statistics incorporate rates as part of the publication; these rates use population estimates by marital status[6] as denominators so these estimates need to be available prior to calculation. The ONS aims to balance the need for timely legal partnership statistics with the timing of publication, and revisions to, population estimates by marital status in order to provide the most accurate rates possible. Estimates for 2023 and 2024 are provisionally scheduled to be published in November 2025.
The ONS does not assess the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom.
However, in our National Population Projections[7] we analyse past trends in fertility rates to produce a projection of future fertility for the UK. These projections are widely used to support policy making. The numbers of people in each life stage are important when considering dependency ratios, which inform government financial planning. A common measure is the old-age-dependency ratio (OADR), which is the number of people of pensionable age for every 1,000 people of working age. It is projected that OADR for the UK will increase from 278 in mid-2022 to 289 in mid-2032, reaching 302 by mid-2047.
The ONS has published a UK population projection explorer tool[8] which allows users to vary the assumptions for future fertility, net migration and life expectancy to see the impact on the size and age structure of the UK population over the next 50 years.
The ONS publishes marriage and divorce statistics for England and Wales only. National Records for Scotland (NRS)[9] and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA[10]) are responsible for the publication of marriage and divorce statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.
Yours sincerely,
Emma Rourke
[1] Marriages in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics
[2] Divorces in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics
[3] Divorces and Dissolutions in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics
[4] Marriages in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics
[5] Civil partnerships in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics
[7] National population projections - Office for National Statistics
[8] UK population projection explorer - Office for National Statistics
[9] National Records of Scotland (NRS)
[10] Home | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency
Asked by: Lord Jackson of Peterborough (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to expedite the timely publication of marriage and divorce statistics by the Office for National Statistics.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 11th June is attached.
Dear Lord Jackson,
As Acting National Statistician, I am responding to your Parliamentary Questions asking what steps are being taken to expedite the timely publication of marriage and divorce statistics by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) (HL8355), and what assessment has been made of the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom (HL8356).
The latest published statistics on marriages[1] and divorces[2] in England and Wales are for 2022. Divorces and Dissolutions in England and Wales, 2023[3] will be published on 2 July 2025. Marriages in England and Wales, 2023[4] is provisionally scheduled for publication in November 2025, alongside Civil partnerships in England and Wales, 2023[5].
The Marriages, Civil Partnerships, Marriages and Deaths (Registration Etc.) Act 2019 (which came into force on 4 May 2021) has resulted in a new electronic registration system replacing the paper marriage register. This has improved the timeliness of the submission of religious marriage entries to the General Register Office (GRO) who in turn supply these to the ONS. Following this change to the way marriages are recorded, the ONS have been working to improve the timeliness of publication of marriage statistics and to consolidate the release of marriage and civil partnership statistics to improve accessibility for users and to bring the reference periods in line.
Marriage, civil partnership and divorce statistics incorporate rates as part of the publication; these rates use population estimates by marital status[6] as denominators so these estimates need to be available prior to calculation. The ONS aims to balance the need for timely legal partnership statistics with the timing of publication, and revisions to, population estimates by marital status in order to provide the most accurate rates possible. Estimates for 2023 and 2024 are provisionally scheduled to be published in November 2025.
The ONS does not assess the potential impacts of the declining marriage rate and birth rate in the United Kingdom.
However, in our National Population Projections[7] we analyse past trends in fertility rates to produce a projection of future fertility for the UK. These projections are widely used to support policy making. The numbers of people in each life stage are important when considering dependency ratios, which inform government financial planning. A common measure is the old-age-dependency ratio (OADR), which is the number of people of pensionable age for every 1,000 people of working age. It is projected that OADR for the UK will increase from 278 in mid-2022 to 289 in mid-2032, reaching 302 by mid-2047.
The ONS has published a UK population projection explorer tool[8] which allows users to vary the assumptions for future fertility, net migration and life expectancy to see the impact on the size and age structure of the UK population over the next 50 years.
The ONS publishes marriage and divorce statistics for England and Wales only. National Records for Scotland (NRS)[9] and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA[10]) are responsible for the publication of marriage and divorce statistics for Scotland and Northern Ireland respectively.
Yours sincerely,
Emma Rourke
[1] Marriages in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics
[2] Divorces in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics
[3] Divorces and Dissolutions in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics
[4] Marriages in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics
[5] Civil partnerships in England and Wales: 2023 - Office for National Statistics
[7] National population projections - Office for National Statistics
[8] UK population projection explorer - Office for National Statistics
[9] National Records of Scotland (NRS)
[10] Home | Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency