Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 17 May 2023 to Question 184022 on Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Ministerial Boxes, how many times the decision was taken that a Minister in his Department could keep their red box as a memento of their time in their role between 1 May 2018 and 30 April 2023.

This information is not centrally held and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. Ministerial red boxes are purchased by the minister if they wish to keep one and are never gifted for free. As I [Minister Rutley] stated in my previous reply, there is no explicit requirement for the FCDO to record instances where security features have been removed in order that they can be purchased for personal use by former ministers.