Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what questions were asked to faith communities during interviews for the Independent Faith Engagement Review.

In relation to the call for evidence, information is in the process of being deleted according to our published privacy notice.

In relation to additional in-person meetings and any written evidence submitted to the reviewer outside the call for evidence, I want to re-iterate that as an Independent reviewer, Colin Bloom was free to meet with any individuals or organisations he chose to inform his review. He was not under any obligation to inform officials of his meetings or to pass on any written evidence.

As an Independent reviewer, Colin Bloom met with a with a wide range of stakeholders - including charities, organisations, academics and other sectoral experts and key individuals of all faiths and none - whom he deemed to have relevant insight into particular themes relevant to his report. Given the sensitive issues covered in his review, Colin Bloom was committed to preserving respondents' anonymity so they could speak freely. While these anonymised sources and external analysis have informed the review, the views and recommendations expressed are Mr Bloom's own.

With this in mind, we can provide the following information:

1. The call for evidence was conducted in adherence with the Cabinet Office's consultation principles, including consideration of the length of the consultation. Given the sheer volume of responses (over 21,000), the length of the consultation period clearly provided sufficient time for individuals and organisations to respond.
2. The breakdown of respondents by declared faith was as follows: