A cabinet minister held three meetings with a Chinese state-owned nuclear
power company for which no minutes have been retained, The Times can
reveal.

Anne-Marie Trevelyan met representatives of China General Nuclear (CGN) in
April, June and July last year while serving as energy minister. Two of the
sensitive meetings took place after the United States sanctioned the
company for its links to the Chinese military.

Liz Truss, who promoted Trevelyan to transport secretary on becoming prime
minister, intends to declare China a threat to national security. It also
comes amid concerns about whether China should have a role in key national
infrastructure, which raises questions about what exactly was discussed.

When ministers meet external parties on government business it is standard
practice to bring civil servants to take note of what was discussed, even
if no decisions are taken. Where the guest list of a meeting is
particularly sensitive, as in these cases, it is even more unusual for a
note not to be taken and retained.

… continued in.

<https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/42669416-3d94-11ed-b24d-96120f17513d?shareToken=17a181e708e225e210a9e82a17446695>

On 26/09/2022 22:14, Recliner wrote:
> A cabinet minister held three meetings with a Chinese state-owned nuclear
> power company for which no minutes have been retained, The Times can
> reveal.
>
> Anne-Marie Trevelyan met representatives of China General Nuclear (CGN) in
> April, June and July last year while serving as energy minister. Two of the
> sensitive meetings took place after the United States sanctioned the
> company for its links to the Chinese military.
>
> Liz Truss, who promoted Trevelyan to transport secretary on becoming prime
> minister, intends to declare China a threat to national security. It also
> comes amid concerns about whether China should have a role in key national
> infrastructure, which raises questions about what exactly was discussed.
>
> When ministers meet external parties on government business it is standard
> practice to bring civil servants to take note of what was discussed, even
> if no decisions are taken. Where the guest list of a meeting is
> particularly sensitive, as in these cases, it is even more unusual for a
> note not to be taken and retained.
>
> … continued in.
>
> <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/42669416-3d94-11ed-b24d-96120f17513d?shareToken=17a181e708e225e210a9e82a17446695>
>
>

I recall noticing that the Partygate photographs showed senior civil
servants at a so called meeting without note books to record discussions
and decisions made. It's for this reason that I dismissed any idea that
these were genuine meetings.

How three sets of minutes can go missing like this is beyond me.
However I find it inexplicable that civil servants present at
Trevelyan's meetings did not take notes which could be used to
retrospectively produce some sort of minutes. CGN can not exploit the
situation to claim certain decisions were made to their advantage.

The other conclusion is that the Conservative Government are
deliberately not minuting meetings.

On Tue, 27 Sep 2022 10:22:31 +0100, martin.coffee@round-midnight.org.uk wrote:

>On 26/09/2022 22:14, Recliner wrote:
>> A cabinet minister held three meetings with a Chinese state-owned nuclear
>> power company for which no minutes have been retained, The Times can
>> reveal.
>>
>> Anne-Marie Trevelyan met representatives of China General Nuclear (CGN) in
>> April, June and July last year while serving as energy minister. Two of the
>> sensitive meetings took place after the United States sanctioned the
>> company for its links to the Chinese military.
>>
>> Liz Truss, who promoted Trevelyan to transport secretary on becoming prime
>> minister, intends to declare China a threat to national security. It also
>> comes amid concerns about whether China should have a role in key national
>> infrastructure, which raises questions about what exactly was discussed.
>>
>> When ministers meet external parties on government business it is standard
>> practice to bring civil servants to take note of what was discussed, even
>> if no decisions are taken. Where the guest list of a meeting is
>> particularly sensitive, as in these cases, it is even more unusual for a
>> note not to be taken and retained.
>>
>> … continued in.
>>
>> <https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/42669416-3d94-11ed-b24d-96120f17513d?shareToken=17a181e708e225e210a9e82a17446695>
>>
>>
>
>I recall noticing that the Partygate photographs showed senior civil
>servants at a so called meeting without note books to record discussions
>and decisions made. It's for this reason that I dismissed any idea that
>these were genuine meetings.
>
>How three sets of minutes can go missing like this is beyond me.
>However I find it inexplicable that civil servants present at
>Trevelyan's meetings did not take notes which could be used to
>retrospectively produce some sort of minutes. CGN can not exploit the
>situation to claim certain decisions were made to their advantage.
>
>The other conclusion is that the Conservative Government are
>deliberately not minuting meetings.

I don't know much about the new Transport Secretary, but I can think of several other former ministers who would
probably do that (eg, Patel, Hancock, Johnson).