Question to the Department for International Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many escort officers for international delegates his Department employed, from where those officers were recruited and what the grade or rank each officer was for the security and policing event in each year from 2010 to 2017.

Since the creation of the Department for International Trade (DIT) there has been one Security and Policing event, in March 2017. As part of their role supporting UK exports, DIT staff acted as ‘Accompanying Officers’ (AOs) to chaperone official overseas delegations at this event. The number and grades of AOs were not recorded separately, as it was considered a normal part of their duties. AOs were assigned to delegations as and when necessary, but were not necessarily assigned to every delegation.