Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK civil servants who have been seconded to the EU are accruing pension rights.
Answered by Alan Duncan
There are currently 66 UK civil servants known to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office who are seconded to the EU. Civil servants who are formally seconded to the EU remain on their department's payroll and terms and conditions of service, and accrue pension rights according to membership of one of the six Civil Service pension schemes. The FCO does not hold the data centrally on secondees' individual pension arrangements.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many citizens of other EU countries work in his Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Aliens’ Employment Act 1955 makes it an absolute requirement that all staff recruited to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on UK terms and conditions must be UK nationals. The FCO therefore employs UK-based staff who are UK Nationals, or dual nationals where one of those nationalities is the UK. Our executive agency, FCO Services, applies the same recruitment principles. Neither FCO nor FCO Services hold details of any additional nationality held by UK members of staff.
Other FCO agencies do not record the information centrally. However, our non departmental public bodies have a total of 10 EU nationals.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what policy evaluations have been carried out by external organisations for his Department and its agencies in each financial year since 2010-11; whether the output of those evaluations was published; which organisation carried out each such evaluation; and what the value of each contract to provide that evaluation was.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Information requested is not readily available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what amount his Department and its agencies spent on research and development in each year since 2010-11; and what proportion such spending was of total departmental spending.
Answered by David Lidington
Information on the total amount of expenditure by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on both research and development and the total departmental spending on services is publically available on gov.uk as part of the Country and Regional Analysis statistical release. This information covers 2009-10 through to 2013-14 and can be found at the following web link:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/country-and-regional-analysis-2014
This data can be accessed by using either the ‘interactive tables’ or the ‘database’.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of undisputed invoices his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies paid within five days in the last period for which figures are available.
Answered by David Lidington
Figures below relate to FY 2013-14 | |
Department/agency/non-departmental public body | Percentage of undisputed invoices paid within five days |
Foreign and Commonwealth Office | 85%* |
FCO Services | 86% |
British Council | 0%** |
Westminster Foundation for Democracy | 31% |
Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission | 89% |
Wilton Park | Data could only be provided at disproportionate cost |
Great Britain China Centre | Data could only be provided at disproportionate cost |
*This response relates to the UK only. Information regarding invoices paid by the FCO, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies overseas could be supplied only at disproportionate cost.
** As a non-central Government Body, the British Council pays suppliers as per their payment terms.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what requirements his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies place on suppliers in respect of their payment terms to subcontractors as part of their standard terms and conditions.
Answered by David Lidington
Contracts awarded under Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) standard terms and conditions obligate prime contractors (Tier-1 suppliers) to pay suppliers within 30 days. Work is underway to meet new obligations under The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 which places a legal requirement on the FCO to use contract conditions which cascade a 30 day payment term throughout the entirety of our supply chain.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of the amount (a) his Department and (b) its agencies and non-departmental public bodies spent on procurement was paid to small and medium-sized enterprises (i) directly and (ii) through the supply chain in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by David Lidington
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office spent the following percentage of its UK spend directly and through the supply chain with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs):
2013/14: (i) Direct: 21% (ii) Indirect (through the supply chain): 8%
We are unable to answer this question in its current format for our Arms Length Bodies without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chuka Umunna (Liberal Democrat - Streatham)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of suppliers to his Department and its agencies and non-departmental public bodies are signatories to the Prompt Payment Code.
Answered by David Lidington
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is a signatory to the Prompt Payment Code. However, we do not hold this data about our suppliers centrally and cannot answer this question in its current format without disproportionate cost.