Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Yoti has any current contracts for cross-Government digital identity programmes.
Answered by James Frith - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Details of central government contracts above £12,000 for procurements commenced before 24 February 2025 are published on Contracts Finder. Contracts procured under the Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, are published on the Central Digital Platform Find a Tender service.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will set out who assesses the value for money of Arm's Length Bodies.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Value for money in Arm's Length Bodies (ALBs) is primarily assessed by their sponsoring department. The Accounting Officer (typically the Chief Executive Officer) is directly accountable for the use of public funds.
ALBs are also scrutinised by Parliament and subject to independent audit, including value for money examinations, by the National Audit Office (NAO).
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, to whom Arm's Length Bodies report annually.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Arm’s Length Bodies (ALBs) are accountable to their sponsoring Minister and parent department. Their annual Reports and accounts are typically laid before Parliament.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what is the cost of Arm's Length Bodies to the public purse for the latest year for which data is available.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The UK government budgeted £369.78 billion for arms length bodies in the financial year 2023-24. 67% of this went to NHS England and the Education and Skills Funding Agency, which will both be repatriated to their parent departments.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government plans to make the Civil Service Recruitment Framework (2022) publicly available.
Answered by Satvir Kaur - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
I refer to my predecessor’s answer for 100338, published 23 December 2025. There are no plans to publish this internal-facing framework to the public domain, as it constitutes HR-to-HR guidance designed for departments to integrate into their respective policies and processes.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the trend in the levels of timeliness of Civil Service Pension payments since Capita took over administration of the MyCSP system on 1 December 2025.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Capita took over the administration on 1 December 2025. Since then, Capita has completed pension payments to approximately 730,000 retired members on time. However, some civil servants and pension scheme members are facing unacceptable delays in accessing their pension payments.
While Capita inherited a significant backlog of cases from the previous provider, MyCSP, this is now worse and we are urgently addressing that. In response, we have set up a dedicated team to work urgently with Capita, with 650 full time staff across Government and Capita clearing critical cases by the end of February and restoring normal service as soon as possible.
We have agreed a clear recovery plan with Capita, which includes specific milestones and accountability targets for delivery. This includes specific commitments to restore service levels for priority cases, deploy additional resources, and improve communication with affected colleagues, so that staff, both former and serving, receive the quality of service and support they deserve.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what guidance his Department provides on financial settlements for public appointments that are cancelled or withdrawn.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There are a wide variety of public appointments which are made by Ministers. A person appointed to such a position is an office holder, whose appointment is defined by the office itself, not a contract.
An office holder’s terms of engagement will set out a Minister’s authority to terminate an appointment at any time with or without notice. Office holders do not receive payment in lieu of notice or severance for loss of office because they are not employees with contractual rights.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make it his policy to prohibit (a) Government agencies and (b) Departments from (i) engaging and (ii) endorsing commercial intermediaries that charge users for access to otherwise free public services.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is for those departments providing services to the public to ensure that third parties do not mislead citizens into making additional or unnecessary payments for accessing those services.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to prevent unofficial websites from charging fees for government services that are otherwise free of charge.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is for those departments providing services to the public to ensure that third parties do not mislead citizens into making additional or unnecessary payments for accessing those services.
Asked by: Gregory Stafford (Conservative - Farnham and Bordon)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government has considered establishing a regulatory framework for third-party entities that charge for assisting with (a) Government transactions, (b) DVLA licence renewals and (c) passport applications.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Minister of State (Education)
It is for those departments providing services to the public to ensure that third parties do not mislead citizens into making additional or unnecessary payments for accessing those services.