Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on the 9 April (HL6179), how many non-civil servants are employed by the Cabinet Office on zero-hours contracts as at 1 April.

Non-Civil Servants are not employed by the Cabinet Office. Where non-Civil Servants are required, they are engaged via routes other than employment contracts such as contracts for Contingent Labour via a third-party agency. While the Cabinet Office also makes a number of public appointments and direct ministerial appointments, the individuals appointed to such roles are public office holders and not employees.

Cabinet Office has 423 Contingent Labour workers on zero hour contracts as at 28 April 2025 via the contract Cabinet Office has with Alexander Mann Solutions Ltd.

The Cabinet Office uses zero hours contracts to selectively manage temporary demand. To end exploitative zero hours contracts, under the government’s plans to Make Work Pay legislation will be brought in to give workers on zero hours contracts and workers with a ‘low’ number of guaranteed hours, who regularly work more than these hours, the ability to move to guaranteed hours contracts which reflect the hours they regularly work over a 12-week reference period.