§ Mr. DuncanTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list by grade the number of officials in his Department at grade 3 or above who have(a) taken early retirement, (b) taken official leave, (c) been dismissed, (d) changed jobs within the Department, (e) moved to another Department and (f) been offered and rejected an alternative position (i) within the Department and (ii) in another Department since 1 May. [27460]
§ Mr. Fatchett[holding answer 5 February 1998]: (a) Four FCO officials at grade 3 equivalent and above have retired or have taken early retirement since 1 May as part of an ongoing programme of senior management structure retirements on structural grounds. Their grades were: a DS1, a DS2 and two DS3s. (b) Officers at this level will have taken periods of normal annual leave, but these records are not held centrally. (c) None was dismissed. (d) & (f) About a quarter of the officers at grade 3 and above have changed jobs since 1 May either as part of the normal rotation of ambassadors and other senior staff, interchange with other Government Departments or on promotion. Such moves are planned up to a year in advance especially to/from foreign postings or where training is required. A high level of mobility is a feature of FCO work and roughly a third of all UK based FCO staff change jobs in any given year. Statistics on the precise number of moves and reasons for them could be provided only at disproportionate cost. (e) A DS2 and a DS3 have gone on loan to other Government Departments since 1 May.