Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many of his Department's staff are (a) working at posts overseas and (b) have returned from posts overseas as a result of the covid-19 outbreak; and what plans he has to ensure that those overseas posts will be maintained after the covid-19 outbreak.

We have sought to protect Health and Humanitarian capacity across our network wherever possible.

Our priority is to help enable our staff to return to post as quickly as possible to deliver Her Majesty's Government priorities. However, this will only happen when it is safe to do so.

As the global impacts of COVID-19 evolve, along with the subsequent implications for our work, we are working to provide as much clarity as is feasible on how and when we can bring staff back to post and return to normal operations.