Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what discussions the Prime Minister had with Lord Lebedev on 21 May 2022; where they met; whether (a) officials and (b) advisers were present; whether minutes were taken of the meeting; and whether his Department holds any other records about the meeting.

Since July 2011, on the initiative of the then Prime Minister, David Cameron, the Government has published in its Ministerial transparency data details of meetings with senior media executives, including not only official meetings, but social and political meetings.

As outlined in the transparency return for the Q2 2022 period, this was a social meeting. The Government does not hold details of such informal, non-governmental meetings.

I would observe that since 2016, it is the Labour Party which has stopped publishing transparency data on frontbench meetings with senior media executives, breaking a commitment made during the Leveson Inquiry.