§ Mr. Georgeasked the Lord Privy Seal how much time, in terms of the number of man-hours and in terms of the percentage of total available man-hours, has been spent by members of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, in the last year for which figures are available, on work specifically related to the activities of the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs in each of the following categories (a) Ministers, (b) permanent secretaries, (c) deputy secretaries, (d) under-secretaries, (e) assistant secretaries, (f) principals and (g) all other staff; and to how many people such a percentage applies.
§ Mr. HurdInformation is not maintained in the form requested. However, broad assessments of the amount of time spent by officials of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including the overseas development administration, on work arising from the activities of Select Committees were recorded for the period 4 April 1980 to 17 "February 1981 and that information is available in the following form:
Grades Man days Under-secretaries and above (senior grade) 59 Assistant secretary (DS 4) 118 Principal (DS 5) 579 Senior executive officers and below (DS 6 and below) 569 We have no figures for Ministers for the same period.
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Lord Privy Seal on how many occasions (a) written and (b) oral submissions have been made by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to each of the new Select Committees since their inception; how many witnesses from his Department have appeared to give oral evidence; and what were the grades of civil servants and the rank of Ministers concerned.
§ Mr. Hurd123 written memoranda have been made by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including the overseas development administration to the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Sub-Committee on Overseas Development since their inception. Figures for memoranda sent to other Select Committees are not available before 1982, since when 5 memoranda have been made to them.
One Cabinet Minister, 6 non-Cabinet Ministers and 92 officials from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, including the overseas development administration, have appeared before the Foreign Affairs and other Select Committees at 61 sessions, excluding oral submissions made abroad. Officials' grades are as follows:
- Permanent secretary/permanent under-secretary
- Deputy secretary/deputy under-secretary
- Under-secretary/assistant under-secretary
- Assistant secretary
- Senior principal
- Principal
- Legal counsellor
- Second legal advisor
- Deputy chief scientific officer
- Senior economic advisor
- Economic advisor
- Statistics advisor.
§ Mr. Georgeasked the Lord Privy Seal what is the maximum percentage of available working time spent by any individual member of his staff on work specifically 247W related to the activities of the Foreign Affairs Committee for the last year for which this information is available; and how many people such a percentage applies.
§ Mr. HurdNo percentage figures of the type requested are available. The Parliamentary Commissioner and Committees unit of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is the unit charged with servicing the Select Committee on Foreign Affairs, and a large amount of its time is spent on work related to this and other Select Committees. The unit consists of 3 officers (a grade 5 and a grade 9 on the Diplomatic Service, equivalent to principal and executive officer, and a clerical officer).