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<p>The Government, including the Civil Service, is committed to being as accommodating
as possible when requests are made by Select Committees. The Cabinet Office has dedicated
guidance for Civil Servants about giving evidence to House of Lords Select Committees.
Officials will always carefully consider requests to give evidence. When they do accept
such invitations, they require Ministerial agreement and are there to represent the
Minister's views.</p><p>In the event that a Select Committee requests a named civil
servant from a department and the department feels that they are not the most appropriate
person to represent the Minister, the department has the right to suggest an alternative
to the Committee. There may be rare examples where the Department and Ministers feel
an official is unable to attend, but the guidance is clear that if a Department considers
it is unable to meet any requests from the Select Committee, they should inform the
Committee as soon as practicably possible and set out the reasons why.</p><p>As Leader
of the House of Lords, I have made it clear to my Ministerial Colleagues, that Ministers
in both Houses should make every effort to facilitate Select Committee requests, including
evidence session attendance.</p><p> </p>
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