Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether (a) Mr Adam Jones, (b) Ms Sophie Jarvis, (c) Mr Jamie Hope, (d) Mr Reuben Solomon and (e) Ms Sarah Ludlow were continuously employed by the Cabinet Office on full-time special adviser contracts to work at his Department between the dates of 7 July and 2 September 2022.

The named individuals were continuously employed by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office as special advisers on full-time contracts between 7 July and 2 September 2022.

As per the Code of Conduct for Special Advisers, special advisers may have involvement in political activity in their own time, outside office hours.

Departmental special advisers were also permitted to take unpaid leave to take part in a leadership campaign, subject to Ministerial approval. In this case, all these individuals took unpaid leave for the duration of the campaign, meaning there was no cost to the taxpayer for any such activity.

These are long-standing arrangements, and reflect the substantive rules put in place for the Labour Party leadership election under the last Labour Government (as evident from Library deposited papers DEP 06/2344 and DEP 07/1292).