§ 35. Sir Teddy TaylorTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of procedures for informing the public about his Department's policies. [129576]
§ Mr. HainMembers of the public may access information on Her Majesty's Government's foreign policy via the Foreign and Commonwealth website—http://www.fco.gov.uk—which includes an archive of ministerial policy speeches dating back to May 1997 and other key policy statements and documents. "Briefing Papers" are published on topical areas of foreign policy144W and the "Key Foreign Policy Issues" section includes detailed contributions from many Departments on specific policy work, for example "Britain and the EU", "Human Rights in Foreign Policy", "UK and the United Nations" and "UK and the Commonwealth".
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office website is one of the most heavily accessed sites in Whitehall, with around 350,000 page impressions to the site per week. The majority of visitors to the website are from the UK. The "Britain and the EU" home page has been accessed over 8,800 times since the beginning of June. Users may also register their personal foreign policy interests with the website and receive notification by e-mail of the latest news updates. To date, 12,500 UK-based users have registered their interest this way.
As part of the London String of Pearls Millennium Festival, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is open to the public every Tuesday between 9 May and 25 July. In addition to viewing the Foreign and Commonwealth Office historic rooms, an average of 3,000 visitors per week have seen displays on the Foreign and Commonwealth's work in particular areas, such as Europe, International Security, Global Issues and the Americas. Feedback from the visitors has been very positive.