Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what declarations of interests have been made by her Department’s non-executive directors; and where is that information published.
Answered by Greg Hands
Non-Executive Board Members comply with the provisions of the Cabinet Office’s Code of Conduct for Board Members of Public Bodies.
Board members are required to submit any declarable interests annually; this information forms part of the independent National Audit Office review ahead of the publication of Departmental annual report and accounts.
Information on any relevant interests is published in the Departmental annual report and accounts, which are available on gov.uk.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, when her Department’s non-executive directors were appointed; what oversight officials had of Ministerial appointments of non-executive directors; and what assessment was made of their experience against the requirements for breadth and depth of experience set out in the Cabinet Office guidance on departmental boards of November 2014.
Answered by Greg Hands
Departments follow the principles set out in Cabinet Office/HM Treasury ‘Corporate governance in central government departments: code of good practice.’
The Department’s current Non-Executive Board Members are as follows:
Dominic Johnson, Interim Lead Non-Executive Board Member (joined November 2020)
Douglas Carswell (joined November 2020)
Noel Harwerth (joined January 2017)
Dambisa Moyo (joined November 2020)
Sir Stephen O’Brien (joined June 2019)
The announcements of these Non-Executives’ appointments can be found below:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/liz-truss-announces-four-new-non-executive-board-members
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/sir-stephen-obrien-named-as-new-dit-board-member
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many freedom of information requests her Department has referred to the central Cabinet Office Clearing House for advice on handling in each year since 2016.
Answered by Greg Hands
I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 24 June 2021 to Question UIN: 15188.
Asked by: Cat Smith (Labour - Lancaster and Wyre)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether her Department operates a red, amber and green rating system for categorising Freedom of Information requests according to their presentational sensitivity.
Answered by Greg Hands
All Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are treated exactly the same, regardless of who the request is from and their occupation. The Department’s internal FOI case management system, which includes a colour-coding system, is used to track timeliness and progress of responses in addition to the sensitivity of the information in all FOI cases. The Department’s case management system helps evidence our compliance with our FOI obligations.