Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer from Lord Duncan of Springbank on 27 June (HL16506), whether they will now answer the question put, namely whether the appointment of Lindy Cameron as a new Director General at the Northern Ireland Office was a Foreign and Commonwealth Office initiative; what discussions they had with the government of the Republic of Ireland prior to that appointment; and whether they will place a non-redacted copy of the mission-statement for that post in the Library of the House.

Pursuant to my response of 27 June, the appointment of the Northern Ireland Office’s Director General was a routine civil service appointment approved by the Civil Service Senior Leadership Committee and Cabinet Secretary. It was not a Foreign and Commonwealth Office initiative nor were there, and nor would it have been appropriate to have had, prior discussions about this appointment with the Irish Government.

In line with the procedures for routine civil service appointments there is no ‘mission-statement’; however I will arrange for an unredacted copy of the job description to be placed in the Library of the House.