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449828

registered interest
date	02/02/2016
answering body	Department for International Development
answering dept id	20
answering dept short name	International Development
answering dept sort name	International Development
hansard heading	Nepal: Earthquakes
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, if she will make an assessment of the effect on Nepal's recovery from the 2015 earthquake of India closing border crossings into Nepal.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Charlotte Leslie
uin	25344
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 05/02/2016 answer text <p>We are deeply concerned about the impact of the blockages at the India-Nepal border on the supply and distribution of humanitarian goods. DFID is working on the ground to make sure that vital supplies reach those affected by the earthquake of early 2015. Through its partners, DFID is providing winter support to approximately 42,000 families (over 200,000 people). We welcome the adoption of the National Reconstruction Authority Bill and formation of the National Reconstruction Authority.</p><p>DFID and FCO Ministers have discussed their concerns with Ministers from the Governments of Nepal and India. The British Ambassador in Kathmandu is also working closely with others in the international community and is in close contact with Prime Minister Oli and his cabinet.</p><p>There has been an increase in the level of goods, including fuel, entering Nepal via India. Despite the main border crossing between the two countries remaining closed, between 60-70% of the usual amount of goods are entering Nepal through alternative border crossings.</p><p> </p> answering member constituency New Forest West answering member printed Mr Desmond Swayne question first answered 05/02/2016 14:45:22 answering member 55 label Biography information for Sir Desmond Swayne
tabling member	3933 label Biography information for Charlotte Leslie

449832

registered interest
date	02/02/2016
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Diplomatic Service: Languages
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what proportion of total postings and how many ambassadors have held Operational level (C1) examination passes in the official language of the country to which they were posted in each year since 2006.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Charlotte Leslie
uin	25453
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2016 answer text <p>We appointed 53 Ambassadors in 2015. Of these 24 were appointed to speaker slots and 10 have an Operational level C1 examination pass. The FCO Language Centre was re-opened in September 2013 to renew the focus and investment in languages as a core diplomatic skill to ensure that we get the right people with the right skills in the right jobs to deliver our foreign policy objectives. The Language Centre gives us a strong platform to grow our language skills as an organisation and develop a pipeline of talent to fill language slots on a continuous basis. To provide statistics for the years 2006-14 would incur disproportionate cost.</p> answering member constituency Bournemouth East answering member printed Mr Tobias Ellwood question first answered 09/02/2016 14:13:56 answering member 1487 label Biography information for Mr Tobias Ellwood
tabling member	3933 label Biography information for Charlotte Leslie

449839

registered interest
date	02/02/2016
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Diplomatic Service: Languages
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the duration of ambassadorial postings (a) where HM Ambassador is a speaker of the official language of the country to which he is posted (b) where HM Ambassador's primary foreign language is not that of the country to which he is posted.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Charlotte Leslie
uin	25452
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2016 answer text <p>The majority of Heads of Mission have a tour length of three or four years, unless they are posted to a hardship or conflict post where the tour may be shorter. Around 100 Heads of Mission roles require language skills and are designated “speaker slots”.</p><p>We offer language training to Heads of Mission where this is required. The FCO Language Centre was re-opened in September 2013 to renew the focus and investment in languages as a core diplomatic skill to ensure that we get the right people with the right skills in the right jobs to deliver our foreign policy objectives. The Language Centre gives us a strong platform to grow our language skills as an organisation and develop a pipeline of talent to fill language slots on a continuous basis. It is essential that all our Heads of Mission have the necessary skills, including languages, to do their jobs. Many of our Heads of Mission will return to Posts where they have existing language capability, in these cases we will provide top up or refresher training. Our Head of Mission Appointment Boards take into account language skills as part of the overall assessment of suitability for a role. In some cases the best candidate may not already speak the language and for these roles we will provide longer training to reach the requisite level. We encourage all those who have undergone language training to maintain their language skills throughout their careers.</p> answering member constituency Bournemouth East answering member printed Mr Tobias Ellwood question first answered 09/02/2016 14:09:01 answering member 1487 label Biography information for Mr Tobias Ellwood
tabling member	3933 label Biography information for Charlotte Leslie

