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28 Apr 2003 : Column 130W—continued
Press Office
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many people are employed in his Department's press office; and how many were employed on 2 May 1997. [108394]
Mr. Rammell: The staffing figures for the Press Office for 1997 are listed in Appendix 11 of the 6th report by the Select Committee on Public Administration of the GICS (1998). They show a total of 15.5 Press Officers.
The current staffing figure is 22 Press Officers. In addition there are seven support administrative staff.
Property Portfolio
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the estimated value is of the property portfolio held by his Department. [108373]
Mr. Rammell: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to the hon. Member for Yeovil (Mr. Laws) on 25 February 2003, Official Report, column 430W.
Russian Federation
Mr. Drew: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the Russian Federation's compliance with the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. [109378]
Mr. MacShane: The UK Government agree with the assessment published on 21 March 2003 by the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of Russia's implementation of the Convention. The Committee welcomed positive steps taken by the Russian Federation to improve the legislative framework and adopt other positive measures to combat discrimination. The Committee also noted a number of concerns, including: the absence of a definition of racial discrimination in domestic legislation; reports of racially selective inspections by law-enforcement officials, particularly against those from the North Caucasus; and reports of violence by, inter-alia, extremist groups against ethnic minorities.
28 Apr 2003 : Column 131W
The UK Government support this assessment. We regularly raise the issue of racial discrimination with the Russian authorities, most recently during the bilateral human rights talks in September 2002 and March 2003.
Secondments
Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many individuals have been seconded to his Department from (a) the private sector, (b) NGOs and (c) other, in each case listing (i) from which organisation and (ii) dates of secondments in each year since 1997–98. [108104]
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the then Minister of State at the FCO (Mr. Battle) to the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) on 29 June 2000, Official Report, column 581W, and to his letter of 5 July 2000 to the hon. Member for Bath which has been placed in the Libraries of the House, which set out a full list of private sector secondments from 1997 to February 2000.
Since then, there have been a further 26 secondments to the Department, and details are set out in the following table.
Secondments and attachments are part of the Interchange Initiative, which promotes the exchange of people and good practice between the civil service and other organisations. Before an Interchange can occur all parties must be satisfied that no conflict of interest arises.
Non-Private Sector Secondments
Under Cabinet Office Interchange procedures, the term secondment relates solely to movement of staff to and from the private sector and other non-civil service organisations.
The table below shows secondments to the FCO from other non-civil service organisations. The FCO does not hold comprehensive records for the year 1997, so the information attached begins from 1998. In addition, some FCO departments and posts organise secondment-type placements directly with relevant organisations. No central records of these exist and they are therefore not included.
Note:
TPUK refers to Tradepartners UK, the trade development arm of British Trade International.
28 Apr 2003 : Column 132W
| Start | End | |
|---|---|---|
| Metropolitan Police | 1 April 1998 | 23 June 2002 |
| German MFA | 1 June 1998 | 1 July 1999 |
| US State Dept | 1 August 1998 | 1 August 1999 |
| German MFA | 1 August 1998 | 1 July 1999 |
| National Air Traffic Systems | 1 October 1998 | 1 July 2001 |
| Financial Services Authority | 1 January 1999 | 31 July 2001 |
| Ecole National d'Amin (ENA) | 1 January 1999 | 7 January 1999 |
| French MFA | 1 February 1999 | 1 July 1999 |
| New Zealand MFA | 1 April 1999 | 1 July 1999 |
| German MFA | 1 August 1999 | 1 June 2000 |
| US State Department | 1 August 1999 | 1 August 2000 |
| ENA | 1 August 1999 | 1 January 2000 |
| Metropolitan Police | 1 August 1999 | 6 November 2000 |
| Save the Children | 1 September 1999 | 2 July 2001 |
| Canadian MFA | 1 September 1999 | 1 September 2000 |
| German MFA | 1 September 1999 | 8 December 2000 |
| French MFA | 1 September 1999 | 15 August 2001 |
| National Institute of EC and Social Research | 1 September 1999 | 1 September 2003 |
| House of Commons | 1 September 1999 | 1 September 2001 |
| World Wildlife Fund | 1 December 1999 | 30 November 2002 |
| ENA | 1 January 2000 | 1 July 2000 |
| NGO: Interights | 9 January 2000 | 9 January 2001 |
| Brazilian MFA | 21 June 2000 | 8 November 2000 |
| German MFA | 26 June 2000 | 27 May 2001 |
| Czech MFA | 1 December 2000 | 1 December 2001 |
| US State Department | 1 December 2000 | 1 December 2001 |
| NGO: Asian Family Counselling | 1 January 2001 | 1 January 2004 |
| Metropolitan Police | 1 May 2001 | 1 July 2004 |
| ENA | 1 July 2001 | 15 January 2002 |
| US State Department | 30 July 2001 | 30 July 2002 |
| Office of Fair Trading | 10 October 2001 | 15 October 2003 |
| BBSRC (Research Council) | 22 October 2001 | 19 October 2002 |
| ENA | 21 January 2002 | 21 January 2003 |
| New Zeland MFA | 13 May 2002 | 30 August 2002 |
| City of London Police | 1 June 2002 | 1 June 2004 |
| German MFA | 17 July 2002 | 17 July 2003 |
| Sport England | 1 August 2002 | 1 August 2003 |
| German MFA | 12 August 2002 | 12 August 2003 |
| French MFA | 2 September 2002 | 1 September 2003 |
| BBSRC (Research Council) | 20 December 2002 | 1 November 2005 |
| Lord Chancellor's Dept | 10 February 2003 | 10 August 2003 |
Notes:
The FCO grading system equates as follows:
SMS = Senior Civil Service
D7 = Home Civil Service 6
D6 = Home Civil Service 7
C5 = Senior Executive Officer
C4 = Higher Executive Officer
B3 = Executive Officer
28 Apr 2003 : Column 133W
Secret Intelligence Service
Matthew Taylor: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress the Secret Intelligence Service has made in releasing its archives into the public domain since 1 May 1997; and how many files from its archives have been transferred to the Public Record Office since 1 May 1997. [107400]
Mr. Straw: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Member for Livingston (Mr. Cook) on 12 February 1998, Official Report, column 324. The policy set out in the first part of that answer has not changed. Since 1 May 1997, the Secret Intelligence Service has transferred to the Public Record Office five batches of files which it inherited from the wartime Special Operations Executive (SOE), in PRO classes HS5 to HS9, comprising some 4,954 pieces.
Special Advisers
Mr. Bercow: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the salary bill was for special advisers in his Department in 2002–03; and what it is expected to be in 2003–04. [108504]
Mr. Mike O'Brien: The pay package for special advisers is:
- (a) 2002–03: two, at a cost of £165,289, including salary and pension contributions.
(b) 2003–04: pay for special advisers is still under review.
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