Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from
the Head of the Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Team, at
the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Thank you for your letter of 25 November in
which you asked several questions about the FCO response to the
NAO report on the Tsunami. Our answers are as follows:
Q. Does the FCO intend to implement all the
recommendations made in the joint report on the response to the
tsunami? If not, why not?
A. Yes. Many have already been implemented, and
the remainder will be implemented as soon as possible. The attached
matrix details each recommendation and the action we have taken
or plan to take.
Q. The box following para 3.20 of the joint
report sets out the assistance package for victims of the tsunami,
which covered repatriation of remains, travel by family members,
emergency medical assistance and other expenses. Para 3.22 effectively
recommends that such a package be made a permanent feature of
the FCO's crisis response strategy. When will this recommendation
be implemented?
A. Following any major catastrophes in the future,
the Foreign Secretary will make a decision as soon as possible
on whether there is a need to offer exceptional assistance and
what the components of that assistance should be, bearing in mind
the circumstances of the catastrophe and the resources available.
The factors that the Foreign Secretary can consider in making
that decision may include whether there is a breakdown of basic
infrastructure, local services etc preventing British nationals
from accessing support directly; or whether as the result of a
natural disaster such as flood or earthquake, large numbers of
British nationals have lost all forms of ID, travel documents,
insurance policies, belongings etc.
This will be covered in the Guide "Supporting
British Nationals Abroad" (see the Foreign Secretary's written
statement to the House of 20 October), which will be launched
in final form in the New Year.
Q. Para 3.23 suggests that the costs of the
tsunami response "might partly be met by the Treasury".
What is the latest information on the extent to which the Treasury
has met or will meet these costs? How will the remaining costs
be met?
A. The Treasury agreed on 2 December that tsunami
costs may be met from a combination of Emergency and Disaster
Reserve funds, a claim on the Treasury's Central Reserve, and
a contribution from the FCO's 2005-06 end year flexibility. FCO
and Treasury officials will agree exact proportions in time for
the Spring Supplementary Estimates.
Q. What discussions has the FCO had with
the Treasury about whether the Treasury would in principle fund
all or part of the response to a comparable future crisis?
A. This will be considered as part of the ongoing
discussion with the Treasury about the future management of the
Emergency and Disaster Reserve, between Treasury's Defence, Diplomacy
and Intelligence Team and the FCO's Finance Directorate.
We also thought the Committee would find it
helpful to have matrices listing each of the recommendations in
the NAO's main review of consular services, along with those of
the joint NAO/FCO review of lessons learned from the tsunami,
and the action taken or planned by the FCO on each one. We have
therefore prepared these matrices, which are attached here. I
hope the Committee find them useful.
Chris Stanton
Parliamentary Relations and Devolution Team
THE FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE: CONSULAR
SERVICES TO BRITISH NATIONALS
DETAILED NAO RECOMMENDATIONS AND FCO RESPONSES
| NAO summary recommendation
| NAO detailed recommendation | FCO response
|
Influencing and changing behaviours of travellers
1. There is scope to better understand the root causes of assistance cases, and to target hard hitting messages at traveller groups which do not prepare adequately, or those which have historically required more consular assistance.
| (a) Undertake structured analyses of previous assistance cases, building on other on-going research, to better identify key risk traveller groups which are less likely to access and digest the full text of existing, extensive travel advice;
| The new version of our consular casework software, Compass—which is now being rolled out—allows us better to identify the groups of travellers most likely to get into difficulty, and the types of cases concerned. Analysing and using this information to target our communications activity is a high priority for the consular communications team. We have also conducted bench-marking research to establish, for example, which groups are least likely to read Travel Advice or obtain travel insurance, and are targeting our communications work accordingly.
|
| (b) Increase the use of trend analysis, international passenger surveys and future modelling techniques to forecast the likely future demand for assistance;
| We are building a capacity for this within our small consular policy team. We have also increased our engagement with outside stakeholders, for example through the Travel Advice Review Group and Consular Strategy Board, enabling us better to draw on and be aware of their own analysis of future trends.
|
| (c) Ensure that all country travel advice pages include in their summaries advice on the most common causes of assistance cases in that country; and
| We have begun to collate the necessary information (where it exists), and will implement this recommendation soon for those countries where information is already available.
