Written question asked by Steve Barclay (Conservative) on Thursday, 2 February 2012, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 7 February 2012. It was answered by Lord Bellingham (Conservative) on Tuesday, 7 February 2012 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Departmental Career Development

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what account promotion boards in his Department take of language and area expertise when assessing staff for promotion.

Answer: As part of our Diplomatic Excellence initiative, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) attaches great importance to improving area expertise and language skills.The FCO promotion competitions test candidates in skills required for all FCO roles, such as strategic thinking, analytical skills, negotiating, influencing and written communication. We have considered including language skills as part of our promotions process. However, the promotion competitions cover all UK-based staff, including diplomatic staff, home civil servants, generalists and specialists. They are designed to determine whether staff are fitted to perform a wide range of jobs at the next level up. We have therefore concluded that it would be wrong to make specific language skills a formal requirement for all staff at promotion competitions.Nevertheless, in individual career planning and at the point of applying for specific roles, relevant language skills and area expertise are important considerations. When jobs are advertised, great emphasis is placed on the key competences, languages and other skills to ensure that we are able to appoint the staff best suited to fill each role.

Secondary information