Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what secondments (a) PricewaterhouseCoopers, (b) Deloitte & Touche, (c) Ernst & Young and (d) KPMG has made to the Department, including predecessor Departments, since 2010; for which (i) periods and (ii) tasks the secondments were made; whether secondments of staff from the Department have been made to those firms; and for which (A) periods and (B) tasks.

The total number of people seconded between FCDO and the four listed organisations since 2010 is fewer than 10. Detail of individual tasks undertaken is not held centrally.

Action 5 of the Declaration of Government Reform 2021 stated the Government's commitment to: "Develop a pipeline of secondments from the Civil Service into major organisations within the UK and internationally, including other governments, led by professions and departments, with support from Non-Executive Directors, as a core part of talent development".