Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2015-12-17.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many press and public relations staff are employed by (a) UK Trade and Investment, (b) FCO Services, (c) Wilton Park, (d) the British Council, (e) the Great Britain-China Centre, (f) the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission and (g) the Westminster Foundation for Democracy, (h) Government Communications Headquarters and (i) the Secret Intelligence Service; how many of those employees earn more than (i) £50,000 and (ii) £100,000; and what the total expenditure was on press and public relations by each of those organisations in the most recent year for which figures are available.
Mr David Lidington
The number of press and public relations staff employed in each organisation is
as follows:
FCO Services: 0.5 full-time equivalent
Wilton Park: 0
The British Council: 7
The Great Britain-China Centre: 0
The Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission: 0
The Westminster Foundation for
Democracy: 0
i) The number of press and public relations employees who
earn more than £50,000 in each organisation is as follows:
FCO Services: 0
Wilton Park: 0
The British Council: 1
The Great Britain-China
Centre: 0
The Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission: 0
The Westminster
Foundation for Democracy: 0
ii) No press and public relations employee
earns more than £100,000 in any of the organisationslisted above.
iii)
The total expenditure on press and public relations by each organisation in
2014/15, excluding staff costs, is as follows:
FCO Services: £21,312
Wilton Park: Nil
The British Council: £126,041
The Great
Britain-China Centre: Nil
The Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission: Nil
The Westminster Foundation for Democracy: Nil
It is long standing government policy not to publish Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) and Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) expenditure or staff figures to the requested level of detail. However, other data on the intelligence agencies’ expenditure and staff numbers are normally published in the annual reports of the Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament.
Across Government the government communications profession saved £330 million for taxpayers last year compared to 2009 to 2010 – by making its campaigns more cost effective. This means the government reduced communications spending by a total of £1 billion during the last Parliament.
