Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an estimate of (a) the size of his Department's workforce and (b) the cost of his Department's workforce in the (i) 2025-26, (ii) 2026-27, (iii) 2027-28, (iv) 2028-29 and (v) 2029-30 financial years.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has a workforce budget of £1.02 billion for Financial Year 2025-26, which currently supports a workforce of 17,300, inclusive of 5900 UK based staff in the UK, 2,200 UK based staff overseas and 9,200 non-civil servant country-based staff employed in-country.

The FCDO is working through our Spending Review settlement with HM Treasury, which will enable detailed workforce projections for the Spending Review period to be made. Overall, our expectation is that the size of the workforce will reduce in the coming years, but spending decisions will need to be balanced against investment in technology, estate, and capability to ensure the FCDO can continue to deliver the government's priorities.