Diana Johnson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Diana Johnson on 2016-01-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many press and public relations staff are employed by his Department; how many of those employees are paid more than (a) £50,000 and (b) £100,000; and what the total expenditure was in press and public relations by his Department in the most recent year for which figures are available.

Mr David Lidington

The Communication Directorate employs 86 full-time employees in London on press and public relations, including promotion of the UK overseas. This number does not include Communication Directorate staff who work solely on functions other than press and public relations (e.g. internal communications, service transformation etc.).

The FCO also employs staff in press and public relations roles abroad, but as these details are not held centrally this information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

i) The number of press and public relations employees who earn more than £50,000 in the FCO is: 18

ii) The number of press and public relations employees who earn more than £100,000 in the FCO is: 0

iii) The total expenditure on the central communication function (not including staff costs) by the FCO in 2014/15 was: £1,883,791