Following an earlier post, in which I referred to the officials’ box, a colleague thought it may be of interest to explain what it is. 

The officials’ box is at the top right corner of the picture.  It is just beyond the benches in the chamber.  It is occupied by civil servants drawn from the Department(s) responsible for the business before the House.  It can accommodate a maximum of five officials.  On particularly complex measures which may transcend the responsibility of several Departments, there may be seven or eight officials in attendance, two or three sitting in chairs by the box.   During Question Time, when the Questions may be directed at different Departments, there are some rapid changes of personnel in the box.

The principal responsibility of the civil servants in the box is to follow the proceedings and brief the minister who is to answer at the dispatch box.  Peers raise points they wish the minister to respond to and, if the minister does not have the information in the briefing file they have before them, a note will be passed from the officials’ box to the minister.  In the Commons, the person who collects and passes the note is the minister’s parliamentary private secretary (PPS).  In the Lords, it is one of the Doorkeepers.  The note is passed to the whip on the front bench who then passes it to the minister, who may already be at the dispatch box.

One skill that effective ministers learn is to be able to be speaking at the dispatch box while also reading and absorbing the points made on the briefing notes that appear before them.  They also learn how to keep speaking until such time as a note arrives to provide the information that has been asked for.  If it doesn’t, they normally fall back on the formula of saying they will write to the peer who raised the point. 

Formally, the officials’ box is not part of the chamber and one is not meant to refer to it in debate.  However, occasional references are made.  I referred to it once when I was introducing a debate on the Constitution Committee’s report on the regulatory state.  There was some uncertainty as to which Department actually had overall responsibility for regulation.  I said I had intended to draw attention to which Department was represented in the officials’ box but that I couldn’t as the box was empty, which rather made my point even more effectively!  The minister looked round, saw it was empty, and promptly despatched a whip to get the officials in as quickly as possible.