Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what discussions (a) she and (b) officials in her Department had with (i) Ministers and (ii) officials in (A) No. 10 Downing Street and (B) the Cabinet Office before issuing her letter to Dame Ottoline Leyser dated 30 October.

Ministers and officials at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology are in regular contact with our arm’s-length bodies and other government departments. To support effective policy development and to reduce administration, we do not routinely publish details of each of these conversations.

I refer the Hon. Member to the letter from my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology published on 28 October and the response from Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser sent on 30 October.

(https://twitter.com/michelledonelan/status/1718291791861182514; https://www.ukri.org/publications/ceo-response-to-the-open-letter-from-the-secretary-of-state/)