Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many FTE equivalent staff in (a) their Department and (b) each Arm's Length Body it sponsors are dedicated to fulfilment of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED); what the (i) annual employment and (ii) total annual cost incurred is as a result of PSED and compliance with PSED for each of those bodies; what the outputs are from the work of PSED teams and personnel dedicated to PSED; and if they will publish an assessment of their Department's compliance with PSED.

The Public Sector Equality Duty is a statutory obligation under section 149 of the Equality Act 2010. Compliance is embedded in departmental policy, operational and service delivery work, rather than undertaken solely by dedicated personnel. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) do not hold central records of full time equivalent (FTE) staff or costs attributable solely to Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) activity. Separating PSED activity from ordinary business would incur disproportionate cost.