|
| (d) Increase the range of media sources used to disseminate messages, targeting identified risk sectors—for example using features on television travel programmes, student magazines and tabloid newspaper travel sections—and make wider use of illustrative personal case histories to convey consequences of being under-prepared.
| We have appointed new "student ambassadors" in 15 of the UK's biggest universities, to promote our safe travel messages to this vulnerable group of travellers using student media and networks. Our Rough Guide to Safer Travel is also targeted at this audience. Our TV "fillers" on safety abroad are the most-played of any Government information films, with the equivalent of £324,000 of free air-time in the last quarter alone. Through a PR company, we have generated extensive press, radio and TV coverage through research-based stories on key travel themes such as winter holidays or Hen and Stag parties abroad. Clearly we need to handle case studies sensitively and respect confidentiality. But we are using our customer satisfaction survey for the first time to ask people if they would be prepared for the details of their cases to be used as appropriate in case studies, and hope that the results of this will provide material.
|
2. In developing a consular customer guide for assistance work, the FCO should consider the key criteria it should use to establish levels of assistance which are appropriate for the country and individual circumstance.
| (a) The consular guide should make clear:
— The boundaries of consular of consular activity and the services FCO will never offer;
— The minimum service FCO will try to provide in all countries;
— The minimum level of support which the public can expect to receive in all cases, whether for terrorist atrocities, or other murders overseas or other circumstances. This may result in the need for flexible resourcing to provide short-term assistance to Posts during more exacting cases;
|
The Guide will make this clear. It will be launched in the New Year.
The Guide will make this clear.
The Guide will make this clear.
|
| — The principles, such as the vulnerability of individuals, which will be considered when assessing whether to provide an enhanced level of assistance for particular cases.
| The Guide will set out the principles that Ministers will consider when deciding if a particular event or set of events is a major catastrophe, which merits provision of an enhanced level of support. It also takes a criteria-based approach for example in describing when we will make exceptions to our policy on support for dual nationals. We are doing further work on criteria such as individual vulnerability—see under 2(b) below.
|
| (b) The guide should be underpinned by:
— A central set of criteria on risks and appropriate assistance levels, to assist posts in setting—and justifying if challenged—an appropriate level of assistance;
|
We have set work in hand to consider what criteria staff should use in deciding on the resources to devote to individual cases. One example is the vulnerability of individuals (2(a) 4th bullet point above). Staff are likely to need to devote more time to delivering service to, say, a vulnerable and frail individual far from home, than to a long-term resident abroad with family support, knowledge of the local language and procedures, etc. We are considering whether we can codify such criteria in our internal guidance to staff.
|
| — Increased emphasis on sharing the burden of consular services by working closely with other nations, services, including pooling of staff resources and accommodation, and driving forward ideas such as European Union consular space.
| We are co-located with EU partners in Almaty, Ashgabat, Dar es Salaam, Pyongyang, Quito, Reykjavik, Minsk and Chisinau. We are alert to further opportunities to expand this list. We have made work on the "EU consular space" a priority of our EU Presidency. However, this is still at an early stage: most British Nationals in difficulty abroad still expect to see a representative from the British mission rather than having to rely on an EU office or the local authorities.
|
| |
|
Moving towards more consistent frontline service to individuals
3. Both increasing the breadth and depth of coverage of the Post review system, and collecting fuller management information, would assist the FCO in ensuring that posts provide a consistent level of service, appropriate for the country circumstance.
| (a) Post reviews should be extended to cover the following areas in more depth:
— The appropriateness and consistency of the level of assistance provided;
— The accuracy of performance and management information and performance against targets;
— Customer care, including enquiry handling, complaints, and facilities;
— The use made of the Compass assistance software tool;
— Opportunities to work with other embassies to routinely provide joint information or consular assistance in remote locations, as well as co-operation in crisis situations; and
|
This has been implemented.
This has been implemented.
This has been implemented.
This has been implemented.
This has been implemented.
|
| — The quality of decisions being taken on the handling of applications of passports.
| In July 2005, a Nationality and Passports Best Practice Unit (BPU) was set up, with a remit to undertake a rolling programme of visits to the main passport issuing posts, and to other posts as the need arose. The BPU reviews all aspects of passport work, eg management of the operation, staffing levels, quality of decisions. The BPU works closely with the Reviewers, and has so far visited Amsterdam, Beirut and Damascus.
|
| (b) Following reviews, the team should maximise impact by encouraging Posts to agree action plans linked to specific and measurable achievements, and by developing more formal mechanisms to disseminate lessons learned.
| Where possible, and following discussion with Post management, recommendations will be reasonably precise on timings. However, for any which are dependent on staff moves (in and out), or budget availability, timings are less certain. Reviews will be followed up, six to 12 months after the report has been issued, to check on progress with implementing recommendations, and to determine what benefits have been realised.
