Recommendation RHI-27: Private Office Record Keeping
From The Report of the Independent Public Inquiry into the Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) Scheme, published 13 March 2020.
Recommendation
Ministers' responses to submissions should be formally and timeously recorded and disseminated to officials by the Minister's Private Office. That responsibility should not be left to policy teams. One clear corollary is the need for a better system to carry out these essential administrative tasks and the Inquiry recommends a much stronger role for ministerial Private Offices which should be staffed by officials capable of supporting Ministers in this and other tasks to a high standard.
In brief (written by this site)
The Inquiry recommended strengthening ministerial Private Offices to record and disseminate ministers' decisions. In October 2021, the Northern Ireland Executive accepted the recommendation in full, reporting that it had introduced new guidance, upgraded private office staffing grades, and reviewed records management (Northern Ireland Executive response, Oct 2021). In October 2024, the Northern Ireland Audit Office reported that the Department of Finance confirmed these arrangements remained in place after ministers returned in February 2024, with no further guidance revisions (Northern Ireland Audit Office, Oct 2024).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 1 Oct 2026. The record below is the sources' own words.
Government response
These recommendations can be accepted in full.
They have been addressed through work to date through:
• revisions to the NICS Code of Ethics and production of the Guidance for Ministers;
• new corporate guidance developed for Private Offices;
• the strengthening of Private Offices by the redefining and higher grading of the Private Secretary and Assistant Private Secretary roles;
• planned induction, training and ongoing support for Private Office staff;
• existing practices such as reviews of retention and disposal schedules and Information Asset Registers;
• the project to review how the NICS carries out its Records Management responsibilities and improving its current electronic storage system (HPRM) for all users;
• the launch of an NICS data-protection and information management hub.
• Completion of NICS reviews of records management and HPRM optimisation;
• upgrade of the current records management software;
Further work is required to
• review and update Private Office guidance in light of recent experience;
• further address the culture and behaviours surrounding record keeping in the NICS;
• Complete a reporting exercise to ensure that products designed to address these recommendations have been appropriately embedded within all Departments
How this response relates to the recommendation
Site note: These are the Northern Ireland Executive's words from Annex A, "Summary of Recommendations and Response", published on this page with the Executive Response to the RHI Inquiry Report Recommendations and Action Plan on 7 October 2021, the day the Executive agreed it. The Department of Finance publishes the response, but it is the Executive's, so the site records it under the Executive. The annex is a PDF that the publisher asks automated readers not to fetch, so the site cites the page that links it.
Site note: Annex A gives this passage once, for the recommendations under its heading "RECORD KEEPING": recommendations 26, 27 and 28. It is the Executive's response to the group, not to this recommendation alone.
Delivery
No statement on delivery from Northern Ireland Executive has been found in the sources searched (last checked 31 January 2026). This is separate from the response above.
What other bodies have found
In their own words. These do not change the delivery statement above.
NI Audit Office (15 October 2024)
Implemented.
In respect of previous actions undertaken which resulted in an NIAO assessment of Implemented by 2022, DoF has now confirmed that, in 2024:
these arrangements remain in place and have been operating, and as previously described, since the return of Ministers in February 2024;
there are no further developments to note in the area; and
no further revisions have been made to the Private Office Guidance since this was issued in 2021.
Site note: This is the Northern Ireland Audit Office's assessment, from Appendix 4 of its second report on the Inquiry's recommendations (15 October 2024), the column "2024 NIAO Assessment". The Audit Office monitors implementation at the Inquiry's request; its assessment is shown beside the Executive's own account and does not set the recommendation's status.
Source
Responsible bodies
Themes and tags
Who has spoken
- Northern Ireland Executive
Response - NI Audit Office
Finding