To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many meetings Alan Milburn attended with (a) ministers and (b) officials in his Department between 5 July 2024 and 9 November 2024; and how his Department communicated with Mr Milburn in that period.

As my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said in Parliament on 9 September 2024, “The right honourable Alan Milburn is a former Member of this House, a member of the Privy Council and a former Health Secretary. There is a clear distinction between inviting people with a wide range of experience and perspectives into the Department to have policy debates and to generate ideas, and having meetings that are about transacting Government business. I can assure the House that nothing commercially sensitive has been shared with Alan Milburn.”

He also said that “transparency matters. That is why meetings in the Department, and their attendees, will be published in the right and proper way on a quarterly basis.” As part of this quarterly return, and in line with guidance, we will be listing the purpose of the meetings.