Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether any officials in her Department have worked with the City of London Corporation on its overseas activities in the last three years.

My department does not have a team or individual dedicated to supporting the Lord Mayor of London’s overseas engagement programme. Officials from my department have provided support to individual elements of the Lord Mayor’s programme where it delivers the Government’s trade and investment objectives. On each occasion support will have been provided by DBT teams in the relevant Embassy or Consulate as a small proportion of individuals’ overall activity. We do not capture data on time or cost at that level of detail.

No Secretary of State or Ministers in DBT or DIT participated in foreign visits as part of the Lord Mayor’s overseas engagement programme in the last 3 years for which we have records. Officials will have participated as described above.