Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 4 April 2025 to Question 41460 on Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government: Equality, what payments (a) her Department and (b) each of its arm’s-length bodies have made to the training company Inclusive Employers Ltd since July 2024; and for what purposes.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
MHCLG’s Inclusion Allies network is comprised of 73 (a) staff members and zero (b) ministers.
All expenditure by core MHCLG with this supplier since July 2024, and the purpose of that expenditure, is set out in the answer to Question UIN 45669 on 29 April 2025.
No ALB sponsored by the MHCLG has made any payments to this supplier since July 2024, except for Homes England who made one payment for a 12-month corporate membership to support their EDI ambitions.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which development programmes he plans to maintain funding for after the planned reduction of the Official Development Assistance budget is implemented.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
ODA allocations and the impact on programmes are being worked through following the decision to reduce UK ODA from 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% in 2027.
We will be taking a rigorous approach to ensure all ODA delivers value for money.
We will set out our spending plans following the completion of the Spending Review and departmental resource allocation processes.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much (a) her Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Total spend on external communications from 5 July 2024 to 6 March 2025 is £35,478,270.30.
This includes the following spending:
We only have data for arms length body spending through Oak National Academy, which spent £128,465.98.
Total spend through the framework is £34,553,792.52.
The vast majority of the spend constitutes the department’s key campaigns which are Get in to Teaching, Childcare Choices, Skills for life and Further Education. We are unable to detail the spend by campaign.
Top ten supplier spend through the framework is shown here:
Supplier | Spend (£) | % participation |
WAVEMAKER LIMITED | 163,975.79 | 0.47% |
KINDRED AGENCY LIMITED | 180,430.41 | 0.52% |
Verian Group UK Limited | 308,302.50 | 0.89% |
FOUR COMMUNICATIONS LIMITED | 536,585.42 | 1.55% |
BLACKBERRY PRODUCTIONS LTD | 610,447.58 | 1.77% |
SCROLL PROJECTS LTD | 939,406.87 | 2.72% |
M&C SAATCHI (UK) LIMITED | 969,646.82 | 2.81% |
BAM AGENCY LTD | 1,017,463.71 | 2.94% |
HAVAS WORLDWIDE LONDON LTD | 1,231,164.17 | 3.56% |
OMD GROUP TA MANNING GOTTLIEB OMD LTD | 28,028,649.23 | 81.12% |
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The following table shows the Department's spend through CCS agreements RM6125 (lots 1 and 2) and RM6123 since 5 July 2024:
Agreement | Contractor | Spend |
RM6125 (Lot 1: end to end campaign solutions) | Mullen Lowe | £3,929,499.92 |
RM6123 (Media services) | Manning Gottlieb OMD | £15,232,110.00 |
RM6125 (Lot 2: Media strategy and planning) | Wavemaker | £212,763.00 |
Source: Department of Health and Social Care
Information on spend by arm’s length bodies is not held centrally. The spend outlined above includes advertising, creative development and production, and media planning. Investment is set as part of the campaign planning process based on the audiences and objectives. This spend includes campaigns such as adult social care recruitment, childhood immunisations, smoking and mental health.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.
Answered by Maria Eagle - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The total MOD, including DE&S, spends since 5 July 2024 against RM6125 Framework via call off contracts is: £3,550,081.59. The suppliers are Identity events Management Limited and Occam Group LTD.
The MOD, including DE&S, total spends since 5 July 2024 for external communications, not against RM6125 Framework via call off contract is: £32,702,226.04. The suppliers are listed in the table below.
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The MOD ALB contractual data is not captured centrally on the Contracting Purchasing & Finance (CP&F) system.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much (a) her Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.
Answered by Alex Davies-Jones - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold any active contracts awarded under Crown Commercial Service (CCS) agreement RM6125, nor have any contracts been awarded under this agreement in the time period specified.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 10 February 2025 to Question 27757 on DHSC: cost of external public affairs, how many communications staff work in his Department.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department had 90 full-time equivalent staff in post working in the Communications Directorate at the end of January 2025; this is a reduction from a headcount of 110 in July 2021. Staff in this Directorate cover a broad range of communications roles including media relations, marketing and branding, public health and prevention campaigns, internal communications and external publishing on GOV.UK.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what progress her Department has made on implementing the Long-Term Plan for Towns funding for Dumfries.
Answered by Alex Norris - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The Chancellor confirmed at the Budget on 30 October that the Long-Term Plan for Towns will be retained and reformed as part of a new regeneration programme.
A revised prospectus for the programme will be published in due course, confirming the associated timelines and a new set of strategic objectives aligned to this government’s missions.
All 75 towns have now received an initial £250,000 of capacity funding. A further £200,000 of capacity funding will be issued in the 2025/26 financial year, to support the development of plans in line with our new objectives.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Home Office)
To identify the information requested would require a manual review of all transactions made in communications related account categories in the Home Office’s financial system since 5 July 2024, to confirm if they related to Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and other agreements, and then to collate and verify relevant data.
This could only be done for the purposes of answering this question at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Contracts awarded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) are available via ContractsFinder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder) and Find-a-Tender-Service (https://www.gov.uk/find-tender). FCDO spend above £25,000 is available via https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fcdo-departmental-spending-over-25000, and summary figures are available via the FCDO's Annual Report and Accounts (the latest report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fcdo-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024).
The FCDO is not responsible for procurement on behalf of our arm's length bodies.