Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2026, to Question 101383, on Government Actuary's Department: Freedom of Information, what the total cost would be in cash terms over 99 years without net present value discounting.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answers I gave on this and other matters during the Urgent Question debate on 26 January. As an expert in the financial services industry, he will understand that it is simply wrong to ignore the effects of inflation and the changing value of money on the real costs of a deal that lasts 99 years.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what changes he plans to make to the cash bonus criteria for civil service servants.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
Pay and reward arrangements below the Senior Civil Service (SCS), including the operation of non-consolidated performance pay (cash bonuses), are delegated to individual departments to determine within the parameters set out in the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance. Pay for the SCS is subject to an independent pay review body process.
The 2026-27 Pay Remit Guidance for delegated grades will be published in due course. For the SCS, the Government will respond to the Senior Salaries Review Body after it has received its report for 2026-27.
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 17 December 2025 to Question 99835 on Cabinet Office: Facilities Agreements, whether (a) his and (b) the Permanent Secretary's approval is required for the use of paid facility time for trade union activities in Arms Length Bodies.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office’s centrally issued facility time framework states that should a department wish to provide paid time off for activities, it will need to be agreed by the Secretary of State or Chief Executive. Chief Executive refers to the head of the organisation, e.g. Permanent Secretary or Chief Executive of an Arms Length Body.
The framework also states that these principles are expected to be applied across the Civil Service including all departments and agencies employing civil servants. NDPBs outside of this scope are also expected to adopt these principles.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many staff in his Department work on the team that collates trade union facility time data; and what databases are used to store the information (a) requested and (b) collected.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Cabinet Office team whose responsibilities previously included, amongst other duties, collating public sector trade union facility time data has five members of staff. Each year the data was published on gov.uk (here). The information is not stored on any databases maintained by the Cabinet Office.
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 16 January 2026, to Question 104159, on Trade Unions: Facilities Agreements, if he will place in the Library the names of the individual public sector organisations which were requested by Cabinet Office Trade Union Facility Time Reporting Service to submit trade union facility time data but which did not do so, for the (a) 2023-24 and (b) 2024-25 datasets.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The answer provided to 104159 was inaccurate and has been corrected. The Cabinet Office does not hold the requested information.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, further to the written statement of 20 January 2026, on Rewiring the State, if he will place in the Library a copy of the revised Senior Civil Service performance management and recruitment guidance.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Senior Civil Service (SCS) Performance Management Framework is publicly available online on GOV.UK.
Departments and agencies have authority to determine their practices and procedures for the recruitment of staff to the Civil Service, including the Senior Civil Service. There are no plans to publish internal-facing guidance to the public domain, as it constitutes HR-to-HR guidance designed for departments to integrate into their respective policies and processes.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the answer of 17 December 2025 to Question 98120 on DEFRA: Public Appointment, whether any made a declaration of political activity.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Direct Ministerial Appointees are not typically expected to submit declarations of political activity. However, they are expected to comply with the provisions on political activity set out in the code of conduct for board members of public bodies. This can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/code-of-conduct-for-board-members-of-public-bodies.
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 5 January 2026 to Question 99527 on Breakfast Clubs and Pay, if he will list the influencers who received funding from the Government.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Influencers are selected based on their reach and alignment with the communications campaign.
To protect commercial confidentiality and interests, information relating to specific individuals will not be released.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to update the Announcements: Direct Ministerial Appointments portal with details of current post-holders.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
It is a requirement of the published Guidance on Making Direct Ministerial Appointments that departments should announce publicly such appointments generally at the time at which an appointment is made. The Direct Ministerial Appointments announcement portal, which went live in December 2025, brings together these announcements from across government. Direct Ministerial Appointment announcements prior to the creation of the portal were published on departmental news pages.
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 19 January 2026, to Question 103784, on Public Appointments: Political Activities, what the (a) name and (b) position is of each person who declared political activity.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
I refer the Hon. Gentleman back to PQ 103784.