Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many (a) Pashto (b) Korean (c) Portuguese and (d) Telugu speakers have been trained for the diplomatic service by her Department in each of the last 5 years.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has provided full time language training for officers in Pashto, Korean, and Portuguese as follows:

Pashto: fewer than ten officers between 2017 and 2021

Korean: fewer than ten officers between 2017 and 2021

Portuguese: fewer than forty officers between 2017 and 2021.

No officers have received full time language training in Telugu.