Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many official visits a) to Scotland and b) abroad the Prime Minister has made since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Prime Ministerial travel is published on gov.uk and includes both domestic and international visits. The Prime Minister’s first ever official visit as Prime Minister was to Scotland.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will review public procurement guidance to ensure that locally and sustainably sourced building materials are prioritised in public projects.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Procurement Act 2023 allows contracting authorities the flexibility to include considerations such as locally and sustainably sourced building materials in contracts. Any criteria adopted must be relevant and proportionate to the contract.
We have consulted on procurement reforms to further boost domestic supply chains and create more opportunities for businesses, in particular SMEs, across the UK. We will be publishing the consultation outcome - and legislative proposals - soon.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Government plans to respond to the correspondence of 24 October 2025 from the hon. Member for Dundee Central.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister has sent a response to the Honourable Member.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the total value of UK trade with Israel has been since 4 July 2024.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 4th September is attached.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Government plans to respond to the correspondence of 28 April 2025 from the hon. Member for Dundee Central.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare
There are no plans to respond to the letter dated 28 April 2025.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Prime Minister’s speech entitled, Prime Minister’s remarks from the plenary session at the first UK-Ireland Summit: 6 March 2025, what steps the Government is taking to work more closely with the EU to (a) boost trade, (b) create jobs and (c) increase economic growth.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Government is committed to improving the UK’s trade and investment relationship with the EU, by tearing down unnecessary barriers to trade. The Prime Minister and President von der Leyen agreed to identify areas where we can strengthen cooperation for mutual benefit, such as the economy, energy, security and resilience. Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič and I are taking this forward ahead of the first UK-EU summit in London on 19 May. The first UK-Ireland Summit saw the announcement of £185.5 million in new Irish investments, and creating 2540 jobs across the country.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the salary is of the Envoy to the Regions and Nations.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The terms of reference for the Prime Minister’s Envoy for the Nations and Regions will be published online in the normal way, setting out the purpose, scope and remit of the role.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, who the Envoy to the Regions and Nations will report to.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
The terms of reference for the Prime Minister’s Envoy for the Nations and Regions will be published online in the normal way, setting out the purpose, scope and remit of the role.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Government has made of the security of civil servants' pensions data following the cyber attack against Capita in March 2023.
Answered by John Glen
The Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) contract has been structured to ensure that robust Information Security including Cyber Security controls are in place. This has been a fundamental principle from the inception of the procurement. As such the procurement has built measures into the CSPS contract and supporting requirements to ensure that Information Security including Cyber Security is of paramount importance throughout all stages of transition and the contract term. This includes:
CSPS requirements including a robust set of security principles that are up to date with the latest His Majesty's Government (HMG) requirements, specifically no off-shoring of CSPS data, annual IT health checks, a monthly Security Working Group to review and investigate any issues relating to security and ongoing requirement to provide Cabinet Office Digital team, assurance against the Cyber Assessment Framework (GovAssure) standard.
Embedding within the CSPS contract is the requirement to ensure that Capita, and the administration solution, will be subject to a rigorous accreditation process prior to any CSPS data being migrated to their infrastructure.
Enhancements being made to the standard Model Service Contract Security Schedule (2.4) to ensure that the Cabinet Office has the contractual leverage to enforce proactive and reactive controls for cyber and data security.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what criteria were used to assess the suitability of Capita to administer the Civil Service Pension Scheme for his Department.
Answered by John Glen
The Civil Service Pension Scheme (CSPS) procurement was run in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. In accordance with this, strict criteria were applied to the evaluation of all bids submitted. In summary:
All final tender bids submitted were assessed against three criteria, each with an allocated weighting. These areas were Quality (65%), Price (25%) and Social Value (10%).
The Quality aspects of the bid evaluated included: Security, Business Systems, Core Administration, Member & Employer Engagement, Data, Fraud & Finance, Risk & Governance and Transition.
The Social Value aspects of the bid evaluated included: Tackling Economic Inequality, Fighting Climate Change, Equal Opportunity and Wellbeing.
To ensure that the evaluation of all bids was fair, proportionate and met the criteria for best value for money, strict moderation protocols were implemented to ensure that consensus was agreed on the outcomes.