Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the secretariat supporting (1) the Ethics and Integrity Commission, and (2) the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, will be (a) independent of the Propriety and Constitution Group, and (b) under the line management of the Director General of the Propriety and Constitution Group.

Line management for the secretariat of the Committee on Standards in Public Life - which will be established as the Ethics and Integrity Commission - and for the Independent Adviser Secretariat sits in the Propriety and Constitution Group of the Cabinet Office. There are no current plans to alter these arrangements.

The EIC, as with CSPL, will remain an independent Advisory Non-Departmental Public Body of the Cabinet Office, led by its Chair and other officeholders. The Independent Adviser remains an independent office-holder, as set out in the role's existing terms of reference.