Bernard Jenkin

Data on the number of officials in the Cabinet Office is published monthly at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cabinet-office-workforce-management-data-2023-to-2024 and Business Unit level data including for Business Units in Number 10 Downing Street is published quarterly at https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/ff76be1f-4f37-4bef-beb7-32b259413be1/organogram-cabinet-office.

As was the case under the previous Administration, information about Special Adviser numbers will be published in the Annual report on Special Advisers.

The Government looks forward to discussing this report with the incoming Liaison Committee Chair once elected.

A new List of Ministerial Responsibilities will be published shortly.

Reinforcing Great Britain’s electricity network to meet net zero will require a range of skills in engineering, IT professionals, physical scientist and environmental professionals, project managers, chartered surveyors and quality control, metal working and maintenance fitters. Alongside the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, The Office for Clean Energy Jobs published an evidence annex that provides an assessment of the skills challenges for the Clean Energy Mission, including for electricity networks. This will be used along-side wider evidence and engagement to support skills planning and ensure that the UK has the workforce needed to become a clean energy superpower.

Socio-economic welfare is a standard economic tool that aims to identify how much better off the country would be if an improvement is made by tracing the effects on the economy. In this regard, Ofgem uses the same definitions of welfare as used in other areas of government.

The Government has launched the Clean Industry Bonus, an addition to Contract for Difference (CfD) payments for fixed and floating offshore wind developers who invest in their supply chains. The budget for the Bonus will be £27m per gigawatt of offshore wind capacity that applies to the 2025 CfD round. Policy on future rounds will be communicated in due course.

The Elective Reform Plan, published on 6 January 2025, sets out that we will deliver additional community diagnostic centre (CDC) capacity in 2025/26 by expanding a number of existing CDCs and building up to five new ones.

Capital investment agreed at the 2025 Spending Review and announced in the Autumn Statement will be allocated to local National Health Service systems by NHS England, and details on this will be released as part of upcoming capital planning guidance. The investment will support a range of initiatives, including supporting systems to deliver against the government's ambition to return to the 18-week constitutional standard.

NHS England will work with local systems to identify the most appropriate locations for investments, including new CDCs, and expansions of existing CDCs. A key factor they will consider is that new CDCs are positioned in a location which addresses local need and will address health inequalities.

I refer the right hon. Member to the written statement I laid in the House on 30 October 2024 on this issue. The UK remains committed to delivering the SSN-AUKUS Optimal Pathway announced by the three leaders of the AUKUS nations in March 2023. The UK’s continued commitment to AUKUS was recently demonstrated by the Defence Secretary hosting his Australian and US counterparts at the Old Royal Naval College in London to drive forward progress on AUKUS.

The overall case for local government reorganisation is set out the English Devolution White Paper.

A PWC 2020 report estimated that reorganisation of the then 25 two-tier areas to a single unitary would have a one-off cost of £400 million, with the potential to realise £2.9 billion over five years, with an annual post-implementation net recurring saving of £700 million, however as it is for local areas to submit proposals for government to consider, the savings could vary area by area and across England in the round. We are also keen to ensure the wider benefits are also promoted, specifically simplified and more efficient structures.

The proposals submitted from the most recently established unitary councils identified a range of efficiencies that could be achieved. Councils in Essex were invited on 5 February to develop proposals for reorganisation, which are due to be submitted to government by September 2025.

It will be for the new councils to achieve the efficiencies identified in reorganisation proposals and subsequent detailed implementation and transformation plans while delivering high quality and sustainable public services to local residents and businesses.

The Case For Local Government Reorganisation in the English Devolution White Paper, states “In 2020 a PwC report, “Evaluating the importance of scale in proposals for local government reorganisation”, for the County Councils Network, estimated that reorganisation of the then 25 two-tier areas to a single unitary structure would have a one-off cost of £400 million, with the potential to realise £2.9 billion over five years, with an annual post implementation net recurring saving of £700 million. The unitary proposals submitted in relation to the most recently established unitary councils identified a range of efficiencies that could be achieved where council services are brought together in one organisation. For North Yorkshire Council, established in April 2023, unitarisation has enabled the council to manage financial pressures through structural changes and service transformation which are expected to achieve more than £40 million in savings by March 2026.”