As part of the review process, Posts are also being encouraged to share best practice with colleagues at other Posts. We will monitor this to see if we need to do more. One mechanism for best practice sharing is via articles in the Real World (consular network) newsletter. Others are being considered.
|
| (c) Post reviews and subsequent management action could be better informed by:
— More rigorous collection and analysis of customer satisfaction measures, including more comprehensive analysis of complaints and other correspondence.
| In financial year 2005-06 we have for the first time set a PSA target for customer satisfaction which we are measuring through a survey conducted at overseas posts and in the UK (for clients who have returned here). Posts which devote more than two staff years to consular work are also required to conduct regular customer satisfaction surveys of their own, and we are looking to strengthen central collection and analysis of the information which these provide. We have set work in hand to review and strengthen our procedures for dealing with complaints.
|
| — Better methods of reviewing and comparing workload, including the reassessment of the potential for using a basic method of time recording, particularly for assistance cases, using the capabilities of Compass.
| We are about to issue the first detailed guidance on using Compass (the Consular database with e-mail facility). We are also rolling out an advanced version of Compass (Compass Next Generation) worldwide. Consistent use of Compass needs to be embedded across all posts. Once that has been achieved, we will consider how we can use the programme to compare workloads. Roll-out is planned to be complete by the end of 2006.
|
4. The FCO should continue to work on ensuring that crisis management and emergency planning at Posts is robust, and should complete its action plan arising from lessons learned from the Indian Ocean tsunami.
| (a) Continue to refine a risk-based assessment to:
— Prioritise feedback to Posts on the quality of their crisis management plans according to key factors such as the number of British visitors and expatriates, the likelihood of civil unrest, natural disasters and terrorist activity;
|
We maintain a rolling programme of such assessments and feedback results to posts on a regular basis.
|
| — Agree with Posts the frequency with which they should test crisis plans.
| This exercise is now complete. Posts are asked to carry out regular reviews on a quarterly or annual basis.
|
| (b) Experience shows that understandably, the need to respond to successive crises has detracted from progress in reviewing emergency plans. The FCO should review the level of its staffing commitment to these areas to ensure that crisis planning is given sufficient attention, and maintains the momentum towards completion by the date the FCO has set itself of October 2005.
| We are maintaining the momentum of checking all Posts' plans, despite the number of crises to which we have responded since the tsunami (8). But the date by which we can complete this exercise has slipped from October to December 2005.
|
| (c) United Kingdom-based and overseas senior management should regularly review achievement against agreed dates for submitting and testing emergency plans, and respond to any failures to comply.
| This exercise will be complete by the end of the year.
|
| (d) The FCO should ensure that the crisis planning and training is included in the objectives of senior officials at Post, against which their performance is assessed.
| This involves, for example, consultation with Trades Unions; our target for implementing this recommendation is June 2006.
|
| (e) The FCO should establish a system for ongoing review and enhancement of emergency planning and testing, including establishing baselines from which to monitor improvements in quality.
| In principle we agree. Best practice guidelines are currently being disseminated via the FCO's intranet. We are recruiting more staff to take this forward.
|
| |
|
| (f) Expanding and extending the role of Rapid Deployment Teams to promote faster responses. Giving regional rapid deployment teams such as that being developed in Hong Kong for South East Asia the responsibility for providing a regional source of crisis management expertise to assist Posts in testing their plans.
| Expansion is ongoing. The Hong Kong RDT is now operational and work is well under way to establish a second RDT for the US Network by the middle of 2006. For the time being, responsibility for testing plans will remain at the centre, but regional expertise will be useful for relevant Posts. Regional RDT members have limited time to devote to extra RDT activities for which they volunteer.
|
5. The FCO should seek to maximise the benefits from improving existing, and forging new, working partnerships with others to provide a more effective end-to-end service to British nationals, in crisis and non-crisis situations.
| (a) Establish formal liaison points, guidance and practical arrangements with other United Kingdom government departments to provide a co-ordinated government service to United Kingdom citizens seeking initial assistance from consular staff. This should include ensuring that responsibility for British citizens returning to the United Kingdom passes smoothly to relevant Home departments.
