To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families whether any written instructions have been provided to the Accounting Officer for his Department and its predecessors in accordance with paragraph 5.5 of the Ministerial Code since May 1997. (315315)

I can confirm that no written instruction has been provided from Ministers to the Department’s current Accounting Officer or his predecessors, since May 1997, in respect of an action that could be considered to breach the requirements of propriety or regularity.