Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department’s current non-executive directors were appointed; what oversight officials had of Ministerial appointments of non-executive directors; and what assessment was made of their experience against the requirements for breadth and depth of experience set out in the Cabinet Office guidance on Departmental Boards of November 2014.

· Sherry Coutu was appointed on 11 March 2019

· Hemant Patel was appointed on 19 March 2020

· Baroness Laura Wyld was appointed on 15 June 2020

· Claudia Arney was appointed on 15 April 2021

· Priya Lakhani was appointed on 15 April 2021

Departmental officials have full oversight of all Non-Executive appointments. This includes providing advice and recommendations to me on the suitability of individuals to be appointed as Non-Executives.

The department aims to appoint Non-Executives who have experience within large and complex organisations and specific knowledge of the sectors it represents. This includes having an understanding and experience of organisations in both the public and private sectors. This is a key consideration made on the suitability of appointable candidates, without this experience it is unlikely an appointment will be made.

Departments follow the principles set out in Cabinet Office/HM Treasury ‘Corporate governance in central government departments: code of good practice.’