| Tessa Jowell is the Cabinet Minister with responsibility for the co-ordination of the Government's support to British nationals returning from major incidents overseas. We are finalising a formal agreement with the DCMS on exactly how a transfer of responsibility will take place: this will be ready by the end of 2005. It will include a DCMS colleague being embedded in the FCO Crisis Unit.
|
| (b) Implement more flexible arrangements for allowing Posts to use some discretion in issuing loans to individuals as Undertakings to Repay once all other sources of funding have been explored, to reduce costs and to avoid unnecessary deterioration in the individual's circumstances.
| Only around 50% of loans are repaid; the others have to be written off from public funds. We believe this rate would increase if Posts were given more discretion (they can currently issue UTRs up to £100 excluding costs without reference to London). We are considering how we might implement this recommendation but we need to take account of the fact that allowing Posts more discretion would lead to inconsistent practice, which could, in turn, lead consular customers to complain about perceived unfairness. To ensure consistency in advancing loans, the policy and decision making on the issuance of most UTRs should remain in London.
|
| (c) Develop arrangements with United Kingdom based non-governmental partners who can provide additional services and support to those seeking routine consular assistance and in times of major crisis.
| We offer routine consular assistance through working with NGOs. The best example is Prisoners Abroad, with whom we have a three-year rolling funding Agreement (based on Home Office best practice guidelines—"Compact") and who deliver routine welfare support to British prisoners overseas. Other partners include Fair Trials Abroad, SAMM Abroad [support for victims of murder and manslaughter], REDRESS [victims of torture], REPRIEVE [death penalty cases], REUNITE [international child abduction], Veterans Association, Travelcare [support for people at Heathrow and Gatwick], Missing Persons Helpline.
We also work with a range of NGOs to deliver help in crisis situations, eg British Red Cross Society, Samaritans, Salvation Army, Victim Support, CRUSE International [bereavement], Disaster Action, WRVS. Many of them play formal roles in our crisis handling arrangements.
We are looking for scope for more partnerships with such organisations. An example could be to contract out the transmission of some funds from families to their overseas prisoner relatives (in most countries). Another could be regular contact with relatives post-event (death, injury, detention), or prison visiting in some countries.
|
| (d) For significant emergency situations, a clear trigger point should be established to ensure a co-ordinated cross-governmental response, including clear understanding of respective managerial and budgetary responsibilities by all stakeholders.
| See 5(a) above. Negotiations with the DCMS are close to completion, including on exactly when the trigger point should occur. Contact is also made at the initial stage of an incident with Cabinet Office Civil Contingency Secretariat, to set in hand cross Whitehall co-ordination arrangements.
|
| (e) Ensure that Post crises plans include consideration of the scope for and benefits of co-operation with others such as local staff and volunteers in emergency situations.
| Posts' crisis plans take account of all existing resources, including Locally Engaged staff. We recognise the latter are essential in making the regional RDT concept work. We have also started to engage with the Diplomatic Service Families Association, and provide crisis training for our Posts' Community Liaison Officers, to ensure that spouses and partners are better equipped to help out in a crisis. Posts are encouraged to discover and draw on whatever expertise exists amongst the local community (eg the resident British community), while ensuring that any such volunteer response in a crisis would not conflict with the main one. The British Red Cross Society would, if necessary, send out managers with the appropriate skills to ensure maximum effectiveness of volunteer groups.
|
6. The FCO has made good progress in enhancing the professionalism of its consular staff but still needs to use training and innovative approaches to further improve the quality of its service.
| (a) Consider scope for extending the range of career opportunities in consular work to encourage high quality staff to embed consular skills into their portfolios, and to engage in consular work at different points throughout their careers;
| The majority of 100% consular jobs are at Bands B3 and C4, which are relatively junior grades. Thereafter, the jobs tend to have a smaller percentage of consular work. Within the FCO's current structure, there is opportunity to return to consular work, in a supervisory capacity, as staff progress through the grades.
|
| (b) Developing a better mix of experience of consular staff, including widening opportunities for less experienced London-based casework officers to do consular work overseas in addition to familiarisation visits;
| We are encouraging those with consular experience to apply for key consular jobs as they become vacant. The Professional Skills in Government agenda is leading to changes in the way that HR Directorate will expect officers to gain experience across the different work groups in the FCO. When these take effect, officers from all entry streams will be required to have experience of service delivery work (including consular) to be able to progress through the grades. This should increase the pool of talent available for consular work, and help to ensure more officers have experience of it as they advance in their careers.
