Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of civil servants have working class backgrounds.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
As committed in the Declaration on Government Reform and in order to better serve the public, the government must ensure it draws on the talent of people from the widest possible range of geographical, social and career backgrounds. We will make sure that citizens who have experienced disadvantages in their early lives are able to flourish in public service.
According to the Civil Service People Survey 2024, 33% of civil servants responding to the survey come from a working class background. Specifically, based on the NS-SEC index for parental occupation, 30% of respondents to the survey were from a routine background and 3% from a never worked one. To note that these figures are based on the 60% of civil servants that completed the survey in 2024.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on legal advice for Freedom of Information requests which were first declined and subsequently provided following challenges by (a) internal review, (b) Information Commissioner ruling and (c) first tier tribunal ruling in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many FTE civil servants there were across Government in England by region in each year since 2010.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Information on the number of FTE civil servants by region is published annually as part of Civil Service Statistics. This information can be found at Table 10 of each of the annual publications data tables available at the link below.
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics#annual-statistics
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many employer provided payment cards were held by government employees in each year since 2015; and what the average credit limit is of those cards.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This information is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office. However, in April this year, departments and their agencies were instructed to freeze all procurement cards, with a tough new application process to cut the numbers in circulation by at least 50%. Figures announced on 23rd November 2025 show that these measures have successfully reduced expenditure, saving approximately £6 million per month in the initial months.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many government (a) mobile phones (b) laptops (c) tablets were reported lost or stolen for each year from 2015 to date.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This answer only provides information for the Cabinet Office, Government Digital Service (GDS) and the Central Digital and Data Office (CDDO) IT Provision. This answer is not inclusive of Number 10.
It also only extends back to 3rd July 2018 as records before this date are not held centrally by the Cabinet Office.
The table also lists reported equipment. Some of this equipment may have been recovered after having been reported. Also please note that GDS & CDDO moved to DSIT earlier this year and as such, their contribution to the metrics will have reduced.
Equipment | Year | |||||||
2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 (to date) | |
Laptop | 68 | 111 | 62 | 50 | 67 | 57 | 78 | 46 |
Mobile | 101 | 221 | 118 | 118 | 147 | 160 | 171 | 149 |
Tablet | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government spent on office furniture in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Spend by the Government on office furniture is a matter for each individual government department and is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many times gambling websites were visited by government system users in each year since 2015.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
This information is not held centrally by the Cabinet Office.
All users are bound by an ICT Acceptable Usage Policy which states that users must not undertake any form of gambling on Cabinet Office IT. Any breach is managed through the Cabinet Office’s disciplinary process.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of household income is spent on (a) Council tax, (b) Income tax, (c) National Insurance and (d) VAT by income decile.
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 17th November is attached.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Government has spent on advertisements and subscriptions with (a) X, (b) Meta, (c) Tiktok and (d) Alphabet Inc. Google in each year since 2015.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The government uses paid advertising to communicate important government announcements and campaigns that affect the public. Please refer to the table below for Government spend on advertisements and subscriptions (please note - figures from 2015-2018 are not available):
| 2018* | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
X | £340,670.00 | £2,482,367.00 | £9,213,054.00 | £9,166,707.00 | £5,384,846.00 | £2,385,782.00 | £- |
Meta | £1,916,697.00 | £18,711,558.00 | £31,824,185.00 | £33,354,026.00 | £20,630,493.00 | £20,332,721.00 | £17,195,792.00 |
TikTok | £- | £- | £1,850,770.00 | £3,489,387.00 | £618,346.00 | £96,268.00 | £204,553.00 |
Alphabet (inc Google) | £2,036,387.00 | £17,968,414.00 | £28,121,714.00 | £23,808,972.00 | £23,132,702.00 | £26,326,818.00 | £20,840,036.00 |
| £4,293,754.00 | £39,162,339.00 | £71,009,723.00 | £69,819,092.00 | £49,766,387.00 | £49,141,589.00 | £38,240,381.00 |
*Please note the figures for 2018 are partial year spend due to contract changes.
Asked by: Jim McMahon (Labour (Co-op) - Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the Ministerial Code.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
The Prime Minister has made clear public service is a privilege and is committed to restoring trust in government by ensuring ministers are held to the highest standards.
Last year the Prime Minister published a new, strengthened, Ministerial Code which sets out the standards expected of all government ministers. It includes a full articulation of the Seven Principles of Public Life, bringing the importance of public service to the front and fore of the Code.
This commitment was further demonstrated in October when the Prime Minister updated the Ministerial Code. This update implemented reforms in relation to ministerial severance payments and changes to the operation of the Business Appointment Rules.