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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Permanent Secretary of his Department was informed by his predecessor the Rt hon. Member for North East Somerset of the stake held in Yandex Ltd by Somerset Capital Management LLP on taking up his post on 6 September 2022; and whether an assessment was made of whether this could have constituted a conflict of interest.

My Rt Hon. Friend the Member for North East Somerset declared his interests to the Permanent Secretary soon after his appointment as Secretary of State, in line with the requirements of the Ministerial Code. I refer the Hon. Member to the answer given to her today by my Rt. Hon. Friend the Member for Horsham to Question 82488 for further detail on the ministerial conflicts of interest process.