Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many bonuses were awarded to senior civil servants working at his Department and its agencies in each of the last six years; and what the total cost of those bonuses was.
Answered by Alan Duncan
As part of the Government’s transparency agenda, departments publish annual information on the number of awards and spend on end-year and in-year Non-Consolidated Performance Related Pay. This information can be found on the FCO’s website - https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/foreign-and-commonwealth-office-non-consolidated-performance-related-pay - and on data.gov.uk. Information for future years will be published in the usual way
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which (a) external data analysts and (b) data collection companies his Department has used in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
All Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) requests to use external contractor staff must be approved by the Chief Operating Officer during the on-going Civil Service-wide recruitment freeze. Our records show that only one request has been submitted to specifically bring in an external data analyst for a time-limited period over the last five years. This individual was recruited via the FCO’s managed service provider, Hays Recruitment. The FCO does not centrally hold data on the use of data collection companies. To provide this information would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his counterpart in the US administration on UK nationals who have been refused entry to the US for business or tourism under the visa waiver programme because of dual citizenship with a country on the US travel ban list.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We have not made representations on this particular issue because affected individuals can still apply for a visa for travel to the US. US immigration decisions are a matter for the US authorities alone.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much money his Department has spent on hospitality in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Our hospitality expenditure over the last 5 years is set out below. As the majority of our expenditure is overseas this is affected by variations in exchange rates.
| 2012-13 | £9,096,057.53 |
| 2013-14 | £9,010,820.18 |
| 2014-15 | £8,177,552.36 |
| 2015-16 | £7,984,424.09 |
| 2016-17 | £9,386,848.70 |
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether (a) his Department and (b) any of his Department's agencies entered into contracts with Strategic Communication Laboratories in each year since 2010.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its agencies have not entered into any contracts with Strategic Communication Laboratories since 2010.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether (a) his Department and (b) any of its agencies has entered into contracts with Cambridge Analytica since 2012.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its agencies have not entered into any contracts with Cambridge Analytica since 2012.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the cost of purchases for the Government Hospitality Wine Cellar.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Government Hospitality wine cellar is currently self-financing. New purchases are funded from sales of older stock. We do not anticipate that the costs of the small-scale purchases made for the cellar will be significantly affected by the departure of the UK from the EU. In 2016-17, 49% of purchases by volume were of English wines.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many people in his Department with responsibility for social media are employed on an (a) full and (b) part-time basis.
Answered by Mark Field
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office encourages all staff to make full use of the opportunities provided by social media support the delivery of FCO objectives as outlined in FCO social media guidance published on GOV.UK.
There is a small digital team In London whose roles include producing communications material for social media, providing consular assistance online, training and evaluation as well as other communications tasks.
Overseas small digital hubs in five locations provide training and advice in effective use of social media as part of their work. Communication roles at Post, as well as those of Heads and Deputy Heads of Mission, and various operation roles will often have some responsibility for using social media as part of their work where using digital comms helps deliver our objectives.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent representations he has made to the Government of Malaysia on that government's treatment of atheists and apostates.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK remains committed to standing up for the freedom of all individuals, both religious and non-religious, so that they may practice their beliefs free from fear. We are aware of, and concerned by, the recent response to a meeting of the Atheist Republic in Malaysia, which included death threats being made on social media. We regularly discuss human rights with the Malaysian government, including at Ministerial level. Officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London meet periodically with representatives of Malaysian Civil Society to hear their concerns. We will continue to monitor human rights issues and internal developments in Malaysia, working with the EU and other foreign missions in Kuala Lumpur, raising our concerns as appropriate. We actively promote Freedom of Religion or Belief at the UN Human Rights Council, where we support resolutions designed to foster greater tolerance.
Asked by: Deidre Brock (Scottish National Party - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to help de-escalate the conflict in Yemen; and whether the Government supports a UN-led independent investigation into alleged violations of human rights by all sides of that conflict.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The UK has played a leading role in diplomatic efforts to de-escalate the conflict in Yemen, including bringing together key international actors to try to find a peaceful solution. The UK proposed a UN Security Council Presidential Statement (PRST) which was agreed on 15 June. This statement called for a return to UN-led peace talks and an end to the fighting. We support the UN Special Envoy to Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, in facilitating a credible peace process in Yemen and we are providing £1 million to the Special Envoy's office to bolster UN capacity to facilitate the peace process.
The UK is concerned by the human rights situation in Yemen and takes allegations of violations of international human rights law very seriously. That is why we strongly supported the Human Rights Council resolution passed on 29 September. We welcome the agreement of an impactful, single consensus resolution on the human rights situation in Yemen. This text has the potential to make a real difference for Yemeni people. We will work to ensure it is fully implemented.