Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions his Department had with the Scottish Government on the planned visits of the Scottish Government's (a) Minister for Business and Employment to China and Japan in April 2025 and (b) Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to Japan in June 2025.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and our Embassies in Beijing and Tokyo engaged with Scottish Government officials in support of the visit of the Scottish Government's Minister for Business and Employment to China and the visits of Minister Lochhead and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to Japan. Such support is common practice supporting Devolved Government Ministerial visits overseas.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of the visit by Richard Lochhead MSP to to Beijing.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has made no assessment of the effectiveness of the visit. The delivery of Scottish Government ministers is properly to be assessed by Scottish parliamentary scrutiny mechanisms. The FCDO engaged with Scottish Government officials in support of the visit, as overseas missions routinely do for all overseas visits made by Devolved Government officials.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many permanent civil servants in his Department are staff without assigned posts; and how many are placed in an equivalent (a) people action team, (b) priority movers list, (c) redeployment register, (d) talent pool and (e) skills match hub in the most recent period for which data is available.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) operate a Directorate Flexible Resource (DFR) pool. The DFR is the FCDO's resourcing model for when staff are between substantive roles in our rotational model of home and overseas roles. The DFR offers important agility for the Department, and to support staff in between roles/when returning from overseas. Those in between roles are working within their Directorates whilst looking for a substantive position.
Each Department is responsible for setting their redundancy procedures in line with the Cabinet Office issued 2016 Civil Service Redundancy Protocol. This document is publicly available guidance, published on gov.uk. The Civil Service does not formally use the terms, 'redeployment registers', 'people action teams', or 'priority movers lists', but the Redundancy Protocol does set out the expectations placed on departments when it comes to managing their employees who are without posts due to restructuring or job reduction plans.
There is no central policy relating to 'Talent pools' in the Civil Service. Departmental approaches to managing talent vary and are not governed by any central guidance or policy.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, which development programmes he plans to maintain funding for after the planned reduction of the Official Development Assistance budget is implemented.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
ODA allocations and the impact on programmes are being worked through following the decision to reduce UK ODA from 0.5% of GNI to 0.3% in 2027.
We will be taking a rigorous approach to ensure all ODA delivers value for money.
We will set out our spending plans following the completion of the Spending Review and departmental resource allocation processes.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much (a) his Department and (b) each of its arm’s length bodies has spent on external communications through (i) Crown Commercial Service agreement RM6125 and (ii) other agreements since 5 July 2024; and which firms have received funding.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Contracts awarded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) are available via ContractsFinder (https://www.gov.uk/contracts-finder) and Find-a-Tender-Service (https://www.gov.uk/find-tender). FCDO spend above £25,000 is available via https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fcdo-departmental-spending-over-25000, and summary figures are available via the FCDO's Annual Report and Accounts (the latest report is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/fcdo-annual-report-and-accounts-2023-to-2024).
The FCDO is not responsible for procurement on behalf of our arm's length bodies.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much (a) his Department and (b) each of its Arm’s Length Bodies has spent on external public relations since 5 July 2024; and which firms that funding went to.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Public relations activity is a subset of communication spend. As such, this data is not held. The Government Communication Service encourages the prioritisation of low and no cost public relations activities wherever possible. It is recommended that all external communications support should be procured through approved government frameworks [https://www.crowncommercial.gov.uk/agreements/RM6125], with strict controls in place to ensure cost-effectiveness.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 3 January 2025 to Question 20491 on Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Media, which contractors were used for the spending on media training; which Ministers received the media training; and whether voice training was included as part of the training.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The contractor used for media training was Robert Taylor Communications Ltd. As Minister for Indo-Pacific at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development I received the media training. No voice training was conducted as part of the media training.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what diplomatic steps he is taking to support Ukraine's efforts to counter Russia's invasion.
Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The UK is in constant contact with our Allies to ensure a collective doubling down of support for Ukraine and pressure on Putin’s war machine. The Foreign Secretary spoke to President Zelenskyy on 18 December at a meeting of European leaders hosted by NATO Secretary General Rutte, and reiterated the UK’s unwavering commitment to support Ukraine for as long as it takes. On the 10 January, the Foreign Secretary announced sanctions on two Russian oil giants, Gazprom Neft and PJSC Surgutneftegas, alongside the US. The UK has sanctioned 93 vessels in the Russian shadow fleet.
Asked by: John Cooper (Conservative - Dumfries and Galloway)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much their Department spent on (a) media and (b) voice training for Ministers since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
Since 5 July 2024, £1848 has been spent by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office on media or voice training for junior Ministers.