Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many FTE staff have been in the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative team of experts in each (a) calendar and (b) financial year since 2012.

The Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative (PSVI) Team of Experts is a roster of 28 independent specialists in sexual and gender-based violence, psychology and training, law and social work, hosted within the Civilian Stabilisation Group (CSG) of the Office for Conflict, Stabilisation and Mediation (OCSM). Given it is a roster of deployable experts there are no full-time employees (FTE) in the PSVI Team of Experts. Members of the Team of Experts are contracted for specific pieces of work, which are advertised for recruitment through the CSG and are generally contracted on a self-employed basis. Deployments include supporting the development of FCDO policy and building capacities of governments, the UN and NGOs overseas. The Team of Experts has deployed over 90 times to countries such as Ukraine, Bangladesh, Uganda and Ethiopia.

The PSVI is made up of dedicated teams covering policy issues around conflict-related sexual violence and the PSVI international conference (temporary team). The PSVI sits within the Gender and Children in Conflict (GCiC) department, part of OCSM, and is supported by GCiC Social Development Advisers.