Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what training consular staff receive before they start work; how long such training courses last; and what proportion of training time is spent on cases of murder, missing persons, rape and sexual assault.

All front line staff undertake mandatory training designed to give them the relevant skills and knowledge to provide appropriate support in a range of circumstances, including cases of murder, missing persons, rape and sexual assault. Our training is aligned with our Consular Strategy 2016-2020 and is constantly updated in line with ongoing customer feedback, formal evaluations and policy or legal developments.

Frontline Consular staff, in London and overseas, undertake mandatory "Introduction to Consular Work" and "Safeguarding children and young persons" e-learning courses during their first week in the role. This is followed within three months by an "Assistance Guidance Assessment", which is conducted to a pass standard, and a five-day "Essential Assistance Workshop", an interactive course with activities focused on building customer care skills for handling the full range of consular casework with particular emphasis on the most vulnerable.

Staff then follow a programme of continuous development relevant to their role. This comprises a range of learning activities including e-learning, workshops and discussions with specialist agencies and NGOs dealing specifically with bereavement, rape and sexual assault which are designed to further enhance the skills, knowledge and behaviours of consular staff dealing with these and other vulnerable customers. There are also opportunities for staff to practice customer care skills through telephone handling skills practice programme.

We have also developed a learning retention and evaluation tool to help embed knowledge following training courses. This involves a series of online timed and targeted questions for a five month period.