Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of allowing spouses of people sent on British diplomatic missions to continue working if (a) they work for a Government organisation and (b) their security needs are met.

The FCDO supports the principle of spouses, partners or dependents overseas taking up employment outside the Mission, in accordance with the law of the receiving State. Where local laws or regulations impose restrictions on such employment, we encourage Posts to make representations to the receiving State to try to assist the efforts of accompanying family members to seek outside employment, ideally through a formal bilateral arrangement (where no formal arrangement is already in place) but also on a case-by-case basis.