Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Gustafsson on 11 February (HL Deb cols 1104–07), what plans they have to provide a further update to the House on the remedial actions they have taken following the Post Office Horizon scandal; and what steps they have taken to improve the skills of, and accountability measures relating to, directors from the Civil Service who represent the Government on the boards of organisations of which the Government owns a share.

I provided the House an update on the redress schemes on the 27 February.

There are currently over 300 public bodies, many of whom operate with independent Boards. The decision on whether to place a representative on the Board is for the sponsoring Department.

UK Government Investments (UKGI) currently provides a Shareholder Representative function on behalf of Departments for 25 of government's most commercially-focused bodies, including providing Board representatives for 22 of these bodies. UKGI provides extensive training for its representatives covering a range of corporate governance issues. This training has developed significantly in recent years and is regularly updated.