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 Ministerial Direction of 16 February 2026, whether the outgoing Cabinet Secretary will receive an early termination exit payment based on the same methodology as the previous Cabinet Secretary, or whether the payment will exceed Civil Service Compensation Scheme terms.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of any payments made to the previous Cabinet Secretary will be published in the Cabinet Office Annual report and Accounts for 2025-26.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Cabinet Secretary was appointed on the advice of the retiring Cabinet Secretary.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer to the Hon. Member to the Gov.uk announcement, “the Prime Minister and the First Civil Service Commissioner agreed on a process to appoint a new Cabinet Secretary.”
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Senior Civil Servants can be temporarily promoted without open and fair competition.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
SCS roles can be filled on a temporary basis through temporary promotions without fair and open competition. Cabinet Office issues guidance to departments and agencies, who have the authority to determine promotion and lateral transfer arrangements for their own staff.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what her Department's policy is on the retention of the confidential report on the Consul General to New York.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office Information and Records Policy stipulates that HR reports are destroyed after seven years.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish applications made by Lord Mandelson to the Advisory Committee to Business Appointments between May 2010 and May 2012.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Information about historic Business Application Rules applications can be found on GOV.UK.
The 2010-2011 Advisory Committee to Business Appointments Annual Report can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7d965340f0b65084e76188/Twelfth_Annual_Report_2010-2011.pdf, and the 2011-2012 Annual Report can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a74e389ed915d3c7d528bcd/ACOBA_Thirteenth_Annual_Report_2011-12.pdf
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Ethics and Integrity Commission plans to undertake a public consultation on the review into lobbying, disclosure and access to government.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Ethics and Integrity Commission (EIC) is independent of the government. The EIC has set out further information about the review, including a call for evidence, on its website at the following link: https://eic.independent-commission.uk/what-we-do/reports-and-reviews/ It can be contacted at contact@eic.independent.gov.uk
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has approved an exit payment to the most recently departed Cabinet Secretary.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The necessary approvals were given, as set out in the Guidance on Public Sector Exit Payments.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the outgoing Cabinet Secretary was on a legacy Permanent Secretary contract.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Permanent Secretary model contract sets out the contractual details for all Permanent Secretaries including the Cabinet Secretary. A copy of the model contract has been placed in the House Library.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of whether Jeffery Epstein was (a) passing information to the Russian Government and (b) was otherwise compromised by Russian hostile actors.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
It would not be appropriate for the Government to comment on matters of intelligence or national security. It is the longstanding policy of government not to comment on such issues.
Asked by: Alex Burghart (Conservative - Brentwood and Ongar)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to paragraph 17 of the Civil Service Recruitment Framework, updated 2022, whether the appointment of a Senior Civil Servant SCS3 (a) on temporary promotion and (b) without open and fair competition requires Ministerial approval.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Appointments of existing civil servants on temporary promotion are internal moves and permissible within fair and open recruitment. Paragraph 17 of the Civil Service Recruitment Framework relates to permanent redeployment moves.