Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to increase the number of apprenticeship starts in his Department.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
We remain committed to supporting the use of apprenticeships across all government departments to break down barriers to opportunity. This includes supporting the Government's commitment to 2,000 digital apprenticeships through its TechTrack scheme by 2030 to improve digital skills and drive improvements and efficiency in public services.
Within the Cabinet Office, we are looking at every opportunity to increase apprenticeships. For example, last week we announced that this summer we will launch a new cross-Government Level 3 apprenticeship programme in Business Administration. The ‘Civil Service Career Launch Apprenticeship’ (CLA) will see new apprentices kickstart their careers, across various departments, starting from January 2026. In its first year, the CLA will offer roles in three city locations: Birmingham, London, and Manchester. By expanding into Birmingham and Manchester, the Civil Service is strengthening its presence in these growth areas, while still providing opportunities in London to meet workforce needs and priorities.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many Whitehall civil service jobs were relocated outside London in each year since 2015.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Places for Growth Programme has been gathering data on relocation of Government roles from London since September 2021. Since then, latest published data shows 21,002 roles have been relocated from London. By year:
3,999 roles were relocated in 2021.
7,113 roles were relocated in 2022.
7,171 roles were relocated in 2023.
2,719 roles were relocated in Quarter 1 of 2024 (the latest published data).
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the UK Statistics Authority has offered apprenticeships in each year since 2010.
Answered by Georgia Gould - 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 7th March is attached.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse was of the a:gender network in each year since its creation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
A:gender was founded in 2003. As a staff network, it is a volunteer collaborative group of Civil Service staff. We do not hold final central records for any funding prior to 2020. Based on the information the Cabinet Office holds, funding was provided from 2020-2021 to 2023-2024. No funding was provided in 2024-25.
Data from the Equality, Diversity and Expenditure (EDI) Review will be published in due course. This will include the overall spend from 2020 onwards for cross CS EDI networks, which will incorporate any a:gender expenditure.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse was of the Civil Service Race Forum in each year since its creation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service Race Forum (CSRF) is a volunteer collaborative group of Civil Service ethnic minority staff. The CSRF does not hold a budget, but a department can choose to provide support where there is a business case to do so. We are not aware of any such financial support since 2020. We do not hold any records prior to this date. The CSRF was created in 2016.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse was of the Race to the Top Grade 6/7 staff network in each year since its creation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Race To The Top (RTTT) grade 6/7 Network was a collaborative volunteer network which no longer exists. The RTTT does not hold a budget, but a department can choose to provide support where there is a business case to do so. We are not aware of any such financial support. We are not aware of any cost to the public purse of the Race To The Top Grade 6/7 Network since 2020. We do not hold any records prior to this date. The RTTT network was created in 2018.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse was of the Civil Service LGBT+ staff network in each year since its creation.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service LGBT+ staff network is a volunteer collaborative group of Civil Service staff. The LGBT+ network does not hold a budget, but a department can choose to provide support where there is a business case to do so. We are not aware of any such financial support. There has been no cost to the public purse of the LGBT+ network since 2020. We do not hold any records prior to this date. The LGBT+ network was created in 2003.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has banned the use of DeepSeek.
Answered by Abena Oppong-Asare - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government has a robust set of security policies in place to oversee how information is handled, within our buildings, on our IT, and by our staff.
We keep these policies under constant review to ensure they are applicable to new technologies.
The Government's Generative AI framework outlines that only corporately assured Generative AI tools should be used to process HMG information. Everyone who works in government has a duty of confidentiality and a responsibility to safeguard any government information or data that they process, access or share, and all government departments are required to meet a range of mandatory security standards.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether Fujitsu has been awarded any Government contracts since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Details of all contracts valued above £12,000 and awarded by central government under the Public Contracts Regulation 2015 are published on Contracts Finder. The Procurement Act 2023 requires contracting authorities to publish more information on tenders and contracts let, and this will be stored on the central digital platform, Find a Tender, enabling greater transparency going forward.
In addition to extensions available under Fujitsu’s existing contracts, Contracts Finder provides details of seven new Fujitsu contracts since July 2024. All of these contracts were with existing customers and in line with Fujitsu’s bid approach. Three of these contracts were direct awards of services that Fujitsu was already providing and were done to ensure continuity of public services, whilst competitive procurements are being set up, as appropriate.
In January 2024, Fujitsu said it would withdraw from bidding for contracts for work with new Government customers until the Post Office Horizon Inquiry concludes or with prior consultation and support from such new customers. Fujitsu also said it would only bid for work with existing Government customers where it already has an existing relationship with them, or where there is an agreed need for Fujitsu’s skills and capabilities.
Fujitsu's bid approach is detailed in this letter, deposited in Parliament. For more details, please see here.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of food procured by his Department is sourced in the UK.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
To date the Government has not held information on where publicly procured food is sourced from.
Starting right away, for the first time ever, this government will review the food currently bought in the public sector to determine the standards that it is meeting, where it is bought from and look to introduce monitoring for transparency and accountability within those supply chains to ultimately get the best food for the consumer.
This work will be a significant first step to inform any future changes to public sector food procurement policies as we want to help make it an equal playing field for British producers to bid into the £5 billion spent each year on public sector catering contracts.