Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether Government departments are expected to make public the results of external consultations relating to the preparation of statutory instruments.

The Cabinet Office is responsible for the Government Consultation Principles, which provide departments with guidance on conducting consultations and can be found on gov.uk https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/consultation-principles-guidance.

This guidance states that government responses to consultations should be published in a timely fashion. It also states that where consultations concern a statutory instrument, responses should be published before or at the same time as the instrument is laid, except in very exceptional circumstances.