I have held no meetings with the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, the Parades Commission for Northern Ireland or the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland since 1 January 2014. I am however due to meet both the Human Rights Commission and the Parades Commission in the coming weeks. In relation to the Equality Commission, the right hon. Gentleman may wish to note that although appointments are made to the Commission by the Northern Ireland Office, sponsorship responsibility lies with the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.

We publish details of ministerial meetings with external organisations on a quarterly basis, but in line with the practice of previous Governments, we do not intend to publish a list of meetings between Ministers and their departmental officials.

If he will make it his policy to publish a list of all meetings between Ministers of his Department and officials since May 2010.

I am obviously not going to go into details of what may or may not have been discussed at a meeting, particularly one at which I was not present, but it remains the case that Foreign Office officials and Ministers speak to people of all types from many different parts of the world with a single objective in mind, which is how best to enhance the United Kingdom’s understanding of global events and strengthen its interest in world affairs.

Will the Minister tell the House whether at the meeting that the Foreign Office had on 24 February with Dmitry Firtash the question of asset freezes or sanctions was discussed?

Not to my knowledge. We take the view that this is a matter for the Government of Ireland. Clearly, there are strong bonds of friendship and history between the two countries, but it has to be a matter for the Irish people and the Irish Government to decide about any relationship with the Commonwealth.

Given today’s visit, can the Minister confirm whether he has had any meetings with the Republic of Ireland’s Foreign Minister about its entering the British Commonwealth?

The Bank of England is required to publish records of meetings of the Financial Policy Committee, and minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee under the Bank of England Act 1998. However, the Bank of England is responsible for determining what records they need to keep to satisfy these obligations, and for any decision to consult on its management procedures.

The Government has no plans to require all companies who do business with local authorities to publish minutes of their board meetings.

However, we encourage all councils to be transparent about the services provided for them by the private sector. Through our revised transparency code for local authorities to be published shortly, we plan to increase transparency about the receipt of public money by private companies, by requiring local authorities to publish all spending over £500 and all contracts over £5,000.

We also plan to consult on increasing financial transparency for companies and other entities which an authority owns or has a significant influence over.

The Government also intends to issue a revised Code of Practice for all public authorities (under section 45 of the Freedom of Information Act) to promote openness about contracted out public services, including through the use and enforcement of contractual transparency provisions.

Details of meetings held by Ministers and permanent secretaries with external organisations are published quarterly and can be found on Gov.UK. That transparency will be further extended by the recently enacted Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Act, Part 1, which will require consultant lobbyists who meet with Ministers and senior officials to declare their clients on a publicly available register.

NHS England has established clinical senates in 12 geographical areas to be a source of independent, strategic advice and guidance to commissioners and other stakeholders to assist them to make the best decisions about healthcare for the populations they represent.

They have a multi-professional membership to ensure clinical representation encompasses the breadth of professions. This includes nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, as well as doctors. Membership encompasses the ‘birth to death’ spectrum of National Health Service care and also includes patient representatives.

A full membership list for each of the 12 clinical senates, including Chairs, has been placed in the Library.

Clinical senates are comprised of a core Clinical Senate Council and a wider Clinical Senate Assembly or Forum. The number of meetings held by each of the 12 clinical senates in 2013 is shown in the following table. NHS England has advised that none of these meetings were held in public.

*These were specified by NHS England as being meetings of the Clinical Senate Council.

There are 12 Strategic Clinical Networks (SCNs), which are aligned to Clinical Senate geographical regions. They are managed by 12 'host' Area Teams with oversight by the Area Team Medical Director and Area Team Director. Established in 2013, the SCNs serve key areas of major health and wellbeing challenge.

NHS England has identified four priority service areas for SCNs, which can also be referred to as 'clinical networks'. These are:

Cardiovascular (including cardiac, stroke, renal and diabetes);

Maternity, Children and Young People;

Mental Health, Dementia and Neurological Conditions; and

Cancer.

The size of each is locally determined, based on patient flows and clinical relationships and each region may develop other clinical networks depending on local need. The networks have been developing priorities in conjunction with their stakeholders which include

all commissioners (clinical commissioning group (CCG) and specialised commissioning), providers, third sector and patients.

Work plans for the four clinical areas have been aligned with CCG plans to deliver maximum impact and the clinical networks have provided clinical support and advice on related issues. They are also leading work to inform areas of specialised commissioning. Clinical advice is being made available to support the development of CCGs’ two year operational plans and five year strategic plans.

NHS England has advised that there has been no formal assessment of impact of the networks to date. However, there is an oversight group for each SCN and this monitors progress against the SCN annual plans, which were signed off in 2013.

NHS England allocates combined funding for Clinical Senates and SCNs in each of the 12 regions. It is not possible to determine the budget for each of the four priority service areas, as resources are shared at the regional level. The following table shows the combined 2013 budgets for Clinical Senates and Strategic Clinical Networks by geographical region.

Notes:

1. Running costs include any cost incurred that is not a direct payment for the provision of healthcare or healthcare related services. Examples include business support services, the provision of policy advice, cost of accommodation and office services.

2. Programme costs include any costs that relate to direct payments for the provision of healthcare or healthcare related services. Examples of programme costs for the senates and networks include the work being done on cancer, maternity, children's health, cardiovascular (cardiac, stroke, renal, diabetes), mental health, dementia and neurosciences.

The Electoral Commission informs me that minutes of its meetings are published on its website here:

http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk

Details of meetings between Ministers and external organisations are published quarterly on the departmental website at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-of-energy-climate-change/series/ministers-meeting-with-external-organisations

The Department for Education’s policy is that meetings between Ministers and external organisations are recorded appropriately and that Private Offices keep records of any minutes taken.

A list of these meetings is published by the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis. These lists are available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministers-quarterly-returns-2013

The Department for Education’s policy is that meetings between Ministers and external organisations are recorded appropriately and that Private Offices keep records of any minutes taken.

A list of these meetings is published by the Cabinet Office on a quarterly basis. These lists are available online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministers-quarterly-returns-2013

Treasury Ministers regularly meet with Ministers in other Departments as part of normal Government business. As was the case with previous

Administrations, it is not the Government's practice to provide details of all such meetings and discussions.

Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available at:

http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/minister_hospitality.htm

The Airports Commission also publish regular lists of meetings with stakeholders, including Government. This is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/airports-commission-meetings-with-stakeholders

[holding answer 26 November 2013]: Treasury Ministers have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors, as part of the process of policy development and delivery. HM Treasury publishes a list of ministerial meetings with external organisations. This is available online at:

www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmt-ministers-meetings-hospitality-gifts-and-overseas-travel

Information about all ministerial phone calls and all departmental meetings is not routinely collected and is not held centrally.