Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Deputy Foreign Secretary, what steps their Department is taking to support the Disability Confident scheme; how many officials in their Department work directly on supporting that scheme; what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of that work in supporting the (a) recruitment and (b) retention of disabled people in their Department; and what further steps they are taking to support their Department’s recruitment and retention of disabled people.

The FCDO is an accredited 'Disability Confident Leader' under the government's Disability Confident Scheme (https://disabilityconfident.campaign.gov.uk/) which denotes organisations which have a positive commitment towards disabled people. Since April 2022, FCDO has a designated team which provides Reasonable Adjustments to its disabled UK-based staff in line with the Equality Act 2010. It also provides its disabled staff with a Workplace Adjustment Passport to facilitate the seamless retention of adjustments on a change of line manager, job role or move between business areas. FCDO's Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) provides guidance to hiring managers at each stage of recruitment to ensure applicants with disabilities are not disadvantaged. Candidates who opt in to the Guaranteed Interview Scheme who meet the minimum criteria for the role and who have demonstrated an acceptable mark in their application, will be offered an interview for the role. Any reasonable adjustments required at interview will be considered and implemented. Additional support for hiring managers is available by request. We remain fully committed to supporting disabled people globally through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society.