The majority of casework officers in London do not have overseas experience and many are new entrants to the FCO. We encourage caseworkers to pay familiarisation visits overseas. However, the constraint on resources—financial and personnel—does not allow us, at present, to release caseworkers for an additional period to gain valuable experience working in a consulate overseas.
|
| (c) Pilot a scheme to evaluate the costs and benefits of introducing a United Kingdom based system for "out of normal hours" assistance, similar to that used by the Canadian foreign ministry;
| We will consider by the end of March 2006 whether the Canadian system of handling consular work out of hours would bring benefits to the FCO and our consular clients. We need to take account of the far greater number of British people travelling and living abroad, and consequently of the greater challenge which maintaining such a system would pose. We would still need to maintain the same system of out of hours cover at our Posts overseas, so that cost savings might be less significant.
|
| (d) Make attendance at core consular training courses mandatory for all locally engaged consular staff (including Honorary Consuls), and duty officers;
| We have made training mandatory for all these groups. We have set up a new database to ensure that all staff overseas who have not had the required training quickly receive it, and to monitor ongoing training for all staff. We will also be able to monitor this through the new COMPASS software now being rolled out. We are producing a distance-learning video for duty officer training to allow posts quickly to train any officers that need this.
|
| (e) Increase the number of regional training events and make specific provision in these to share lessons between Posts.
| We are doing this. Our internal reviewers are conducting a review of our consular training team to see if its resources need to be increased to cope with the growing demand for training in the UK and overseas.
|
7. Passport applicants overseas should be given greater choice to obtain their passports from the United Kingdom or from the FCO, subject to meeting basic security requirements.
| (a) Agree with the United Kingdom Passport Service that overseas citizens should be able to obtain their passports directly from the United Kingdom Passport Service if they desire, with immediate effect; where they have travelled back to the United Kingdom, can attend any necessary interviews there and can provide a verifiable address. The United Kingdom Passport Service believes that this can be made to work, particularly for renewals, given adequate arrangements to ensure applicants' eligibility and identity.
| We have agreed this with the United Kingdom Passport Service (UKPS).
|
| (b) Align Consular and United Kingdom Passport Service security checking and quality assurance processes for the issue of passports.
| We are working hard towards closer alignment with UKPS standards. Wherever possible we will also standardise procedures; where local circumstances overseas may render exact duplication of procedures impractical, we are coordinating closely with UKPS to ensure that we meet the same standards, even if the means may differ. This has been agreed with UKPS. Recent UKPS attachments to our missions have also resulted in increased awareness by UKPS of the rigorous nature of the checks (eg on foreign documentation) which we carry out. Those concerned have commented that they will be more careful when checking foreign documents presented to them in the UK.
|
| (c) Regularly review the impact of the new arrangements on speed and security of passport issuing, and particularly on the level of demand for passports to be issued overseas. The impact of such cases will provide valuable input into a more fundamental decisions regarding the future of issuing passports overseas (see recommendation 8).
| We will closely monitor how the new latitude for applicants overseas to obtain a passport in the UK affects the numbers of issues Posts make. This will be recorded in Posts' annual returns.
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| |
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Equipping consular services meet emerging change
8. Given the radical changes required for the passport operation, the FCO should change its current business model for issuing passports overseas.
| (a) In response to our findings the FCO has already commenced the process of the fundamental review through a report from consultants CapGemini. We consider that the future direction of the Passport operation should include:
— Production of passports should be based in far fewer locations than at present. Specifically, a passport network based on production capability mainly in the United Kingdom, but with the option to maintain several regional "hubs" where there are major concentrations of British passport holders (such as Spain and North America).
— A clear definition and service standard for those residual functions that need to be retained in the country of residence of the applicant. This should focus of maintaining the capability at Posts to issue non-biometric emergency travel documents or temporary passports to assist emergency travel, and to undertake local checks on passport entitlement, such as interviews, biometric enrolment and the inspection of local records. Since a relatively small number of emergency passports will be issued, unit costs will increase but fees should be set to recover full cost.
