Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many and what proportion of (a) his Department's staff and (b) staff working for companies contracted by his Department who are paid less than the Living Wage are (i) white British and (ii) from an ethnic minority background.

No member of staff directly employed by the Foreign and Commonwealth office in the UK or on a diplomatic posting overseas is paid less than the Living Wage. Staff employed locally at our missions overseas are done so in full compliance with local employment law. We are aware that there are currently 96 contracted staff who are working for the FCO Facilities Management (FM) provider whose hourly rate is less than the levels recommended by the Living Wage campaign. We do not hold any information on the proportion of staff this represents for our FM provider nor do we hold any information on the ethnic or gender background of those contracted staff. We do not hold information on the earnings of any other contracted staff.