Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what her Department’s process is for (a) recording and (b) keeping minutes of all meetings relating to Government business.

Formal, structured meetings are usually minuted, however, not all meetings need to be minuted. For example all DCMS internal decision making Board and Committee meetings, within its formal governance framework, are minuted. In regards to other meetings, the general guidance that DCMS provides officials within the department supports them to make judgements as to what meetings need to be minuted, noting their Civil Service Code obligation to ‘keep accurate official records’.

Specific procedures are in place for external meetings involving ministers. These are publicly available and can be found in the Guidance on the management of Private Office Papers.

Minutes are stored electronically within the department’s storage solution, with access granted to appropriate officials as this is required.