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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to ensure that (a) staff and (b) board members at the Climate Change Committee do not have a conflict of interest.

BEIS carries out thorough due diligence exercises on each new board member prior to approving their appointment to identify conflicts of interest so that they can be managed appropriately on appointment. In some cases, it will not be appropriate to offer a role if the conflict is too great.

The Climate Change Committee has a formal policy process on conflicts of interest which is reviewed annually. All Committee Members and staff are required to recognise and disclose activities that might give rise to actual or perceived conflicts of interest.

The process for existing Committee members to raise conflicts of interest is managed by the Committee secretariat at the start of every Committee meeting. The secretariat will review the case to determine whether the individual needs to step down from the Committee to avoid an actual or perceived serious conflict of interest arising or to decide on how to manage whilst remaining in role.