Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what financial payments his Department makes to its non-executive directors; how many times his departmental Board will meet in 2021-22; and what work the non-executive directors undertake.

This information is published in the Department’s annual report and accounts, and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-for-education-consolidated-annual-report-and-accounts-2019-to-2020.

The Department’s report and accounts for the 2021/22 financial year will be published in due course, in the usual way.

Departmental boards provide strategic leadership for each central government department, as well as advising on and challenging how the Department is performing. Each board is chaired by the Secretary of State and includes junior ministers, the Permanent Secretary and non-executive board members. Non-executives are appointed to government departments from the public, private and voluntary sectors. Their role is to provide advice and bring an external perspective.

A summary of the work of non-executive directors across Government can be found in the Government Lead Non-Executive's annual report, available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-lead-non-executives-annual-report-2019-to-2020.