Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many and what proportion of officials of his Department took sick leave for reasons relating to stress in each of the last five years; and what proportion of total sick leave that leave was in each such year.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The number and proportion of staff (percentage of the FCO’s workforce for the relevant year) who took stress related absence for each of the last five years (1st January 2011 to 31st December 2015) is as follows:
2011 | 46 (0.79%) |
2012 | 43 (0.89%) |
2013 | 47 (0.99%) |
2014 | 27 (0.59%) |
2015 | 42 (0.97%) |
The proportion of stress related absence episodes against the total sick absence episodes for each of the last five years is as follows:
2011 | 1.96% |
2012 | 2.12% |
2013 | 2.41% |
2014 | 1.51% |
2015 | 2.15% |
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many (a) publications, (b) consultation documents and (c) circulars his Department has issued since August 2012; and what the title was of each such publication, consultation document or circular.
Answered by David Lidington
Over 3,500 Foreign and Commonwealth Office publications since 1 August 2012 are available on the gov.uk website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications
Many of our Posts and Missions overseas publish documents that are relevant to their work. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not hold information on the full range of documents centrally and it could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many civil law suits have been brought against his Department based either wholly or partially on grounds provided by the Human Rights Act 1998; how many such suits were settled out of court before a court judgment was delivered; and how much such settlements have cost the public purse since 2010.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The information requested is not available, as separate data for cases based wholly or partially on the Human Rights Act 1998 are not recorded.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many consultants' contracts were terminated early in each of the last six years for which figures are available; and what the cost of each such termination was in each of those years.
Answered by David Lidington
This information is not held centrally and the question cannot be answered without incurring disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department has paid to staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Foreign Commonwealth and Office has paid the following amounts to its UK-based staff in overtime in each of the last 24 months:
March 2014 | £196,203 |
April 2014 | £222,453 |
May 2014 | £152,223 |
June 2014 | £165,017 |
July 2014 | £225,892 |
August 2014 | £246,323 |
September 2014 | £240,939 |
October 2014 | £466,415 |
November 2014 | £167,582 |
December 2014 | £159,043 |
January 2015 | £159,538 |
February 2015 | £122,033 |
March 2015 | £203,532 |
April 2015 | £178,879 |
May 2015 | £132,817 |
June 2015 | £192,890 |
July 2015 | £189,593 |
August 2015 | £205,078 |
September 2015 | £93,259 |
October 2015 | £216,031 |
November 2015 | £196,363 |
December 2015 | £208,858 |
January 2016 | £113,002 |
February 2016 | £222,666 |
Staff can only claim overtime when required by management to work more than their conditioned hours. In the majority of cases claims are made after exceptional demands on Foreign Office staff during global crises, such as the Nepal earthquake and terrorist shootings in Tunisia.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much his Department spent from the public purse on industrial tribunals in the last 12 months.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) legal fees for employment tribunals for the last twelve months, where invoices have so far been received (January 2015 - December 2015), total £46,385.52. The FCO is in the process of recovering £3,000 of this following a Costs Order in our favour.
Asked by: Jonathan Ashworth (Labour (Co-op) - Leicester South)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, on how many occasions a special adviser in his Department accompanied a Minister on an overseas trip since May 2015.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
It is usual practice for a Special Adviser to accompany the Foreign Secretary on overseas visits.