Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government to provide an update on the principles or guidelines that are currently in place for the design and execution of public consultations by central Government; and whether the Government holds a cross-departmental register of all consultations across departments and their public bodies.

The UK Government has a set of consultation principles which give guidance to government departments and other public bodies on the principles they should adopt for engaging with stakeholders on developing policy and legislation.

These principles encourage policy makers to consider what they are seeking to achieve through any consultation when determining when, with whom and how to consult. The guidance directs policy teams to design consultations on a case-by-case basis to best engage the cohorts of relevance to the subject of the consultation and gather the best possible information to assist with policy development. The consultation principles were last updated in 2018 and are published on gov.uk at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-principles-guidance

A list of policy papers and consultations is also published on gov.uk at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/search/policy-papers-and-consultations