Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 20 November 2025, to Question 90240, on Cabinet Office: Secondment, if he will list the names of the organisations that have seconded staff into central government since July 2024, according to records centrally held through the secondments data commission.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service has seconded staff in from private, public and voluntary sector organisations and has also seconded staff out. Secondments remain a key route to utilising essential skills and experience into the right roles and teams, enabling talented individuals from within and outside the Civil Service to share critical capabilities and innovative thinking for a set period of time.
The secondments data commission provides insight on inward and outward secondments taking place across government. The Cabinet Office has worked closely with departments to improve the amount, detail and quality of the data available including names of organisations individuals have been seconded from or to, where this information is available. The limited number of records/ data sets can impact third party organisations and makes the data personally identifiable information, and therefore it will not be possible to publish this data.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 21 July 2025, to Question 65368, on Empty Property, what records does the Office of Government Property’s Insite database hold on the number of (a) residential and (b) non-residential public sector properties which are vacant or empty.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Office of Government Property’s InSite database brings together property information provided by central government departments to support oversight of the government estate.
(a) Residential properties
InSite does not hold centrally validated records on the number of residential public sector properties that are vacant or empty. Responsibility for managing residential properties, including determining and recording vacancy status, rests with the individual owning departments. The Cabinet Office therefore does not hold a central record of vacant or empty residential public sector properties.
(b) Non-residential properties
InSite holds information on non-residential public sector properties that are vacant or surplus, based on information provided by departments to support cross-government estate oversight, with coverage continuing to develop as the system matures. This includes:
Operational use; and
a Vacant Space dataset, which records vacant spaces within non-residential buildings that remain in operational use.
Data drawn from InSite is also published on gov.uk at https://www.data.gov. uk/dataset/a3ad62cf-d8a2-4d3b-b3c6-24c35c5e0f71/the-government-property-estate-including-buildings-and-land to ensure continued transparency. These datasets relate to non-residential property only and reflect the information provided by departments at the time of publication.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what consideration has been made of requiring Digital ID to sign into social media accounts.
Answered by Josh Simons - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
We are inviting the public to have their say in the upcoming consultation as we develop a safe, secure, and inclusive system for the UK, including on the possible range of uses of the digital credential.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 2 January 2026, to Question 99839, on Trade Unions: Facilities Agreements, and with reference to paragraph 233 of the Cabinet Office Guide to Parliamentary Work, if he will provide an overall figure for the (i) percentage and (ii) absolute number of public bodies required to submit facility time data under Schedule 1 but which did not do so, in (a) 2024-25 and (b) 2023-24, broken down by type of public body.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Other than what is publicly available under Schedule 1 of the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017, Cabinet Office does hold this information.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 20 November 2025, to Question 90240, on Cabinet Office: Secondment, if he will list the names of the organisations that have had Civil Servants seconded to them since July 2024, according to records centrally held through the secondments data commission.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Civil Service has seconded staff in from private, public and voluntary sector organisations and has also seconded staff out. Secondments remain a key route to utilising essential skills and experience into the right roles and teams, enabling talented individuals from within and outside the Civil Service to share critical capabilities and innovative thinking for a set period of time.
The secondments data commission provides insight on inward and outward secondments taking place across government. The Cabinet Office has worked closely with departments to improve the amount, detail and quality of the data available including names of organisations individuals have been seconded from or to, where this information is available. The limited number of records/ data sets can impact third party organisations and makes the data personally identifiable information, and therefore it will not be possible to publish this data.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 21 July 2025, to Question 65368, on Empty Property, how many dwellings are owned or managed by the Government Property Agency which are currently empty.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
There are currently 13 vacant properties within the Government Property Agency’s managed portfolio. This total includes sites that are in the process of being disposed of or have been vacated to facilitate ongoing refurbishment work with the aim to improve the overall condition and efficiency of the managed estate.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 20 November 2025, to Question 90245, on Admiralty House: Official Residences, which civil servants, and from which business unit, are allowed to stay in the Admiralty House official residences.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Hon Member to my answer of 20 November 2025, Official Report, PQ 90245.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 2 January 2025 to Question 100332 on Public Appointments: Political Impartiality, what was the source of the political activity data for 2024-25 contained within the 2024-25 annual report of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, page 41, published on 17 December 2025.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Political activity information is collected from candidates as part of the public appointments digital service’s online application process. This was the source of the Commissioner’s data.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 2 January 2026 to Question 99828 on Cabinet Office: Social Media, what is the campaign or topic associated with (a) Government Digital and Data and (b) Great Futures.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Government Digital and Data is related to recruitment, and Great Futures forms part of the wider GREAT campaign which encourages international audiences to visit, study and do business with the UK.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 4 September 2025, to Question 73325, on Armed Forces: Conferences, if he will place in the Library the equivalent Cabinet Office guidance for officials on contact with the media.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
There are currently no plans to publish this guidance as the area remains subject to ongoing policy development.