Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department is monitoring content that is publicly available on social networking sites using overt monitoring techniques.

In line with the Foreign Office social media guidance [www.gov.uk/government/publications/fco-social-media-guidance] published online, the Department encourages all staff to make full use of the opportunities provided by social media to help deliver the Department's objectives. This includes, but is not limited to, monitoring social media:

• to respond to relevant enquiries on FCO social media channels
• to monitor the effectiveness of government campaigns using the Government Communications Service Evaluation Framework https://gcs.civilservice.gov.uk/guidance/evaluation/tools-and-resources/
• around events - to collect information and identify influential accounts
• responses to consultations and crowd sourcing exercises that can be used in the formulation of policy

FCO staff are expected to use social media for research: following discussions, keeping track of news and building networks as part of their day to day work. This may involve setting up an account with a third-party monitoring tool.