Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 10 March 2026 to Question 110810 on Cabinet Office: Email, when John Pond's archived emails will be publicly disclosed by National Archives.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office holds within its records 118 emails which include the ‘John Pond’ email address. Cabinet Office records are transferred to The National Archives in the usual way, in accordance with Section 3 (4) of The Public Records Act, 1958.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 10 March 2026 to Question 110810 on Cabinet Office: Email, how many John Pond emails have been archived.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office holds within its records 118 emails which include the ‘John Pond’ email address. Cabinet Office records are transferred to The National Archives in the usual way, in accordance with Section 3 (4) of The Public Records Act, 1958.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, further to the Part of a Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons dated 4 February 2026 relating to the appointment of Lord Mandelson as HM Ambassador to Washington, Volume 1, HC1774-I, 11 March 2026, if he will publish internal guidance given to Ministers, special advisers and civil servants requesting their information for the Humble Address.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer the Hon Member to the Government's statement and release of information on 11th March, providing an update on the response to the Humble Address. The Government is working to ensure that Parliament’s instruction is met with the urgency and transparency that it deserves.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 1 July 2025, to Question 62993, on King Charles III: Artworks, whether (a) Royal Armouries Museum, (b) Royal Museums Greenwich, (c) Historic Royal Palaces, (d) Royal Parks and (e) Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, took up the offer from the Cabinet Office of a free portrait of the King to place in their offices.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Public authorities throughout the United Kingdom were given an opportunity to apply for a free portrait of His Majesty The King if they wanted to display it in their building. This was a voluntary scheme to mark the accession of His Majesty The King. The announcement was originally made on 1 April 2023 and the scheme was launched in November that year and closed for applications in August 2024.
As it was a voluntary scheme, there was no obligation for public authorities to apply for a portrait. There may also be a variety of reasons as to why an institution did not order a portrait, such as suitable location or whether they had an existing portrait. It would therefore be inappropriate to release a simple list of individual authorities and institutions which did or did not order a free portrait.
I refer the Honourable Member to the information published on GOV.UK on 28 November 2024 which provided a summary of the His Majesty The King Official Portrait Scheme, including the number of portraits provided and the total cost of the scheme: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/conclusion-of-his-majesty-the-kings-free-portrait-scheme
The HMK Portrait scheme was launched on 14th November 2023 and, including two extensions of scope, ran until 15th August 2024. A total of 20,565 orders were received, the cost of which, including delivery, was £2,710,705.50 with an average price of £131.81 per portrait.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2026, to Question 105533, on Civil Servants: Redundancy Pay, and to Question 105534, on Public Sector: Pay whether departments are required to report details of civil service leavers, and exit payments, to HM Treasury.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Departments are not required to report details of Civil Service leavers and exit payments under the terms of the Civil Service Compensation Scheme to HM Treasury. Departments publish information on exit payments and staffing numbers within their Annual Reports and Accounts. Departments are however required to report to HM Treasury the use of all special severance payments paid within the financial year in line with the published transparency requirements.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 19 January 2026, to Question 104623, on Cabinet Office: Proof of Identity, whether his department will be required to make savings to help fund the digital ID scheme.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The public consultation is now open and I encourage you and your constituents to respond.
The design and delivery of digital ID are subject to the consultation outcomes. The feedback from the consultation will inform our final approach and enable a more accurate assessment of costs.
As the Government has stated previously, any costs in this Spending Review period will be met within existing settlements.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the National Audit Office report, Lessons learned: the government’s use of external consultants, HC: 1381, 21 November 2025, Figure 10, what specific data is collected on Government spending by (a) Oxygen Finance and (b) Jaggaer Spend.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Since 2010, Central Government departments publish expenditure above £25,000 on a monthly basis. Oxygen Finance aggregates this transparency data to provide reports on spending by a particular department or category.
Jaggaer Spend relies on data generated by payments processed through public sector procurement systems, as opposed to published invoice data.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Downing Street press release, "Appointment of Axel Heitmueller as Head of the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and Expert Adviser on Delivery", of 6 January 2026, what is (a) the time commitment expected of the role, (b) the expected end date of the appointment, (c) the monetary amount of his remuneration, and (d) his terms of reference.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Information about this role was published by the government on the new Direct Ministerial Appointments Announcements Portal: https://apply-for-public-appointment.service.gov.uk/direct-ministerial-appointments-announcements.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the (a) name, (b) job title, (c) annual remuneration, (d) time commitment and (e) expected end date is for each direct ministerial appointment in the Cabinet Office, including those appointed by the Prime Minister, the Leader of the House of Commons and the Leader of the House of Lords.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
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Information related to Direct Ministerial Appointments can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Charlie Dewhirst (Conservative - Bridlington and The Wolds)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2025 to Question 77118 on Lord Mandelson, if he will place in the Library a copy of the due diligence undertaken by his Department on Lord Mandelson before his appointment.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
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.
In line with the practice across multiple administrations, the government does not publish such material.
I refer the Hon. Member to the Cabinet Secretary’s letter of 30 October 2025 to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee, which sets out the process and information contained in the due diligence report: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/50019/documents/269409/default/