HC Deb 28 April 2003 vol 404 cc131-2W
Dr. Cable

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many individuals have been seconded to his Department from(a) the private sector, (b) NGOs and (c) other, in each case listing (i) from which organisation and (ii) dates of secondments in each year since 1997–98. [108104]

Mr. Rammell:

Private Sector Secondments

I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my hon. Friend the then Minister of State at the FCO (Mr. Battle) to the hon. Member for Bath (Mr. Foster) on 29 June 2000, Official Report, column 581W, and to his letter of 5 July 2000 to the hon. Member for Bath which has been placed in the Libraries of the House, which set out a full list of private sector secondments from 1997 to February 2000.

Since then, there have been a further 26 secondments to the Department, and details are set out in the following table.

Secondments and attachments are part of the Interchange Initiative, which promotes the exchange of people and good practice between the civil service and other organisations. Before an Interchange can occur all parties must be satisfied that no conflict of interest arises.

Non-Private Sector Secondments

Under Cabinet Office Interchange procedures, the term secondment relates solely to movement of staff to and from the private sector and other non-civil service organisations.

The table below shows secondments to the FCO from other non-civil service organisations. The FCO does not hold comprehensive records for the year 1997, so the information attached begins from 1998. In addition, some FCO departments and posts organise secondment-type placements directly with relevant organisations. No central records of these exist and they are therefore not included.

Appendix A

Secondments from the private sector to FCO
March 2000 to April 2003
Company Start date End date
Mouchel March 2000 October 2000
British Airways June 2000 February 2001
Price Waterhouse Coopers April 2000 April 2001
Rolls Royce October 2000 April 2001
CMC and Admiral November 2000 April 2001
Wood Group Engineering Ltd November 2000 May 2001
Independent Consultant November 2000 August 2001
Wood Group Engineering Ltd March 2001 November 2001
Standard Chartered Bank May 2001 January 2002
BG plc June 2001 February 2002
Anglia Water January 2002 March 2002
Teeside College June 2001 April 2002
Shell May 2001 May 2002
KPMG June 2000 June 2001
BP June 2000 June 2002
Rolls Royce April 2001 June 2002

Secondments from the private sector to FCO
March 2000 to April 2003
Company Start date End date
EC Harris January 2002 December 2002
Unilever August 2001 August 2003
BAe Systems April 2002 November 2002
Advantica June 2002 November 2002
Ove Arup October 1999 October 2003
KGP May 2002 December 2005
Michael John Trust December 2001 May 2006
AESSeal June 2002 November 2002
Thames Water September 2002 March 2003
Chamber of British Industry October 2002 April 2003

Note:

TPUK refers to Tradepartners UK, the trade development arm of British Trade International.

Appendix B

Seconded from non-private sector
Start End
Metropolitan Police 1 April 1998 23 June 2002
German MFA 1 June 1998 1 July 1999
US State Dept 1 August 1998 1 August 1999
German MFA 1 August 1998 1 July 1999
National Air Traffic Systems 1 October 1998 1 July 2001
Financial Services Authority 1 January 1999 31 July 2001
Ecole National d'Amin (ENA) 1 January 1999 7 January 1999
French MFA 1 February 1999 1 July 1999
New Zealand MFA 1 April 1999 1 July 1999
German MFA 1 August 1999 1 June 2000
US State Department 1 August 1999 1 August 2000
ENA 1 August 1999 1 January 2000
Metropolitan Police 1 August 1999 6 November 2000
Save the Children 1 September 1999 2 July 2001
Canadian MFA 1 September 1999 1 September 2000
German MFA 1 September 1999 8 December 2000
French MFA 1 September 1999 15 August 2001
National Institute of EC and Social Research 1 September 1999 1 September 2003
House of Commons 1 September 1999 1 September 2001
World Wildlife Fund 1 December 1999 30 November 2002
ENA 1 January 2000 1 July 2000
NGO: Interights 9 January 2000 9 January 2001
Brazilian MFA 21 June 2000 8 November 2000
German MFA 26 June 2000 27 May 2001
Czech MFA 1 December 2000 1 December 2001
US State Department 1 December 2000 1 December 2001
NGO: Asian Family Counselling 1 January 2001 1 January 2004
Metropolitan Police 1 May 2001 1 July 2004
ENA 1 July 2001 15 January 2002
US State Department 30 July 2001 30 July 2002
Office of Fair Trading 10 October 2001 15 October 2003
BBSRC (Research Council) 22 October 2001 19 October 2002
ENA 21 January 2002 21 January 2003
New Zeland MFA 13 May 2002 30 August 2002
City of London Police 1 June 2002 1 June 2004
German MFA 17 July 2002 17 July 2003
Sport England 1 August 2002 1 August 2003
German MFA 12 August 2002 12 August 2003
French MFA 2 September 2002 1 September 2003
BBSRC (Research Council) 20 December 2002 1 November 2005
Lord Chancellor's Dept 10 February 2003 10 August 2003

Notes:

The FCO grading system equates as follows:

SMS = Senior Civil Service

D7 = Home Civil Service 6

D6 = Home Civil Service 7

C5 = Senior Executive Officer

C4 = Higher Executive Officer

B3 = Executive Officer