Diplomatic Service: Civil Service White Paper (Hansard, 29 November 1994)

§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)
My Lords, the White Paper recognises that the Diplomatic Service is a separate branch of the public service with its own particular needs and structure. My right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary is considering the parallel action to be put in hand to cover the areas considered in the White Paper.

§ Lord Allen of Abbeydale
My Lords, I am much obliged for that Answer, although I am a little bit surprised that we have not yet had any detailed statement of what is proposed given that the White Paper on the Civil Service was issued in July. We have not been told what the Government's response is to the comments which they invited on the White Paper. We now have to digest the long report of the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee from another place which has just been issued. It will not be all that long before we get the first report from the Nolan Committee and one day presumably we shall get the Scott Report. All of these bear directly on the role of the Civil Service, including the Diplomatic Service. Are the Government holding back on final decisions until all this information is available or are they steaming ahead, as it were, and if so could we somehow be told in some detail just what is going on? Are we to be given an opportunity at a fairly early date of debating these issues, which are not without importance?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, the noble Lord's Question was about the Diplomatic Service. I would say to the noble Lord, who has long experience in Civil Service matters, that it is quite right that the Government should consult widely on the White Paper. Indeed it is quite right that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is undertaking a wide-ranging and thorough review of the senior management structures, evaluating every senior post. This review will consider similar scope for de-layering for the Foreign Office as has been found possible in other areas. But I do not think we should rush this exercise when it is of such importance to so many people in our excellent Civil Service.

Lord Campbell of Croy
My Lords, is my noble friend aware that open competition and transfers for limited periods are not easy to arrange for the Diplomatic Service because members of it at the beginning have to sign that they will be prepared to be sent anywhere, usually to insalubrious places, and their wives and families have to be prepared for that? As regards the Civil Service or industry, wives are often teaching at local schools or carrying on other careers of 537 their own. After the Plowden and Fulton Reports cross-fertilisation was tried and has been successful, but it is limited by the factors which I have just described.

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, my noble friend is absolutely right, but we welcome the opportunity to have members of industry serving both in the Diplomatic Service and indeed in the Civil Service as a whole. We also welcome the exchanges that are taking place between the diplomatic services of member countries in the European Community. However, my noble friend is absolutely right in saying that, because the Diplomatic Service needs to recruit and retain people who are willing to be sent anywhere in the world at short notice, we have more difficulties in such recruitment, but I am glad to say that the applications always far exceed the number of places that we have.

§ Lord Richard
My Lords, I wonder whether the Minister can help us a little more. I do not say this in any spirit of criticism—not great criticism anyway—of the Government's position, but I do not quite understand what is happening. The Government produced a White Paper on the Civil Service and presumably took quite a lot of time to think about it before doing so. They state in that document: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs will be putting parallel action in hand". It does not state that he is considering action, but that he will, be putting parallel action in hand to cover the areas considered in the White Paper". Are we to be told what the parallel action is? Are we to have another White Paper dealing with the position of the Diplomatic Service? Will a statement be made? How will it be done?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I thought that I made clear in answer to the noble Lord, Lord Allen of Abbeydale, that we are already undertaking the review of the senior management structures, and also of grading arrangements and the machinery required for pay delegation, and preparing an efficiency plan. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office administration will take on responsibility for pay and grading from 1st April 1996, and we are exploring ways of bringing the Diplomatic Service and the Home Civil Service staff onto a similar footing and of improving career opportunities both for the fast stream and the main stream. I mention the Home Civil Service because I think it is important that we also have exchanges between the Diplomatic Service and the Home Civil Service where that will work. Many Home civil servants go and do most valuable work for us in our posts abroad. There may not be another White Paper, but I would say to the noble Lord that we are clear that we must continue our rigorous inspection system and that we must stand by our staff who, as my noble friend Lord Campbell of Croy said just now, have a difficult job to do in some of the posts in the world to which we send them.

§ Baroness Rawlings
My Lords, how is the Diplomatic Service responding to change in the 538 international situation, especially with regard to the ex Soviet Union and especially with regard to the need to hold down public spending?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, my noble friend is quite right to ask this question. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has made considerable progress as regards doing more for less. We have achieved greater efficiency through our rigorous inspection system. The objective is to redeploy resources to frontline diplomatic work while at the same time holding down our running costs. By doing this we have been enabled to open 21 new posts since 1990, nine of which are in the former Soviet Union.

§ Lord Bridges
My Lords, does the noble Baroness agree that in introducing into the Diplomatic Service the changes outlined in the White Paper of last July we are not dealing with simple and minor administrative changes but with issues of some constitutional importance, such as the selection of ambassadors for the most senior posts, the professional competence of such people and their political neutrality? Does she also agree that we should pay heed to the example of the United States, where political patronage has operated extensively, to the great disadvantage of the efficiency of the United States foreign service, and that we should be very careful to avoid such a situation arising in this country?

§ Baroness Chalker of Wallasey
My Lords, I certainly agree with the noble Lord that this is not a simple matter and that the appointment of senior diplomats is of major importance. I believe that we do have a politically neutral Diplomatic Service and Home Civil Service, and so they should remain. These are matters which are very much in our minds in conducting the review.