Letter to the Head of the Parliamentary
Relations and Devolution Team, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
from the Clerk of the Committee
I know that the Committee found the session
with the Permanent Under-Secretary and his colleagues on Wednesday
to be very useful. A lot of ground was covered, and we are expecting
to receive a number of notes expanding on some of the oral answers.
I will liaise with PRDT on the timing of these notes.
Meanwhile, shortage of time meant that there
some issues which either were not raised at all, or were discussed
only briefly. I am therefore writing with some supplementary questions
to which the Committee desires answers. I hope that it will be
possible for replies to these questions to reach us not later
than 22 November.
1. What criteria does the FCO use when deciding
whether to volunteer a document to the Committee? Will the Office
consider in future sending the Committee important Reports that
are clearly relevant to its work, such as those by Collinson Grant
and by Norman Ling, without waiting to be asked?
2. In how many cases since the Freedom of
Information Act came into force has a decision by the FCO to withhold
information sought under the Act been overruled on appeal?
3. The FCO's classified scorecards include
performance indicators relating to the Millennium Development
Goals and other areas of policy which might be regarded as being
of very legitimate public interest, without compromising security.
Is the FCO satisfied that the classification of a very high proportion
of its performance measures is consistent with its obligations
to enable public scrutiny of its achievements? Will the Office
have another look at this, with a view to achieving greater openness
and transparency?
4. Will the FCO publish the unclassified
summary of the Ling Report on Prism? If not, why not?
5. What changes have been made to FCO procedures
to avoid problems of the type experienced with Prism? Specifically,
what action has been taken in response to each of the 26 unclassified
recommendations made in the Ling Report?
6. Recent examples of failure in project
management at FCO have included slippages in implementing Prism
and i-visas and cost overruns on building projects. A lack of
project management skills was also highlighted by the Collinson
Grant Report. How does the FCO intend to rectify the lack of project
management skills within its staff?
7. The Collinson Grant Report highlights
considerable slippage in the efficiency programme to date. The
initial plan was to deliver £10.7 million by the end of 2004-05,
in September 2004 this was cut to £6.3 million. The target
for 2005-06 was cut from £55.8 million to £32.7 million.
Is the FCO confident that it will achieve its efficiency plans?
— What was the actual saving made in
2004-05?
— What is the current target saving
for 2005-06?
8. How many applications from all grades
for voluntary redundancy have been received; how many have been
accepted; and how many have been rejected? In respect of the posts
held by those whose applications have been accepted, how many
will be refilled and how many will be scrapped?
9. 70% of FCO's expenditure is classified
as administrative expenditure, even though much of this relates
to front-line services. A Treasury PES a few years ago encouraged
all departments and agencies to review their expenditure and to
move anything related to front-line services into programme expenditure.
Has the FCO done any work to identify which staff in its Posts
abroad are directly involved in delivering front line services,
with a view to reclassifying the expenditure as programme, thus
allowing it to use programme efficiency savings elsewhere to support
the work of Posts?
10. When considering the need to close Posts
overseas, has the FCO evaluated the possibility of maintaining
a UK presence in the manner it has adopted in Liberia? Could sharing
premises be in some cases a cost-effective and preferable alternative
to outright closure?
11. What is the final outturn for overseas
property sales in financial year 2004-05? What is the FCO's prediction
for sales in the current financial year?
12. Has the lease on One Carlton Gardens
been renewed? Will the lease on Lancaster House be renewed? If
so, at what cost? Who is the leaseholder for each of these properties?
Steve Priestley
28 October 2005
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