Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it is his Department's policy to increase the number of policy-making civil servants based outside London.

Following the Machinery of Government changes, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy is currently considering how best to align the reform agendas of its two predecessor Departments. This will include considering what the right footprint for the Department should be, in order to best deliver its objectives.