Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the answer by the Lord Privy Seal on 7 September (HL Deb, col 1213) that a Peer who is a special adviser will be able to vote but not contribute to debates, by whose authority this rule was established, and on which occasions it has been applied.

It has been accepted practice under successive administrations that special advisers can vote but not speak.