Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many diplomatic cars have been sold by his Department in each year since 2010; how much each car was sold for; and how much was raised in total from such sales.
Answered by David Lidington
Responsibility for purchase and sale of diplomatic vehicles is devolved to Embassies and High Commissions. Diplomatic vehicles are sold when no longer cost-effective to run, or when fewer vehicles are needed. These vehicles are sold for a fair, local market price. Sales of all vehicles raised £777,000 in 2013/14 and £1.166million in 2012/13.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many staff of his Department have been seconded to (a) other Ministries of Foreign Affairs and (b) international organisations in each year since 2010; and to which (i) other Ministries of Foreign Affairs and (ii) international organisations such staff have been seconded.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) staff can be seconded to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) or international organisations on agreement between the Directorate, Post and the MFA or international organisations. These secondments are a valuable tool for the FCO to meet objectives, increase ties with partner governments or international organisations and develop staff skills and experience.
There is no centrally held record of each of these secondments since 2010 and to answer this question would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many secondees from which other Ministries of Foreign Affairs his Department has received in each year since 2010.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Foreign Service Officers from other Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFA) are seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on agreement between the Directorate, Post and MFA. These secondments are a valuable tool for the FCO to meet objectives and increase ties with partner governments.
There is no centrally held record of each of these secondments since 2010 and to answer this question would incur disproportionate costs.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the cost was of his Department's Black and Minority Ethnic campaign.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) spent £21,968 on the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Campaign in the financial year 2013-14, excluding staff costs. We expect to spend a further £20,000 in financial Year 2014-2015.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is committed to promoting diversity and inclusion for all its employees. Further diversity and equality information is available from the FCO's Diversity and Equality Report.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many individuals in his Department have participated in (a) Disability awareness and (b) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender training in each year since 2010.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) Disability Policy and Support Team arrange disability awareness sessions for staff. Between September 2010 and June 2014 we held 205 sessions reaching an estimated 2,460 staff as follows:
Year Sessions/Staff
2010 12/ 144
2011 68/ 816
2012 61/ 732
2013 50/ 600
2014 14/ 168
The Civil Service Learning (CSL) Disability Awareness and their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) awareness e-learning courses were made available from February 2013 and April 2013 respectively. Based on those staff completing evaluation records at least 142 staff have competed these so far as follows:
Disability Awareness e-learning: 2013 – 51; January to 10 July 2014 - 30.
LGBT Awareness e-learning: 2013 – 28; January to 10 July 2014 - 33.
FCO staff associations for people with disabilities (ENABLE) and LGBT staff (FLAGG) also hold regular awareness raising sessions and external speaker events each year, across a range of topics, that all staff are welcome to attend. Further information on FCO initiatives to promote diversity and equality information is available in the FCO's Diversity and Equality Report.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what professional courses civil servants in his Department have attended since 2010; and how many officials attended each such course.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
I refer the hon member to the answer given by my rt hon friend, the Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Hugh Robertson), Official Record 14 July 2014 : Column 483W.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much has been spent on the GREAT campaign in each country in each year since the campaign's launch.
Answered by Lord Swire
From February 2012 to March 2013 the total budget for the GREAT Britain Campaign was £37m. This was split predominantly between the following 10 markets.
Brazil, India, China, Hong Kong, US, Australia, Canada, Japan, France and Germany
For April 2013 to March 2014 the total budget was £30m across 12 markets:- China, Hong Kong, India, Brazil, France, Germany, Turkey, South Korea, US, Mexico, Russia, Indonesia.
April 2014 to March 2015 the total budget will be £46.5m across 13 markets:- China, Hong Kong, India, Brazil, US, Gulf, France, Germany, Turkey, South Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Emerging Europe (Poland/Czech Republic/Hungary/Romania/Slovakia)
Because of the way the campaign's finances were organised, a breakdown of expenditure by country is not available and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Sheila Gilmore (Labour - Edinburgh East)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many complaints of sexual harassment in his Department have been (a) formally reported and (b) upheld in each year since 2010.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Bullying or harassment is never tolerated in the department and any reported incidents are investigated as a priority. There have been 3 sexual harassment complaints made by FCO employees against other employees since 2010. Of these, 2 complaints have been upheld. The breakdown of cases by year is as follows:
• 2010 – 0
• 2011 – 0
• 2012 – 1 (not upheld)
• 2013 – 2
• 2014 – 0 </form>