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

To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to the Answer of 14 July 2023 to Question 192910 on Independent Faith Engagement Review, what oversight there is of the spending of the independent faith adviser.

The independent faith advisor's contract and payment terms were approved in the usual way.

The call for evidence questionnaire has been published on gov.uk page. The questions asked during interviews were not scripted.

In relation to the call for evidence, a broad range of individuals and organisations submitted responses.

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 those of Mr Bloom.

As an Independent reviewer, Colin Bloom was free to meet with any individuals or organisations he chose to inform his review, with due consideration to existing official and Ministerial level engagement and communications.

In line with previous practice, a further breakdown of costings not be published.