Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether (1) Ministerial and (2) Civil Service oversight of the (a) Government Property Agency, (b) Government People Group and (c) Artificial Intelligence Taskforce will be undertaken by (i) the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, (ii) Cabinet Office or (ii) OneGov.
Answered by Mark Ferguson - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Prime Minister has established the new Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (OPMC), which includes No10, No10 North and Cabinet Office teams directly serving the Prime Minister and Cabinet. Oversight of the OPMC is by the Prime Minister and Cabinet Office Ministers.
The AI Taskforce is led by AI Minister Kanishka Narayan and is based in the OPMC. The Government People Group’s (GPG) responsibilities will be divided between the OPMC and the OneGov Delivery Agency. The Future Civil Service Group, within the OPMC, brings together reform and people policy functions formerly within GPG, whilst operational service functions formerly within GPG will be delivered by the OneGov Delivery Agency, including the Government Recruitment Service and the pensions response team. The Government Property Agency continues to be one of the executive agencies of the Cabinet Office, overseen by Cabinet Office Ministers.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, with reference to the press release, "Emergency Alert to be sent to England and Wales as Government steps up wildfire response with funding, military support and BBQ ban", 14 August 2026, what was the statutory basis for the retail ban on disposable barbecues.
Answered by Kate Dearden - Minister of State (Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade)
Statutory guidelines on the supply of disposable barbeques were published on 18 August. They were made by the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade under regulation 6(3)(c) of the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. The guidelines will be reviewed when the risks to public safety are sufficiently reduced.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:
To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, if he will set out the type of permission, contract or leave of absence that allowed Grace Pritchard to work on the Labour Party campaign for the Makerfield by-election.
Answered by Michael Shanks - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
As per the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, where a special adviser wishes to undertake work for a political party which does not arise out of government business they may do this either in their own time, outside office hours, or under a separate contract with the Party, working part-time for the Government. They may not use annual or unpaid leave for this purpose. Individual contractual arrangements are a confidential matter.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the press release, "Emergency Alert to be sent to England and Wales as Government steps up wildfire response with funding, military support and BBQ ban", 14 August 2026, how many mobile phones in England received (a) two alerts, (b) three alerts, (c) four alerts and (d) five or more alerts.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Emergency Alerts capability is delivered through cell broadcast technology. This means that the Government does not gather information about individual handsets, including whether or not an individual received an alert. It is therefore not possible to verify how many phones received two or more alerts.
Receiving multiple duplicate alerts is a known technical issue, and we acknowledge that receiving multiple alerts can be distressing. This is more likely if you are moving, such as by car or train, as your phone will connect to multiple different cell masts, or if you have multiple SIMs linked to one device. This is due to each network operator being sent a single activation for their connected devices.
In Wales and along the Welsh border, alerts were broadcast in both English and Welsh, in line with our legal responsibilities under the Welsh Language Act.
The Cabinet Office and Government Digital Service are working closely with all Mobile Network Operators to identify mitigation measures to reduce the frequency of duplicate Alerts. The government is committed to continuously improving the Emergency Alerts service.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, with reference to his written statement of 9 March 2026 and the linked Terms of Reference for the Patrick Finucane Inquiry, when he will set out an updated timeframe for the publication of the referenced plan, timeline and budget.
Answered by Sarah Owen - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Northern Ireland Office)
Following the publication of its terms of reference in March 2026, The Patrick Finucane Inquiry has been legally established. It held its preliminary hearing in June 2026, with a further hearing scheduled in September.
The Inquiry is an independent statutory public inquiry, established under the Inquiries Act 2005 to complete an Article 2 ECHR compliant investigation into the murder of Patrick Finucane. As the sponsoring department, my officials continue to work closely with the Inquiry whilst ensuring its independence is maintained. The Inquiry is still in its early stages and further work is required before detailed plans can be published. The Chair has been clear that the Inquiry will be rigorous, and will work as quickly and effectively as possible .
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Answer of 7 July 2026 to Question 14405 on Bank Notes: Design, if she will place in the Library a copy of the substantive reply from the Office for Equality and Opportunity to the Bank of England on the bank note imagery and design, redacting the personal names of staff members.
Answered by Seema Malhotra
The design of bank notes is a matter for the Bank of England, which is independent of the Government. There has been no engagement between Cabinet Office or Equalities Ministers and the Bank of England on banknote design and imagery. Officials in the Office for Equality and Opportunity responded to an email from a Bank of England counterpart in August 2025 in relation to their consultation on this topic as part of normal due process – as they did in 2013 under the previous government during a previous review – in line with their responsibilities under the Guide to Handling Correspondence.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the answer of 7 July 2026, to Question 14405, on Bank Notes: Design, in what regard is responding to the Bank of England bank notes consultation within the departmental remit of the Office for Equality and Opportunity.
Answered by Seema Malhotra
The design of bank notes is a matter for the Bank of England, which is independent of the Government. There has been no engagement between Cabinet Office or Equalities Ministers and the Bank of England on banknote design and imagery. Officials in the Office for Equality and Opportunity responded to an email from a Bank of England counterpart in August 2025 in relation to their consultation on this topic as part of normal due process – as they did in 2013 under the previous government during a previous review – in line with their responsibilities under the Guide to Handling Correspondence.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Pursuant to the answer of 29 June 2026, to Question 10654, on Defence: Finance, what is the definition of critical infrastructure used as part of the 1.5% NATO target that the Government uses; and whether there is a longer guidance note on what spending is and is not included.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
As confirmed in the answer to Question 10654, NATO provided a breakdown of the types of spend that could be included within the 1.5% commitment. This included Critical Infrastructure.
In 2023, NATO published a report on the EU/NATO taskforce on the resilience of Critical Infrastructure. Within that report, it noted that Critical Infrastructure enables the fulfilment of the organisation's core tasks of deterrence and defence, crisis prevention and management, and cooperative security.
It is for each NATO ally to determine whether they have eligible Critical Infrastructure spend to include as part of their 1.5% commitment.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 1 July 2026 to Question 13158 on Darlington Economic Campus: Remote Working, which departments are based in the Darlington Economic Campus; and what the headcount of each department is.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister of State (Home Office)
The Departments based at DEC are as follows:
Bishopsgate House
Department for Education (DfE)
Darlington Feethams House
HM Treasury (HMT)
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG)
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT)
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)
Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) are also a part of the wider DEC Campus, but is housed in a separate facility
Central data on Civil Service occupancy is collected and published quarterly on GOV.UK (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/civil-service-hq-occupancy-data) for all HQ buildings of Whitehall Departments. As was the case under the previous administration, no other information on workforce attendance is gathered centrally. Heads of departments have agreed that 60% minimum office attendance for most staff continues to be the best balance of working for the Civil Service.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Review into the Organisation, Performance and Transformation of the Permanent Civil Service, published on 1 July 2026, whether he will consult His Majesty’s Official Opposition on the proposals once that review has reported.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Review into the Organisation, Performance and Transformation of the Permanent Civil Service (“the Review”) will draw on a wide range of expert advisers from academia, private, public, civil society, and international spheres. It will welcome views and input from across Parliament, including through engagement with the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee and the Lords Constitutional Committee.
As the Terms of Reference set out, the Review will consider the wide range of activities undertaken by the Civil Service and will culminate in a report setting out a vision for the future Civil Service as a world class institution, to deliver for Ministers and the public. The Review will report before summer 2027, and it will be made available to the public.