Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many contractors working for his Department have had their employment status assessed in relation to the new IR35 rules on off-payroll working; and how many of those staff are subject to those rules.
Answered by Nigel Adams
IR35 assessments for contractors working at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) are carried out by a managed service provider.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of organisations that hold contracts with his Department pay the National Living Wage.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We oblige all of our Contractors to ensure they are compliant with the National Living Wage legislation for staff employed in the UK.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department has paid to hon. Members under section 4 of the Ministerial and other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 since 13 July 2016.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Any such payments are published in the department's audited annual accounts, and these accounts can be found on gov.uk.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of days of sick leave taken by staff in his Department for mental health reasons in each year since 2010.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The number of days of sick absence taken by staff in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for mental health reasons in each year since 2010 recorded on HR systems was as follows:
2010: 2,159
2011: 888
2012: 4,974
2013: 4,730
2014: 3,123
2015: 2,180:
2016: 4,772:
2017: 4,734
2018 (up until 30 June*): 1,764
* It is standard practice to report a year's worth of sickness absence data on a quarterly basis (in arrears). Our last quarterly reporting period was until June 2018.
The figures above relate to FCO UK-based staff only, and do not include local staff employed by missions overseas, for whom records are not held centrally.
"Mental health" includes any absence recorded in the categories of depression, mental illness and stress.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish a list of the mobile phone applications developed by his Department and its agencies in the last three years; and what the cost to the public purse was of developing of each of those applications.
Answered by Alan Duncan
This Department and its agencies have not developed any mobile phone applications in the last three years. The cost to the public purse is therefore nil.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many members of the House of Lords hold (a) paid and (b) unpaid roles within (i) his Department and (ii) his Department's agencies.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We do not hold a central record of all those who hold roles, either paid or unpaid, who are members of the House of Lords.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many male staff of his Department have taken shared parental leave; and what the average length of that leave was.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Since the legislation was introduced on 5 April 2015, 29 male UK Based staff members have taken shared parental leave. The average length of leave was 11 weeks.
Asked by: Justin Madders (Labour - Ellesmere Port and Bromborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many non-disclosure agreements his Department has signed with employees in each of the last five years for which figures are available.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We have not signed any non-disclosure agreements with employees in the last five years.