Keith Vaz – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Keith Vaz on 2016-09-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many staff of his Department work on (a) the Yemen Desk and directly on Yemen and (b) all matters which directly or indirectly relate to Yemen.

Mr Tobias Ellwood

It is not possible to identify a precise figure for full time equivalent staff working on Yemen directly and indirectly because a range of staff are involved across various Foreign and Commonwealth Office departments and the proportion of their time devoted varies depending on need. That said, the UK remains committed to de-escalating the conflict by encouraging all parties to participate in negotiations to find a peaceful solution, as well as working with other government departments to address Yemen’s urgent humanitarian and economic needs and reduce the terrorist threat emanating from Yemen.