Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, how many civil servants in his Department have a criminal conviction.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The information requested is not held centrally by the Department and complying with this request would incur a disproportionate cost to the department. The Department undertakes Baseline Personnel Security Standard pre-employment checks for all new joiners. The FCDO's approach to employ those with a criminal record is assessed at national security level and all decisions are made in line with Cabinet Office's Security Vetting Guidance.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make a formal apology to Matthew Hedges on the level of support offered by his Department while Mr Hedges was in prison in United Arab Emirates.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) issued a formal apology to Mr Hedges on 31 August 2023 in accordance with the recommendations set out following an investigation by the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, which upheld aspects of his complaint. Supporting British nationals when they need help abroad remains an enduring priority of the FCDO.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 March 2023 to Question 171377 on Global Disinformation Index, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of Global Disinformation Index activity in identifying and countering the potential use of advertising revenue of news publishing companies to support candidates in elections in Commonwealth countries.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The Global Disinformation Index (GDI) seeks to assess and identify disinformation online and provide information to assist technology and media organisations in deterring such activities and to disrupt revenues that emanate from them. The FCDO has made no assessment of GDI in relation to the use of advertising revenue of news publishing companies to support candidates in elections in Commonwealth countries.
As with all FCDO programmes and projects, our support for GDI complies with His Majesty's Government's programme management, commercial and financial rules and guidance. This includes quarterly performance reports and frequent informal contacts between GDI and our programme managers. An independent review of our project with GDI conducted in 2022 concluded that "it is clear that GDI is making a real impact in countering disinformation".
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
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 March 2023 to Question 153719 on Global Disinformation Index, whether that Global Disinformation Index funding is spent solely on activities outside the Commonwealth.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Between 2020 and 2021, FCDO funded Global Disinformation Index (GDI) activity covering media markets in South Africa, Australia, Canada, Kenya and India, in addition to markets outside the Commonwealth. As with all GDI work of this kind, GDI operated in a transparent way, for example by informing media companies in advance that they would be included in surveys.
Sadly we have seen many examples over recent years of hostile state and non-state actors exploiting online and traditional media based across a wide range of countries for malign purposes. The work of organisations like GDI is critical in identifying and countering this malign use of the information space.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 24 February 2023 to Question 149420 on Global Disinformation Index, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that Global Disinformation Index funding is only spent on activities outside the US.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
Grant agreements between FCDO and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) related to this project clearly specify the regions in which activities funded by FCDO will take place. I [Minister Docherty] can again confirm that FCDO did not fund GDI activity in the USA. GDI provide formal quarterly performance reports to FCDO and there are frequent informal contacts between GDI and our programme managers.
All FCDO programmes and projects comply with appropriate HMG programme management, commercial and financial rules and guidance, including monitoring and evaluation of project performance. I can confirm that the FCDO's GDI project complies with these rules.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much funding his Department has provided to the Global Disinformation Index in each of the last three years; for what reason his Department provides funding to that organisation; and how many times his Department has held discussions with that organisation in the last three years.
Answered by Leo Docherty - Minister of State (Ministry of Defence) (Minister for the Armed Forces)
The FCDO Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme has funded the Global Disinformation Index since 2019, for activities outside the US, providing £1,999,026 between 2019 and 2022, with a further £600,797 during the current financial year. As a programme beneficiary there will have been frequent contact between the Programme Team and GDI as well as regular performance reports and reviews.
As graphically demonstrated around its illegal war in Ukraine, Russia has made disinformation central to its foreign and security policies and invested massively in systems to deny, obfuscate and distract from its actions. The Kremlin exploits any issue or system, including internet platforms and social media.
GDI uses technology to identify malign use of the internet and works with technology companies to respond appropriately.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many employees in his Department work on matters related to covid-19.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The FCDO does not track this data centrally. Most ongoing COVID-19 related activity has come to an end or has been integrated into wider work across the department. COVID-19 is, for example, something that is factored into our humanitarian response work.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what the civil service headcount for their Department was on (a) 15 November 2022 and (b) 1 February 2020.
Answered by David Rutley - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development headcount on 31st October 2022 was 7237. The combined headcount of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development on 31st January 2020 was 8015.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if she will detail the losses and special payments valued at under £300,000 for her departmental group as defined by section A4.10.7 in HM Treasury's Managing Public Money for (a) 2018-19, (b) 2019-20 and (c) 2020-21.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The losses and special payments valued at under £300,000 for the departmental group for the years 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21 as already held on the record of losses for the public sector organisations within the departmental group, in accordance with Managing Public Money (Annex A4.10.7), or as otherwise held for the purposes of special payment disclosures, are set out below. These disclosures are consistent with the organisations' obligations under the Data Protection Act 2018.
Losses and special payments above £50,000 and less than £300,000 for financial years April 2018-March 2021 are as follows:
Year | DFID | FCO | FCDO |
2018-19 | |||
Four store losses related to commodities of £65,540, £299,037, £104,919, £197,686. | Waved claim £182,000 relating to Chevening Scholarships. | ||
Three special payments to subcontractors after supplier entered administration of £137,090, £290,000, £139,882. | |||
2019-20 | |||
Two fruitless payments relating to expired drugs, and destruction of medicine unable to be delivered of £255,632 and £57,137. | |||
One special payment £85,142 outside contract terms. | |||
2020-21 | |||
One waived claim £56,534 following overpayment of supplier. | |||
Two special payments (1) for hardship payments to Chevening scholars of £72,384; and (2) an extra contractual payment in response to Covid-19 of £250,883. |
Financial year 2020-21 was the first year where FCO and DFID were combined into one entity. Results for 2018-19 and 2019-20 split disclosures between the 2 former departments.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if the Government will include imports of coal from Russia in the list of sanctions against that country; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by James Cleverly - Home Secretary
The Prime Minister has announced the largest and most severe package of economic sanctions Russia has ever seen. This has included sanctions on the export of high-tech and other goods critical to Russia's strategic interests. We continue to consider further import and export measures against Russia that will constrain Russia's ability to sustain its aggression against Ukraine. We are in regular dialogue with our partners on the measures that would have most impact.