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Written Question
Malaysia: Conditions of Employment
Wednesday 17th November 2021

Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions she had on workers' rights and forced labour during her November 2021 visit to Malaysia.

Answered by Amanda Milling - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury

The UK takes the issue of forced labour very seriously. The British High Commission in Kuala Lumpur has been working with the Malaysian Government, manufacturers and industry bodies, civil society and the National Human Rights Commission to improve labour conditions and build capacity on social compliance auditing.

During her visit to Malaysia on 8 November, the Foreign Secretary and her counterpart, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin, agreed to launch a UK - Malaysia Strategic Dialogue. The Strategic Dialogue will look to enhance discussions with Malaysia on a broad range of bilateral issues including those related to trade and investment and human rights.


Written Question
Brightway Holdings: Malaysia
Wednesday 24th March 2021

Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the oral contribution of the hon. Member for Sefton Central of 18 March 2021, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Malaysian Government's investigation into the involvement of Brightway Holdings in modern slavery.

Answered by Nigel Adams

The Government has not made an assessment of allegations of Brightway Holdings involvement in modern slavery in Malaysia nor of the Malaysian Government's investigations of the company, which are still ongoing.

The UK is committed to ending modern slavery, forced labour and human trafficking worldwide by 2030. In Malaysia, NHS Supply Chain works with suppliers of personal protective equipment (PPE) to increase awareness of the issues and risks that can exist in supply chains and to provide guidance around managing labour standards and adherence to NHS Supply Chain's Supplier Code of Conduct.

The UK has funded projects in Malaysia through the Home Office's Modern Slavery Innovation Fund (£248,000 in 2020/21), including responsible recruiting in public sector supply chains, workers representation and partnership with the Ethical Trading Initiative.


Written Question
British Nationals Abroad: Coronavirus
Tuesday 2nd June 2020

Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the ability of UK citizens to travel abroad during the covid-19 outbreak in order to register the birth of surrogate babies and accompany them to the UK.

Answered by Nigel Adams

The FCO are assisting commissioning parents who have surrogacy arrangements overseas. We appreciate that Covid-19 has brought new challenges to what can already be a difficult and complex process. Our Embassies are liaising closely with the relevant Ministries of Foreign Affairs to support commissioning parents entering countries to collect children born through surrogacy. The FCO is also working with the Home Office and Her Majesty's Passport Office to temporarily expedite applications for Emergency Travel Documents for children born through surrogacy who have been affected by travel restrictions, where the nationality requirements and other mandatory checks have been met.

We continue to advise against non-essential international travel at this time, due to the risk of travel restrictions and transport availability changing at short notice. We encourage commissioning parents who decide they need to travel to sign up to Travel Advice email alerts for their destination country, and to follow relevant social media accounts to see our latest advice


Written Question
Central America: Trade Agreements
Monday 25th June 2018

Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what his policy is on retaining the trade pillar of the current EU Central America Trade Agreement.

Answered by Mark Field

​As agreed at the March European Council, during the implementation period the UK is to be treated as a Member State for the purposes of international agreements. This includes the EU Central America Association Agreement. This provides certainty and confidence that there will be no disruption to existing relationships underpinned by international agreements. We are engaging with partner countries to ensure continuity of the effect of existing agreements, adjusted appropriately to reflect our departure from the European Union.


Written Question
Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Sign Language
Thursday 14th September 2017

Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department takes to provide (a) information on its services in British Sign Language (BSL) and (b) correspondence in BSL to people whose principal language is BSL.

Answered by Mark Field

​Information on all our Consular services are provided online and the FCO ensures that it complies with best practice on accessibility of information as set out by the Government Digital Service. We do not currently provide information on our services via British Sign Language.


Written Question
Employment Agencies
Wednesday 4th February 2015

Asked by: Bill Esterson (Labour - Sefton Central)

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many staff in his Department have been employed through employment or recruitment agencies in each year since 2010-11.

Answered by Tobias Ellwood

The Civil Service-wide Recruitment Freeze was introduced in May 2010, which limits new appointments to front-line and business critical roles only this usually means specialist roles. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is reducing UK based headcount by 10% in the current Spending Round.

Recruitment agencies are used to recruit for positions that require specialist skills and expertise not available elsewhere in the organisation. The number of FCO staff who were employed through employment or recruitment agencies from 2010-11 onwards is:

2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15

36 11 78 75 16


Recruitment in 2012/13 increased as a result of a need to staff our recently established Corporate Services Centre in Milton Keynes. From 2013/14 onwards the data includes directly recruited summer and graduate interns.

The FCO also has a separate contract in place with Hays Specialist Recruitment for the provision of temporary staff for essential frontline roles whilst internal recruitment processes take place. The number of temporary staff who were employed through recruitment agencies from 2010-11 onwards, on contracts of varying length, is:


2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15

19 61 116 59 28