Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether any staff in (a) his Department and (b) 10 Downing Street sent messages to the media by (i) email, (ii) text, (iii) WhatsApp and (iv) other social media messaging services on the career of the Leader of the Opposition between 5 September 2023 and 8 February 2024.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As has been the case under successive Administrations, the Prime Minister is assisted by special advisers in preparation for the Parliamentary exchanges at Prime Minister's Questions with the Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition.
All activity is undertaken in line with the Special Advisers’ Code of Conduct. Such exchanges are available to the hon. Member in the Official Report.
More broadly, such work is led by staff of the governing party (as evident by the answer of 6 June 2023, Official Report, PQ 186524; deposited paper DEP2023-0475).
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether any Downing Street (a) office space, (b) computer equipment, (c) printers and (d) stationery have been used in the (i) preparation, (ii) production and (iii) dissemination of research on the Leader of the Opposition.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As has been the case under successive Administrations, the Prime Minister is assisted by special advisers in preparation for the Parliamentary exchanges at Prime Minister's Questions with the Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition.
All activity is undertaken in line with the Special Advisers’ Code of Conduct. Such exchanges are available to the hon. Member in the Official Report.
More broadly, such work is led by staff of the governing party (as evident by the answer of 6 June 2023, Official Report, PQ 186524; deposited paper DEP2023-0475).
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether government resources have been used for research on the Leader of the Opposition.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
As has been the case under successive Administrations, the Prime Minister is assisted by special advisers in preparation for the Parliamentary exchanges at Prime Minister's Questions with the Leader of His Majesty’s Opposition.
All activity is undertaken in line with the Special Advisers’ Code of Conduct. Such exchanges are available to the hon. Member in the Official Report.
More broadly, such work is led by staff of the governing party (as evident by the answer of 6 June 2023, Official Report, PQ 186524; deposited paper DEP2023-0475).
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Mr Andrew Gilligan was employed on a full-time basis as a special adviser to the Prime Minister throughout the period from 25 October 2022 to 20 February 2024.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Andrew Gilligan has been a special adviser to the Prime Minister since March 2023.
All special advisers abide by the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Mr Andrew Gilligan was subject to the terms of the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers from 25 October 2022 to 20 February 2024.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Andrew Gilligan has been a special adviser to the Prime Minister since March 2023.
All special advisers abide by the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to his Answer of 13 June 2023 to Question 188494, whether his Department has made an assessment of whether those rules were breached.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office does not routinely comment on internal assessments, whether they have happened or not.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2023 to Question 161251 on Members: Correspondence, when his Department plans to respond to the letter of 10 January 2023 from the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish.
Answered by Alex Burghart - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office does not routinely comment on leaks of government information, but further information on the rules relating to access to government papers by former ministers for the purposes of publishing a memoir are set out in the Ministerial Code at 2.9 and 8.10.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to help mitigate potential bias in the Covid-19 infection survey following its digitisation.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Questions of 4 July is attached.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the digitisation of the Covid-19 Infection Survey on the level of responses.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Questions of 4 July is attached.
Asked by: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason the Covid-19 infection survey is ending door-to-door testing.
Answered by Heather Wheeler
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the hon. Member’s Parliamentary Questions of 4 July is attached.