14th Report - Global Britain: FCO Skills
- HC No.
- HC 1254
- Published
- 28 Nov 2018
- Items
- 0
- Government response
- Government response published 8 February 2019. Read the government's response ↗
Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Global Britain: FCO skills inquiry
Closed
Opened 14 Jun 2018
Closed 8 Feb 2019
Foreign Affairs Committee Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Inquiry scope (the committee's words)
This inquiry considers how the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) develops and maintains the skills its staff need for the effective delivery of UK priorities. The inquiry will also consider how specialist skills are affected by the nature of career paths in the FCO, and whether the Diplomatic Academy is adequately sized and resourced.
Where it stands
The inquiry is closed, opened 14 June 2018.
The committee has published 1 report, most recently 14th Report - Global Britain: FCO Skills on 28 November 2018.
The government's response
Published 8 February 2019.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government accepts some recommendations on skills, such as a skills audit and a review of handovers, but disagrees with extending open recruitment and has no current plans for a two-week training margin.
- On a skills audit, it says one "will take place as soon as possible once the Atlas Enterprise Resource Planning System is in place", and that the FCO "considers that it should be possible to complete an audit by the end of 2020", later than the Committee's end-2019 date.
- On open recruitment, it disagrees with "the thrust of the Committee’s argument" and has "no plans" to open up jobs such as Deputy Heads of Mission as a matter of course, but will review the three planned open competitions and share the review with the Committee "in due course".
- On handovers, it agrees "with the recommendation to review our approach", but has "no current plans" for a mandatory two-week training margin, citing varying individual and operational needs and "significant cost".
- On languages, it is assessing how to increase speakers and languages taught, with results informing a bid in the "forthcoming Spending Review", and says the Permanent Under-Secretary "will continue to report regularly" on attainment.
Reports
- 14th Report - Global Britain: FCO Skills28 November 2018
Evidence
- 2 oral evidence sessionsLatest 5 September 2018
Recent activity
- 19th Special Report - Delivering Global Britain: FCO Skills: Government response to the Committee's Fourteenth Report8 February 2019, Report published
- 14th Report - Global Britain: FCO Skills28 November 2018, Report published
- Oral evidence session5 September 2018, Oral evidence
Reports
Oral evidence sessions
On smaller screens, scroll horizontally to read every column. Keyboard users can focus the table region and use the arrow keys.