Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord True on 6 June (HL302), how many UK-based (1) Permanent Secretaries, and (2) Senior Civil Servants, have been working from abroad at any time in the last 24 months.

As I stated in my response to HL302 on 6 June, the Cabinet Office does not hold departmental information about civil servants in UK-based senior leadership roles working from abroad.

In terms of departmental records, these records are not collected by the Cabinet Office, with information captured at a line manager level.

Working abroad has always been by exception in the Cabinet Office and is not permitted unless there is a specific business need or under the most exceptional of circumstances (an example of which might be where an employee’s partner is a civil servant and is permanently posted abroad).

This is still the current position of the Cabinet Office.