Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many consultations by his Department (a) are open, (b) are closed awaiting a Government response and (c) have been initiated since 2016.
Answered by Alan Duncan
All public government consultations are uploaded onto GOV.UK where they can be filtered by department, status and date. The Foreign Office has published four documents since 2016. For all of these the consultation processes have been concluded. These were: (a) Public consultation on the United Kingdom's future legal framework for imposing and implementing sanctions (2 August 2017) (published jointly with HMT and DIT); (b) Consultation on the UK's Foreign Travel Advice service (25 April 2017); (c) Defence and security innovation: proposed accelerator (11 August 2016) (published jointly with DfT, Home Office, MOD, Dstl, CDE and BEIS); and (d) BIOT Resettlement Policy Review consultation (21 January 2016). There are no consultations pending.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much money his Department has raised from the sale of (a) assets, (b) land and (c) buildings in each year since 2010.
Answered by Alistair Burt
The table below shows the proceeds from the sale of Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) assets
| Other assets | Land & Buildings |
2009/10 | 832,494 | 9,266,174 |
2010/11 | 746,784 | 19,470,110 |
2011/12 | 1,209,251 | 26,260,902 |
2012/13 | 1,399,572 | 78,861,263 |
2013/14 | 897,953 | 38,689,848 |
2014/15 | 891,265 | 3,028,819 |
2015/16 | 766,990 | 19,986,330 |
2016/17 | 1,004,035 | 56,184,837 |
The FCO does not separate value when land and buildings are sold together. The table above covers assets (mainly vehicles), land and buildings. The FCO manages its property portfolio in line with its business needs, including investment in new properties and disposal of those no longer required. Capital disposal receipts are retained for further investment by the FCO as agreed with Her Majesty's Treasury. Full details can be found in the FCO's published annual report and accounts on the gov.uk website.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Written Statement of 13 March 2018, Spring Statement, HCWS 540, if he will publish a list of where the £29.6 million allocated to his Department to realise the opportunities from EU exit will be spent.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has been allocated £29.6m for essential EU exit preparations in 2018-19. This will allow us to strengthen our diplomatic network so it is better able to engage with our European partners in support of a successful EU Exit. We will also strengthen our bilateral relationships as we prepare to leave the EU, and will increase our staffing in London to work on a range of related issues. As with all Reserve funding, finalised allocations will be confirmed at Supplementary Estimates 2018-19 in early 2019.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK-based staff of his Department there were in (a) 2010, (b) 2011, (c) 2012, (d) 2013, (e) 2014, (f) 2015, (g) 2016 and (h) 2017.
Answered by Alan Duncan
On 31 March of each year listed, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) had the following numbers of UK-based staff:
2010: 4990
2011: 4786
2012: 4576
2013: 4836
2014: 4609
2015: 4469
2016: 4295
2017: 4499
Up until 31 March 2016 our staff numbers included staff working for UK Trade and Investment (now Department for International Trade). The 31 March 2017 figures include 223 staff working in roles funded by cross-Whitehall programmes.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate his Department made prior to the EU referendum being held of the administrative and travel costs of renegotiating the UK's membership with the EU.
Answered by Alan Duncan
We do not hold central records of this data.
Asked by: Peter Dowd (Labour - Bootle)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress has been made on tackling Daesh in Libya.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
On 15th December 2016, I welcomed the news that Libyan forces aligned to the Government of National Accord (GNA) defeated Daesh forces in Sirte – Daesh’s most important base outside Syria and Iraq. Although the situation remains fragile, we continue to work with the GNA to help them tackle the threat posed by extremist groups.