— To build up capability in passport productions hubs to take on tasks such as the authorisation of passport decisions made by Posts, and to advise Posts on their decisions on nationality. Once the nature of the next stage of biometric passports is clear the FCO should reconsider whether further work should be consolidated to "hubs", to obtain lower costs and more consistent standards.
| The Cap Gemini review confirmed the recommendation that passport production overseas should be concentrated in regional hubs. This offers an effective way forward. The recommendations will be presented to ministers for their approval in December/January. In the meantime, we are engaging Cap Gemini for a detailed follow-up workshop, which will result in a transformation map. The process of hiring workstream managers for the various strands of recommendations is now underway.
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9. The FCO should ensure that existing consular information technology systems are fully utilised and new systems are developed to enable it to allocate its resources where they are most needed.
| (a) Re-invigorating Compass, the consular assistance software programme, with more detailed training and a staged rollout of its functions; including its planned improved functionality.
| Piloting of Compass NG (New Generation) began in October, with rollout to Posts expected to begin at the end of February 2006. There will be more face-to-face training at Posts, and trainers will also take part in regional conferences. New modules to come onstream later in the year include Crisis Management and On-line registrations.
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| (b) Monitoring whether posts are using the Compass system, including enforcing compliance through linking any staffing bids to case workloads shown on the systems;
| We actively encourage Posts to use Compass and we monitor its use. The Directorate's senior staff raise Compass use on overseas visits. We are currently considering the benefits of enforcing compliance by linking future staffing bids to Compass statistics.
|
| (c) Regular and proactive investigations of common infrastructure problems and frustrations with the system reported by Posts to the centre; and
| This function is now covered by the Head of Consular Directorate's ICT Operations Team, created in February 2005. Co-ordination with IT Helpdesk, FCO Services and UKPS has tightened considerably, ensuring that we obtain regular reports of problems with consular IT systems and are able to investigate and resolve them. The current focus is on resolving problems Posts experience with OmniBase—a joint UKPS/FCO database of all UK passports issued.
|
| (d) Better generation of management and performance information from the key information technology systems.
| A new tool has been developed to produce management information from GenIE (our current digital passport issuing system). BRIT, the new biometric passport system, to be introduced at Posts from February 2006, has been developed to produce extensive management and performance information, including for example data on performance against PSA targets.
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10. The FCO should, in conjunction with HM Treasury, regularly review the basis of funding for consular assistance work and should reconsider the range of consular activities covered by its internal and external targets.
| (a) Regular reviews to assess the adequacy of funding levels should consider:
— Changing patterns of travel and the observed level of demand;
— Projected trends in the issue of passports; and
— The case for linking the consular premium to the number and type of overseas visits as well as the number of passports issued.
| When assessing passport fee increases, assumptions are made based on available statistical information, of the likely demand for consular services. This information will include:
Numbers of journeys;
Travel trends (for example the growth in travel to more exotic locations, the increase in adventure holidays, the increase in independent travellers);
The numbers of passports predicted to be issued;
The increase/decrease in popularity of some locations (and staffing implications for those Posts);
The likely benefits of improved travel advice and Know-Before-You-Go campaigns.
We will continue to seek to improve the forecasting of demand for services. The introduction of ID cards will pose important challenges, as they will allow British Nationals to travel within the EU without a passport.
The introduction of the ID card could well mean a reduction in the number of passports issued by UKPS. We will keep in close contact with UKPS regarding their predictions of the impact of the ID card on passports issued.
|
| (b) A hierarchy of targets should be established under the existing Public Service Agreement and underlying targets, to develop more detailed working level targets in areas where none currently exist. For example, targets for travel information and crisis management could include:
— The level of public awareness of, or a number of visits to, traveller information;
— The number of Posts who have current, reviewed and tested emergency plans;
— The speed of deployment in response to crises, and level of continuing support during crises.
| The number of hits on the travel website is up 25% year on year. To take account of growing interest in the subject in the travel and insurance industries and the public, the frequency of Travel Advice Review Group meetings has been increased from two to three per year.
We will introduce targets to measure website hits.
All Posts should have current, reviewed and tested emergency plans. The review and test programme is a rolling one.
It would be difficult to set a target for deployment speed, because so much depends on the nature, and location, of the crisis. The first job would be to decide upon the requirements and only then could an appropriate response be planned. It should be possible to devise targets for speed of both analysis and advice to Ministers (within X hours of event). We will give this matter further thought.
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Foreign and Commonwealth Office
6 December 2005
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