Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of cross-government coordination on national security priorities.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
Keeping the country safe is the government's first responsibility. The Cabinet Office has successfully coordinated across a number of national security priorities, such as agreeing support for Ukraine, responding to terrorist incidents or delivering the largest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War. The government keeps the effectiveness of its cross-government coordination on national security priorities under continuous review to ensure the UK remains resilient against evolving threats.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many exercises testing national resilience arrangements have been conducted in each of the last five years.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office encourages all departments to conduct or participate in exercises on cross-cutting risks in line with the National Security Risk Assessment, via the National Exercising Programme. The Cabinet Office is not responsible for exercising across the entire system but offers support and guidance.
The Cabinet Office oversaw three cross-system exercises within this period. Exercise MIGHTY OAK on preparedness for a national power outrage ran in March 2023. Exercise PEGASUS on pandemic preparedness was conducted in three primary phases in September and October 2025. A classified cross-system cyber resilience exercise was also conducted in 2026.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate she has made of the number of exporting businesses located in the Glasgow South constituency.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (Cabinet Office) (Jointly with HM Treasury)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Parliamentary Question of 15th July is attached.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to involve voluntary, community and faith organisations in local and national emergency preparedness exercises.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security) (Jointly with the Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office recognises the valuable role that the voluntary, community and faith sector (VCFS) can play in all aspects of resilience. The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires local Category 1 responders ‘to have regard’ to the activities of voluntary organisations while carrying out their duties. This is reinforced in guidance and standards, which provide further detail on the benefits of including the VCFS within local exercising.
The Cabinet Office is committed to conducting one major ‘Tier 1’ ministerial-led exercise annually under the National Exercising Programme. On 15th July and as part of the national resilience annual statement, the government announced that the next Tier 1 exercise (Exercise ALBISTON SHADOW) will focus on homeland defence.
Under a Tier 1 exercise, Government departments, agencies, non-governmental organisations and local responders are all involved to deliver the objectives and requirements of each year's exercise. In support of this, work is also underway to ensure that guidance, best practice, frameworks and other tools are made available to all parts of the system so that high-quality exercising can happen at all levels, not just during Tier 1 exercises.
Asked by: Gordon McKee (Labour - Glasgow South)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps the Government is taking to measure the impact of Civil Service artificial intelligence training on productivity and the quality of public services.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
The Cabinet Office measures the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) training that we provide to civil servants through a range of methods aligned with government evaluation guidance in the magenta book. We are further developing our approach to the measurement of the impact of AI training on productivity and public services, and are planning to publish a monitoring and evaluation framework later this year.