FOI2024-00379: Sarah Munby's attendance at the Franco-British Colloque
Response to a freedom of information (FOI) request for details of Sarah Munby’s attendance at the Franco British Colloque in January 2024.
Documents
Details
| Reference number | FOI2024-00379 |
|---|---|
| Date of request | 11 September 2024 |
| Date of response | 8 October 2024 |
| Outcome | Information partially disclosed |
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (the department) received the following request for information which we responded to under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA):
I would like to have details of Sarah Munby’s attendance at the Franco British Colloque, January 2024. This is recorded in the “Senior Officials Hospitality” release as follows
Sarah Munby: 2024-01-25:Franco-British Colloque:Hotel - 2 night stay at Trianon Palace
For context, the Sarah Munby is clearly attending the Colloque in her official capacity (as is shown by the release, and the attached attendance list prepared by the 2023 Colloque, which lists her under her official title “Permanent Secretary, Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy” ).
For further context, the Colloque is co-chaired by Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chair of St Gobain (a company implicated in the Grenfell fire), and it is funded by St Gobain, along with other companies including Air Liquide, Ardiam, BNP Paribas, Egis, Engie, Euronext, Groupe ADP, International SOS, Lazard Freres, Orange, Rothschild & Co, Safran, TotalEnergies, Veolia and Vivendi.
In effect the Colloque is a business-funded meeting where the Permanent Secretary has met with many corporate executives. I would like to get more information including the names of those attending the Colloque.
I would assume there is a letter or email sent to Sarah Munby giving a timetable of the event, the names of those attending , and similar details – I would like to see documents of this nature.