Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, on how many occasions his Department has been unable to notify Parliament of the particulars of a liability and thus fulfil the required 14 days’ notice prior to that liability going live in the last 12 months.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has had no instances of contingent liabilities created over the last 12 months where the Department has failed to follow the process set out in Managing Public Money, for contingent liabilities created outside the course of normal business.

During this period, the Department did lay a parliamentary minute for a Contingent Liability relating to Mercator, and whilst the full 14 sitting day notice was not followed in this instance, Parliament was notified and the processes for late notification followed.