Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Meetings

(asked on 17th November 2021) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

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


Answered by
Amanda Milling Portrait
Amanda Milling
Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
This question was answered on 25th November 2021

Formal, structured meetings are usually minuted, however, not all meetings need to be minuted. It is expected that the general guidance that departments give to their staff will help officials 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 at: https://cdn.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/popapersguidance2009.pdf

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