Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office employees have some level of Russian language ability; how many of those have reached C1 Operational level as defined in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR C1) or above; and how have these numbers changed since December 2017.

Almost 60 members of staff of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office currently have valid exam passes in Russian at C1 level. Exam passes are valid for five years. In December 2017, that figure was below 50. The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office does not routinely collect data on language skills below C1 level.