449851

registered interest
date	02/02/2016
answering body	Department of Health
answering dept id	17
answering dept short name	Health
answering dept sort name	Health
hansard heading	Health Professions: Migrant Workers
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many nationals of (a) the EEA, excluding the UK and (b) non-EEA countries who are (i) doctors, (ii) dentists, (iii) other dental care professionals and (iv) nurses have been (A) suspended and (B) brought before a fitness to practise panel by their professional regulator as a result of poor English language skills in the last three years.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Charlotte Leslie
uin	25540
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 08/02/2016 answer text <p>The information requested is not held by the Department. The nine <a href="http://www.professionalstandards.org.uk/regulators/statutory-regulators-directory" target="_blank">health and care professional regulatory bodies</a> within the United Kingdom are responsible for operational matters concerning the discharge of their statutory duties including fitness-to-practise (FtP) investigations against their registrants. Relevant information provided by the General Medical Council (GMC), Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and General Dental Council (GDC) is included below.</p><p> </p><p>The GMC reports that four European Economic Area (EEA) doctors and no non-EEA doctors have appeared at a FtP tribunal <del class="ministerial">and been suspended</del> due wholly or partly to lack of English language skills, since its legislation changed in June 2014 to introduce inadequate English language skills as a grounds for finding a doctor’s fitness to practise is impaired. <ins class="ministerial">Of the four, two were suspended and two had conditions imposed on their registration. Conditions restrict a doctor’s practice or require them to take remedial action. In these cases, the purpose of conditions is to help protect patients while allowing the doctor to remedy any deficiencies in their practice or knowledge of English. </ins>In addition, since the GMC was given new powers in relation to the language skills of doctors, it has dealt with 3,289 registration applications from EEA doctors. 1,970 of them were able to demonstrate that they met the English language requirements as part of their application and were granted registration with a licence to practise. 1,319 doctors were registered but have not been granted a licence to practise either because they did not provide any evidence of their English language skills or the evidence they provided was insufficient. Doctors cannot practise in the UK without a licence to practise.</p><p> </p><p>The NMC reports that until legislative change took effect in January 2016, it did not record poor English language skills as a case type within FtP. Previously all cases were recorded under an umbrella category of ‘Lack of competence – communication issues’. This category covered a range of communication topics including failure to delegate appropriately. Since the new language control power was introduced in 2016 the NMC has been coding English language skills as a separate code.</p><p> </p><p>The GDC reports that following an update to its Standards in 2013, it takes the requirement to be sufficiently fluent in written and spoken English into account when assessing FtP cases. Since this change there have been no suspensions and one EEA Dentist has been struck-off the GDC register where the category of ‘not fluent in English’ was recorded as a consideration. The GDC notes that as a result of recent legislative change, it is taking forward associated changes to registration processes and FtP rules, which will result in further language control requirements being introduced by the end of summer.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Ipswich answering member printed Ben Gummer question first answered 08/02/2016 14:54:34 question first ministerially corrected 01/03/2016 17:55:31 answering member 3988 label Biography information for Ben Gummer previous answer version 44025 answering member constituency Ipswich answering member printed Ben Gummer answering member 3988 label Biography information for Ben Gummer
tabling member	3933 label Biography information for Charlotte Leslie

449962

registered interest
date	02/02/2016
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Foreign and Commonwealth office: Languages
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many officials in his Department have undertaken Foreign and Commonwealth Office language classes in each year from 2006.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Charlotte Leslie
uin	25525
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2016 answer text In 2014 there were 255 officers in full time language training with an additional 332 officers and/ or spouses attending part time language classes. In 2015 there were 332 officers in full time language training and 767 officers/spouses following part time language classes. To provide statistics for the years 2006-2013 would incur disproportionate costs. answering member constituency Bournemouth East answering member printed Mr Tobias Ellwood question first answered 10/02/2016 14:07:50 answering member 1487 label Biography information for Mr Tobias Ellwood
tabling member	3933 label Biography information for Charlotte Leslie

449969

registered interest
date	02/02/2016
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Languages
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 23665, in which 33 different languages his Department has Operational Level (C1) examination pass speakers employed in the last five years up to the end of 2015.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Charlotte Leslie
uin	25483
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 09/02/2016 answer text <p>Records show that up until the end of 2015, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had officers with a C1 pass in the following languages:<br>Albanian, Arabic, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Czech, Dari, Dutch, Farsi, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Macedonian, Mandarin, Pashtu, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovene, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.</p><p>The FCO Language Centre was re-opened in September 2013 to renew the focus and investment in languages as a core diplomatic skill to ensure that we get the right people with the right skills in the right jobs to deliver our foreign policy objectives. The Language Centre gives us a strong platform to grow our language skills as an organisation and develop a pipeline of talent to fill language slots on a continuous basis.</p> answering member constituency Bournemouth East answering member printed Mr Tobias Ellwood question first answered 09/02/2016 14:15:35 answering member 1487 label Biography information for Mr Tobias Ellwood
tabling member	3933 label Biography information for Charlotte Leslie

449970

registered interest
date	02/02/2016
answering body	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept id	16
answering dept short name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
answering dept sort name	Foreign and Commonwealth Office
hansard heading	Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Languages
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 23665, how many (a) Arabic speakers with an Operational level (C1) examination pass and (b) Mandarin/Cantonese speakers there were employed in his Department in each year since 2006.
tabling member constituency	Bristol North West
tabling member printed	Charlotte Leslie
uin	25484
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 10/02/2016 answer text <p>Records from the last five years show that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has 51 officers who have a current Operational Level (C1) Arabic pass and 44 officers with a C1 pass in Mandarin/ Cantonese. We only record current C1 passes, valid for five years after the date of the exam, and therefore do not have pre-2010 data.</p> answering member constituency Bournemouth East answering member printed Mr Tobias Ellwood question first answered 10/02/2016 14:09:34 answering member 1487 label Biography information for Mr Tobias Ellwood
tabling member	3933 label Biography information for Charlotte Leslie