Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the answer of 5 March 2026 to Question 54801 on Ministers: Official Cars, whether there is internal guidance separate to that linked to.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Any internal guidance regarding use of the Ministerial vehicles would be issued by the individual department. The only guidance referred to by the Government Car Service is that contained within the Ministerial Code.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Government Car Service holds information on cars provided for civil service use.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
I refer the Rt Hon Member to my answer on 18th March 2026 (PQ 120040).
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the answer of 4 February 2026, to Question 109542, on Ministers: Official Cars, if he will set out how his Department's finance team invoices expenditure for cars used by Cabinet Office (a) Ministers and (b) officials.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The Government Car Service (GCS) offers vehicles to government departments as a shared resource. Each department independently determines the allocation of these vehicles. GCS does not invoice separately for Ministerial or civil servant use.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Ministers rip up consultation culture, published on 26 March 2026, whether any Cabinet decisions since July 2024 would have been sped up as a result of the proposed reform to the process for collective Cabinet agreement of government policy.
Answered by Nick Thomas-Symonds - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
Policy analysis on options for reforming collective agreement is ongoing and we have high ambitions for speeding up the government’s decision making processes. All options are being considered for how this success is measured. There are currently no plans to perform a retrospective assessment of which decisions would have been sped-up as a result of any proposed reforms.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 26 May 2026 to Question 1226, when he plans to publish the State of the Estate report from 2026-27.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The State of the Estate report is published annually in accordance with section 86 of the Climate Change Act 2008.
The report covering the 2026-27 financial year will be published by 1st June 2028, in line with the statutory reporting requirements set out in the Act.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will update ALB guidance to prevent the spending of public funding on lobbying events.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The Rules on Lobbying for Non-Departmental Public Bodies, which are published on GOV.UK, state that Arms Length Bodies are prohibited from using public funds to host promotional receptions, buy exhibition space, or book stands at political gatherings. Any official attendance is strictly limited and necessitates departmental authorisation.
Furthermore, Governmental Grant Agreements contain a compulsory provision that categorises any efforts to influence political parties, parliament, or the government as "ineligible expenditure." This is specified within the GOV.UK Grant Agreements Guidance.
As such, there are currently no intentions to revise the guidance on lobbying for Arms-Length Bodies (ALBs).
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Answer of 6 March 2026 to Question 116220 on Military Aircraft: Ministers, how many individual trips his Department has organised for Ministerial travel by helicopter since July 2024.
Answered by Chris Ward - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
Helicopter travel has been commissioned under the Cabinet Office Central Travel Contract for Ministerial travel on one occasion since July 2024. Routine helicopter journeys for Ministers are no longer carried out under this Government.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent estimate his Department has made of the scale of the maintenance backlog across central government property.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The National Audit Office published its Maintaining Public Service Facilities report in January 2025. This estimated the maintenance backlog across the government estate to be at least £49 billion. My Department supported the review. Figures based on a standard definition will be published in the annual State of the Estate report from 2026-2027.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Answer of 21 February 2025 to Question 30828 on 9 Downing Street: Media, which scheduled transparency return will publish the OCS invoice; and on which date.
Answered by Anna Turley - Minister without Portfolio (Cabinet Office)
The OCS invoice for the 9 Downing Street works in the published data for the month of November 2025 as issued during December 2025 and is item 387, 10000204, OCS Group UK Limited, Transaction HZ820722.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the College for National Security Privacy Notice, published on 20 May 2025, whether individuals participating in the College for National Security's pilot courses are required to provide data relating to protected characteristics as part of diversity monitoring and course evaluation.
Answered by Dan Jarvis - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
The College for National Security’s courses are open to all civil and crown servants with safeguards to ensure content is only accessed by staff with appropriate clearances.
The College does not collect Protected Characteristic data of pilot participants and does not use it for monitoring or evaluation. However, the College does gather additional information to ensure that accessibility requirements are met.
Personal data is currently collected and processed in line with the College’s Privacy Notice, which can be accessed on GOV.UK.