Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the UK Security Vetting is currently meeting its key performance indicators for vetting timeliness.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
United Kingdom Security Vetting (UKSV) continues to meet its agreed Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for all product types. The UKSV KPIs are established and regularly reviewed in consultation with departments to ensure that operational demand is balanced while retaining assurance in national security safeguards. Furthermore, UKSV's KPIs are subject to ministerial oversight.
In line with the practice followed by successive administrations, the Government does not otherwise comment on security matters.
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 29 October 2025, to Question 83794, on Global Switch, whether any central government body still uses data centre services provided by Global Switch according to records held by the Crown Commercial Service or Cabinet Office.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Honourable Gentleman to the answer of 29 October 2025, that we do not comment on specific companies. Ensuring the security of UK data is a priority for the government. When the government procures any service, cybersecurity is a paramount requirement.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Departmental Strategic Asset Management Plan Executive Summaries 2025 - 2026, published on 30 October 2025, when the summaries for all departments will be published.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The intention is to publish all summaries of departmental Strategic Asset Management Plans (SAMPs) on the UK government website. For practical purposes, this is being done in phases with a second batch going live in December.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Deposited Paper DEP2025-0726, committed on 21 October 2025, what was the cause of the breakdown in the toilet macerator.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The toilet macerator was found to be leaking and upon investigation the pump was defective. The macerator was 10 years old and it was concluded that the unit should be replaced.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 18 July 2025 to Question 66652 on Military Aircraft: Ministers, what the total cost to the public purse was for those tasks.
Answered by Luke Pollard - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
The total cost for Government Minsters travel on the RAF Command Support Air Transport between 3 July 2024 and 4 July 2025 is £858,724.23. This was approximately 51.3% lower than the previous year.
Some elements included in the total cost are air passenger duty, catering, insurance, fuel, civilian airfield usage, landing & handling fees.
Since my response to Question 66652, I can confirm that an additional task has been identified which is in scope and the total costs cover 44 tasks, that were completed between 4 July 2024 and 18 July 2025.
It has been the practice of successive administrations not to publish granular information relating to the official movements of Ministers and those accompanying them within the United Kingdom. Information about official overseas travel is published as part of the Cabinet Office transparency returns and made available on the GOV.UK website.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she intends to cap public service pension costs under section 12 of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Section 12 of the Public Service Pensions Act 2013 (the Act) requires an employer cost cap to be set in each of the public service pension schemes.
The Act requires that Treasury regulations must provide for the costs of a scheme to remain within specified margins either side of the employer cost cap of the scheme. The Regulations (SI 2014 No. 575) provide the margins are 3% of pay and that steps must be taken to return the cost of a scheme to the employer cost cap if the cost of the scheme would otherwise go beyond these margins.
Treasury Directions made under the Act specify when the employer cost cap is to be assessed (The_Public_Service_Pensions__Valuations_and_Employer_Cost_Cap__Directions_2023_-_Final.pdf ). Valuations of the employer cost cap as at 31 March 2016 and at 31 March 2020 have been undertaken by each of the schemes, for example see page 9 of the Civil Service Pension Scheme Actuarial Valuation as at 31 March 2020 - Valuation Results. Valuations of the employer cost cap as at 31 March 2024 are currently underway and are expected to be published next year.
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, whether the Government gave assurances to the Chinese Government on the proposed Chinese Embassy in London after 4 July 2024 and before the previously refused planning application was resubmitted by the Chinese Government.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
I refer the Hon Member to the answer provided on 14 July 2025 to Question 65869.
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 13 October 2025, to Question 73729, on Ministers: Aviation, which other Government-financed planes have their carbon offset.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The Government does not lease any other government-financed aircraft outside of the wet-leased A321neoLR (G-GBNI) and Ministry of Defence (MOD) assets.
Asked by: Mike Wood (Conservative - Kingswinford and South Staffordshire)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Cabinet Office Annual report and accounts 2024-2025, HC1372, 23 October 2025, page 16, what proportion of the £203 million underspend in DEL arose from projects that failed to deliver to plan and are now expected to require re-profiling or supplementary funding in 2025–26.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
None of the underspend requires re-profiling or supplementary funding in 2025-26.
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 3 November 2025 to Question 85509 on Government Communication Service, how the Government Communication Service under the SAFE framework assesses whether the expression of gender-critical views are perceived to be offensive.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
As detailed on the SAFE framework page (under ‘Safety and suitability’), publishers must provide a safe environment for HMG advertising. Link provided below:
https://www.communications.gov.uk/publications/safe-framework-the-4-principles-for-hmg-brand-safety/
There have been no requests for government advertising via Politico and this publication has not been assessed against the framework.