Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many former prisoners have been employed by his Department in each of the last five years.
Answered by Alan Duncan
Having security clearance is a prerequisite for employment with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Spent and unspent criminal convictions are inspected as part of security clearance checks.
We do not keep data on the number of staff or new entrants who have a criminal record and/or spent time in prison.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information his Department holds on which EU (a) Commissioners and (b) officials receive a higher salary than the Prime Minister.
Answered by David Lidington
Information on the salaries of EU officials by grade and details of how Commissioners’ salaries are calculated can be found on http://ec.europa.eu/civil_service/docs/toc100_en.pdf. The EU Commission website also contains numbers of Commission officials at each grade.Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many staff in his Department and non-departmental public bodies receive (a) home to work travel allowance, (b) a car allowance and (c) subsidised health insurance.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
There are no staff employed by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) who are in receipt of (a) home to work travel allowance, (b) a car allowance and (c) subsidised health insurance. This is also the case for FCO Services, the British Council, Wilton Park Executive Agency, the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and the Great Britain China Centre.
To obtain information for local staff employed directly by our overseas embassies and missions would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which regulations his Department introduced as a result of EU legislation in (a) 2013, (b) 2014 and (c) 2015 to date; which regulations his Department expects to implement as a result of EU legislation in (i) 2016 and (ii) 2017; and what estimate he has made of the cost of such regulation to the (A) public purse and (B) private sector.
Answered by David Lidington
Details of all EU-derived legislation on the statute book in the UK at the present time can be found on legislation.gov.uk. Information on EU legislation in 2016/2017 is not available. Information on the cost of regulations is not available and to collate would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent on carbon offsetting in each of the last three years; and to which companies payments in respect of carbon offsetting were made in each such year.
Answered by David Lidington
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) publishes the amount it sets aside for the purchase of Gold Standard Certified Emissions Reductions (CERS) each year in its Annual Statement of Accounts. Actual purchase of CERS is undertaken in the subsequent Financial Year (FY) through auction of the Government Carbon Offsetting Facility (GCOF).
In FY 2012/13 the FCO set aside £26,419. Actual expenditure was £10,139.16
In FY 2013/14 the FCO set aside £39,962. Actual expenditure was £25,010.92
In FY 2014/15 the FCO has set aside £31,972. GCOF auction is scheduled for 22 September 2015.
For FY 12/13 and FY 13/14 the supplier was EDF Trading Carbon Footprint Ltd. The supplier for FY 14/15 will not be known until the auction convenes later in September.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 July 2015 to Question 6077, if he will publish and place in the Library the guidance on engaging with the tobacco industry issued to staff in December 2013.
Answered by Lord Swire
I have arranged for the revised December 2013 guidance to overseas posts on engagement with the tobacco industry to be placed in the Library of the House.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 July 2015 to Question 6077, which organisations he consulted when drafting that guidance.
Answered by Lord Swire
The Department of Health were consulted and became co-authors of this guidance as they lead on tobacco control and the implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. We also consulted with UK Trade and Investment. Action on Smoking and Health also sent us their recommendations.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 July 2015 to Question 6077, how many (a) meetings and (b) emails his Department has had with the organisation Action on Smoking and Health in drafting these guidelines.
Answered by Lord Swire
Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials met with Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in June 2012 to discuss updating our 2005 tobacco guidance so as to ensure it reflected our commitments under Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control which was adopted in 2009. This department exchanged six emails with ASH between 30 June 2012 and December 2013 when the new guidelines were issued to posts.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what guidance he has given to staff of his Department on engaging with the tobacco industry.
Answered by Lord Swire
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issued new guidance to all its staff in December 2013 on engaging with the tobacco industry. This guidance was drafted with the Department of Health to ensure that our policy on engagement is consistent with our World Health Organisation obligations on tobacco control.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on his Department's officials meeting representatives of the tobacco industry in an official capacity.
Answered by Lord Swire
Our policy on meeting with representatives from the tobacco industry in an official capacity is laid out in the “Guidance for Overseas Posts on support to the Tobacco Industry”. This was drafted in 2013 to ensure that our engagement with the tobacco industry is compatible with our World Health Organisation obligations on tobacco control.
The guidance is circulated annually to all staff and, in the interests of transparency, is published for viewing at www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/287119/Guidance_for_Overseas_Posts_on_support_to_the_Tobacco_Industry.pdf.