HC Deb 19 January 1994 vol 235 cc587-8W
Mr. Matthew Taylor

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will list, for each scheme operated by his Department under which loans are available, the objectives of the scheme, the number of unrecovered loans, the total value of unrecovered loans, the average number of unrecovered loans for each year since 1990, the average value of unrecovered loans for each year since 1990 and the annual cost of recovering loans.

Mr. Goodlad

The diplomatic service operates five loan schemes for staff. In all cases, beneficiaries sign an undertaking to repay, and unless otherwise stated officers repay by deduction from salary.

The schemes and their objectives are as follows:

(i) Housing Assistance Scheme

DS officers returning from service overseas to an appointment in the United Kingdom are faced with the problem of needing to find rented accommodation, or buy a property at a time not of their own choosing: officers are eligible for a salary-related advance, subject to a maximum of £10,500. Repayments are deferred for the first three years, and then repaid over a maximum of nine years.

(ii) Overseas Allowances

In order to assist staff in purchasing equipment and establishing their household overseas, advances of allowances are available to officers which are repayable over two years. Advances of up to one month's cost of living allowance—COLA—may be taken by staff who have completed a posting in the United Kingdom: for some difficult postings a three-month advance of COLA is available. Advances of six months representational allowances are available to heads of mission and other senior grade staff.

(iii) Car Loans

Officers need private cars overseas for domestic and operational reasons. A salary-related advance is available to officers appointed overseas after a tour of duty in the United Kingdom, repayable over two years.

(iv) Recreational Advances

This is a small advance made available to junior staff by our missions overseas to help them with the initial cost of joining a local sports club. The loan is repaid to the accountant at the overseas mission within one year.

(v) Season Ticket Advances

This advance is available to staff in the United Kingdom to purchase an annual season ticket for home to office journeys. This enables the Department to widen the recruitment catchment area, and alleviates recruitment and retention problems.

The following loans have not been paid by the due date and recovery action is in hand:

Scheme Year Number of loans Amount £
Housing 1989 1 1,279
Housing 1991 1 3,000
Car 1993 1 531
TOTAL 4,810

The Overseas Development Administration operates three loan schemes, the objectives and the arrangements for which are similar to those for the diplomatic service.

(i) House Purchase

To assist staff who are transferred to a new location in UK at the Department's behest.

(ii) Overseas Salary Advance

Available to staff and technical co-operation officers on first taking up an overseas appointment to purchase a new vehicle and to stock up on essential equipment.

(iii) Season Ticket/Bicycle Advances

To assist staff with home to office travel.

The following staff loans were not repaid. In both cases, staff resigned without prior notice. ODA initiated recovery action, but on the basis of legal advice, this was not pursued.

Scheme Year Number of Loans Amount £
Season Ticket 1990 1 547
Season Ticket 1991 1 213
Total 760

Two overseas salary advances paid to aid personnel—technical co-operation officers—have failed to be recovered since 1990. One officer has agreed to repay £7,848 over a three-year period. The other has an outstanding balance of £3,400 and recovery action is being pursued by the Treasury Solicitor.

The outstanding loans due to the Department are a minute proportion of the total advanced and recovered without difficulty. Outstanding loan recovery forms a very small part of the responsibilities of a number of officers: it is not possible to quantify in financial terms the amount of manpower expended on pursuing loans with a disproportionate amount of research.