Department for Education: Meetings

(asked on 17th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

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


Answered by
Michelle Donelan Portrait
Michelle Donelan
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
This question was answered on 25th November 2021

In the Department for Education formal structured meetings are usually minuted, however, not all meetings need to be minuted.

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', available here: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/popapersguidance2009.pdf.

In instances where minutes are taken, and to adhere to the obligation in the Civil Service Code to keep accurate official records, the department has in place a retention schedule that advises that minutes of internal operational meetings should be retained for 5 years.

There is a further option to retain minutes, such as those involving external stakeholders and policy development, for up to 20 years, at which point they may be selected for transfer to The National Archives.

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