To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 15 May 2025 to Question 46749 on Cabinet Office: Zero Hours Contracts, which business units the 423 staff work for.
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office uses zero hours contracts to selectively manage temporary demand. The Cabinet Office Pillars that the 423 contingent labour workers who can be classed as having zero hours contracts are as follows: National Infrastructure and Service Tr...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to his Department's publication entitled UK Covid-19 Inquiry Management Statement, published in August 2022, what steps he is taking to help ensure that the Covid-19 public inquiry represents valu
Cabinet Office
The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is an independent public inquiry, established by the previous administration.In line with the UK Covid-19 Management Statement, the Inquiry’s Accounting Officer must conform to value for money and good financial management requirem...
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Department of Health and Social Care
Ensuring that the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and we are embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in our approach to pandemic preparedness. We aim to have flexible, adaptable, and scalable cap...
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To ask His Majesty's Government what are the process and criteria for triggering an economic impact assessment of a new disease in the Treasury; and whether they are undertaking an assessment of the suitability of that process and criteria against long Co
Treasury
HM Treasury has a comprehensive framework for assessing and managing potential risks to the economic and fiscal outlook, including those posed by new diseases. This framework involves systematic monitoring through internal risk monitors, risk governance f...
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Cabinet Office
It is important that lessons are learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent of government and it is right that we allow the Chair to continue her important work. The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to ensure the transparency of all spending related to the Government's response to the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.
Cabinet Office
The Government regularly publishes the cost to government in responding to the Inquiry. Most recently, costs for Quarter 3 2024/25 were published on 3 March 2025.
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To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to improve the UK's biosecurity resilience against (a) invasive species, (b) plant diseases, (c) animal diseases and (d) other emerging threats; and
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Our biosecurity is paramount – it underpins safe food; protects human, animal and plant health; and supports a prospering economy and trade. We have in place robust measures to maintain and improve our ability to understand, detect, prevent, respond and r...
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To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether steps to strengthen care for (a) ME, (b) Long Covid and (c) other infection-associated chronic conditions will be included in plans to bolster the UK’s preparedness for future pandemics.
Department of Health and Social Care
Ensuring that the United Kingdom is prepared for a future pandemic is a top priority for the Government, and we are embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic in our approach to pandemic preparedness. We aim to have flexible, adaptable, and scalable cap...
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To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 20 of his Department's Opening Statement to Module 4 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, published 15 January 2025, what estimate his Department has made of the number of (a) de
Department of Health and Social Care
The estimated total averted hospitalisations, severe hospitalisations, and deaths for the spring and autumn 2023 boosters were:- 1,654 hospitalisations, 108 severe, and 508 deaths for the spring 2023 booster program in those aged 75 years old and over; an...
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To ask His Majesty's Government what has been the cost to date for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry; and what estimate they have made of the future budget in each of the next two years.
Cabinet Office
It is important that lessons are learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent of government and it is right that we allow the Chair to continue her important work. The Chair is under a statutory obligation to avoid unnecessary...
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To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 20 of his Department's written opening statement to Module 4 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry of 20 December 2024, INQ000474799, on what evidential basis his Department said t
Department of Health and Social Care
The evidential basis refers to page four of the COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report: Week 38, published by Public Health England on 23 September 2021. The report is available at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/614c53a28...
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To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to paragraph 20 of his Department's written opening statement to Module 4 of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry of 20 December 2024, INQ000474799, on what evidential basis his Department said t
Department of Health and Social Care
The evidential basis refers to page four of the COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report: Week 38, published by Public Health England on 23 September 2021. The report is available at the following link: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/614c53a28...
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To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of waiting until the publication of the final Module 3 Covid-19 Inquiry report to (a) recognise the role of airborne transmission of SARS-Cov-2 a
Department of Health and Social Care
NHS England maintains efforts to evaluate potential revisions to the National Infection Prevention and Control Manual (NIPCM), which aim to maintain high infection, prevention, and control standards. Any updates will ensure consistent application across h...
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To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the letter of 22 October signed by the Covid Airborne Transmission Alliance addressed to the chief nursing officers of the four nations about expert evidence provided to the Covid-19 Inquir
Department of Health and Social Care
The Chief Nursing Officer for England has stated that a range of evidence on the issue of routes of transmission of COVID-19 was presented to the COVID-19 Inquiry during their examination of the impact of the pandemic on healthcare systems across the Unit...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11837 on Integrated Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy Review, what plans he has to (a) engage and (b) inform Parliament on each review.
Cabinet Office
In relation to my answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11837, decisions about parliamentary engagement are matters for the relevant department owners of each review. The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster committed to a review of UK national resilience...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11837 on Integrated Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy Review, if he will set out for each review (a) the planned timeline for completion and
Cabinet Office
In relation to my answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11837, the aforementioned reviews are scheduled to conclude in the first half of 2025. Decisions about publication and consultation are matters for the relevant department owners. The Cabinet Office ...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11837 on Integrated Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy Review, if he will set out for each of those reviews (a) the process for establishing t
Cabinet Office
In relation to my answer of 4 November 2024 to Question 11837, the aforementioned reviews are scheduled to conclude in the first half of 2025. Decisions about publication and consultation are matters for the relevant department owners. The Cabinet Office ...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps his Department is taking to help tackle regional inequalities in community resilience in the national resilience review.
Cabinet Office
The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster committed to undertaking a review of UK national resilience in his statement to the House of Commons on 19 July, in response to the Covid-19 Inquiry’s Module 1 report. The review is expected to conclude in Spring 2...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the cost to the public purse is of the covid-19 inquiry; if he will make an estimate of the anticipated total cost of the inquiry; and whether the inquiry is running to budget.
Cabinet Office
It is important that lessons are learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic and the response to it. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent of government and it is right that we allow the Chair to continue her important work. The Chair is under a statutory obligati...
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To ask His Majesty's Government which inquiries conducted under the Inquiries Act 2005 involved matters which were wholly or partly devolved in Wales when the inquiry started.
Cabinet Office
Since the introduction of the Inquiries Act 2005, there have been three inquiries which include matters which are partly or wholly devolved to Wales: the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, the Infected Blood Inquiry, and the UK Covid-19 Inquiry....
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Cabinet Office
It is important that lessons are learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic and the response to it. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry is independent of government and it is right that we allow the Chair to continue her important work. The Chair is under a statutory obligati...
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Department of Health and Social Care
The COVID-19 Inquiry’s first report, which covered resilience and preparedness, was published on 18 July 2024, and makes 10 recommendations for the Government. As the Prime Minister’s written ministerial statement to Parliament said, the Government will c...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether his Department has made an assessment of the (a) costs and (b) merits of each of the restrictions during the covid-19 pandemic.
Cabinet Office
The previous Government spent up to £400 billion on pandemic related interventions and programmes including 11.7 million employees that were furloughed through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, at a cost of £70 billion. 2.9m people on the Self-Employm...
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To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of establishing an oversight mechanism to monitor the implementation of recommendations from module one of the covid-19 inquiry.
Cabinet Office
Public inquiries are an important mechanism to learn lessons for the future. The Government will carefully consider all of the findings and recommendations of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry Module 1 report.Parliament, and in particular its Select Committees, has...
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To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of preparedness for future pandemics.
Department of Health and Social Care
The Department is embedding lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic within its approach to pandemic preparedness. This includes amending the approach to cover all five routes of communicable disease transmission, rather than focusing on planning for specific t...
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