§ Keith VazTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many offices in his Department have been refurbished in the last three years, and what has been the cost to public funds. [86727]
§ Mr. RammellIn the FCO home estate the only office building refurbished within the past three years is the Old Admiralty building. The cost was £63 million and the project was part of the FCO's strategy to concentrate its London staff into two buildings in order to reduce home estate running costs by 50 per cent.
The FCO has committed approximately £300,000 per annum for the past three years (2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03) to the refurbishment of its offices that form part of the UK estate. This refurbishment covers routine works to general office space, corridors and common parts together with fine rooms and conference rooms.
467WIn the overseas estate major office refurbishments were completed in Riga (£918,000) Tehran (£977,000), Tel Aviv (£384,000), Istanbul (£557,000), and Rangoon (£280,000).
Other, smaller, projects will have been completed through funds devolved to overseas posts. We maintain no central record of these and it is not possible to obtain full details without incurring disproportionate cost.