Political Impartiality

Mr. Hunt
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what the declared party political affiliations are of members of the boards of (a) the National Lottery distributors, (b) non-departmental public bodies and (c) agencies within the responsibilities of his Department. [Official Report, 7 February 2008; Vol. 471, c. 7MC.]

Mr. Sutcliffe
In accordance with the Code of Practice of the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, board members are required to declare details of political activity and are asked to include the name of the political party they have been active for. Applicants are not required to provide details of party political membership or affiliation but may do so if they choose.

Of currently serving board members for DCMS bodies, 47 board members in total have made a political activity declaration. Of these, eight are from a lottery distributor; 39 from a non-departmental sponsored body and none from departmental agencies.

In terms of political activity this can be further broken down as follows: Of the eight lottery distributor board members who made a declaration: seven were active for the Labour party and one declared political activity independent of a political party. Of the 39 non-departmental sponsored body board members who made a declaration, 11 were active for the Conservative party, 23 for the Labour party, 3 for the Liberal Democrats and two declared politically independent activity.