The Cabinet Office has announced the creation of a new Ethics and Integrity Commission (EIC), replacing the Committee on Standards in Public Life (CSPL). Lieutenant General (Retired) Doug Chalmers, the current CSPL Chair, will lead the new Commission. Effectively a ‘re-launch’ of the CSPL, the EIC will have a stronger mandate and an expanded role to promote, oversee, and report on the Nolan Principles: honesty, integrity, objectivity, accountability, selflessness, openness and leadership. The terms of reference are to be confirmed, but the EIC’s remit will include upholding ethical standards across the public sector, reporting annually to the Prime Minister and engaging with public bodies to help them to develop codes of conduct. It will also coordinate ethics bodies, promote public understanding of standards, share best practices and serve as a central resource on public ethics.

The Cabinet Office has announced new public procurement guidance recognising shipbuilding, steel, artificial intelligence (AI) and energy infrastructure as critical sectors for national security and providing for contracts to be prioritised for British businesses where necessary to protect national security. The guidance sets out how departments should protect the UK’s economic security and build resilience in these sectors, reflecting concerns over the fragility of global supply chains and reliance on overseas providers.

The Cabinet Office will be hosting webinars from 23-24 January 2025 to brief suppliers and external organisations on the forthcoming Procurement Act 2023, set to take effect on 24 February 2025. The webinars will outline key changes, demonstrate the new central digital platform and provide an opportunity for attendees to ask questions about preparing for the Act's implementation.

A pipeline notice will need to be published for each £2m+ procurement in a contracting authority’s pipeline. The first pipeline notices must be published by 26th May 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023). Updated guidance from Cabinet Office makes clear this is a practical necessity, so that subsequent notices about each procurement can be linked back to the relevant pipeline details on the central digital platform, Find a Tender.

The Cabinet Office has confirmed that the UK-EU Summit has been postponed following agreement between the UK and the EU. The government said that the decision followed the Prime Minister's statement and reaffirmed its commitment to holding the summit at the earliest opportunity. It noted that the first UK-EU Summit in May 2025 established annual leader-level summits as part of the UK-EU strategic partnership, and said further details on the rescheduled summit would be announced in due course. The Cabinet Office also confirmed that it would continue to update the House of Lords European Affairs Committee on developments.

Cabinet Office has announced that ten communities across England will receive ‘innovation squads’ as part of a £100m ‘Test, Learn and Grow’ reform programme to deliver the Plan for Change. The squads—made up of policy officials, tech specialists and other experts—will work with local government and service users to test new ways of addressing local challenges. These include increasing uptake of Best Start Family Hubs, establishing neighbourhood health services, supporting children with special needs, improving employment access, expanding breakfast clubs and tackling violence against women and girls. The programme aims to move away from a ‘Whitehall knows best’ approach by trialling solutions directly in communities. Previous pilots in Sheffield and Liverpool led to increased family hub use and the development of a data-led platform for managing temporary accommodation. The next phase is set to involve Barnsley, Wakefield, Manchester, Liverpool, Sandwell, Northumberland, Essex, Plymouth and Nottingham, with London boroughs to be confirmed.

The Cabinet Office has announced that it has ended its consultation on reforms to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS), which had been ongoing since September 2017. The existing scheme terms established in 2010 will continue unchanged, with no plans for new consultations or reforms. This decision comes after an extended consultation period that included a supplementary consultation document published in August 2022.

The Cabinet Office has announced changes to the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme in response to 16 new recommendations from the Infected Blood Inquiry's additional report. The changes expand compensation eligibility for individuals who experienced adverse effects from treatments such as interferon and provide additional support for chronic Hepatitis C patients who have experienced significant impact on their ability to carry out daily duties under the Special Category Mechanism. Notably, the scheme now allows estates to claim compensation if the affected person died after 21 May 2024, removing a barrier that previously caused claims to expire upon death. Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General, Nick Thomas-Symonds, emphasised the government's commitment to removing barriers to quicker compensation and delivering improvements based on the new report. He stressed the importance of working together to deliver justice and restore trust in the state for those who have been affected. The project includes plans for a main UK memorial and supporting memorials in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

The Cabinet Office has extended the deadline for its call for evidence on the Seventh UK National Action Plan for Open Government (NAP7) to 25 May 2026, as updated on 20 April 2026. The call for evidence, coordinated by the Civil Service Strategy Unit within Cabinet Office, seeks submissions of up to 250 words on potential areas of focus for NAP7 to improve transparency, accountability and participation in government. Submissions will be analysed alongside internal government outreach to assess potential for co-creation between government and civil society, with results to be presented at the UK Multi-Stakeholder Forum for open government. The analysis will evaluate ideas against criteria including relevance to open government principles, ambitious reform potential and availability of resources for meaningful co-creation. Co-creation of individual commitments is scheduled to begin from June 2026, with initial finalised commitments due for publication by the end of 2026.

The Cabinet Office has published Procurement Policy Note (PPN) 024, alongside an accompanying guidance note on the public interest test (PIT) and insourcing strategy in central government procurement. The government wants the viability of internal delivery to be explored consistently before a procurement begins. PPN 024 applies to central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies (in-scope organisations), with other contracting authorities encouraged to adopt the approach.

The Cabinet Office has issued the Public Procurement (Revocation) Regulations 2025, revoking four items of assimilated procurement law in its entirety and one partially. The statutory instrument (SI) fully revokes three European Commission decisions on utilities procurement and one Commission Implementing Regulation on procurement forms, while partially revoking regulations related to previous procurement rules.

The Cabinet Office has published three new guidance documents in relation to the Procurement Act 2023 (PA 2023) Define phase, one document in relation to the Procure phase and has updated one document in relation to the Plan phase. These documents should be read in conjunction with PA 2023 and its associated regulations. Each guidance document will typically include the legal framework, what has changed, key points and policy intent, linked notices or guidance and where to find further information.