Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many employee hours have been spent on the merger of the Department for International Development and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office does not hold this information.

Given the all-encompassing nature of the merger process, officials from across the full breadth of the FCDO engage in the merger process as required. As officials are not required to keep a detailed record of time spent it is not possible to accurately assess the number of hours designated to merger activity across the whole department.