Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the due diligence on the appointment of special adviser, Tim Allan, included the work of his company, Portland, for the Russian Government.

There is a rigorous process to ensure any potential conflicts of interest are captured, and have appropriate mitigations in place to reflect specific circumstances. Ahead of his appointment, the new Executive Director of Communications in 10 Downing Street fully complied with this process.

This is set out in the Special Adviser Code of Conduct and lists of Special Adviser interests are published annually.

Mr Allan is not a shareholder in Portland, and hasn’t been since 2019, and has no interest in it.