Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, further to the answer of 29 July 2026, to Question HL2091, on Government Departments: Overseas Workers, for what reason Pyongyang was removed from the hardship list.

Hardship allowance is paid to compensate His Majesty's Government (HMG) staff and their families for the additional costs of maintaining quality of life at hardship Posts and to reflect the wider challenges faced in locations globally when compared to living and working in the UK.

Each Post is assigned an individual hardship score through an annual review process. Allowance rates are determined by the number of points above the qualifying threshold.

Hardship scores are based on a combination of two independent scores, which are underpinned by comprehensive and robust reporting and analysis.

Employment Conditions Abroad (ECA)'s location ranking scoring system is used to make up the majority of the total hardship points for each location. ECA generates the scores using data collected from expatriates and independent sources, assessing factors across a number of categories, including Natural Phenomenon, Air Pollution, Language, Culture, Goods and Services, External Isolation, News and Media, Recreation, Housing, Utilities Education, Personal Security and Socio-Political Tensions.

ECA scores are combined with an additional Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) security score, which reflects the additional security risks faced by FCDO/HMG staff, over and above private sector employees, which mostly relates to terrorism and hostile intelligence threats.