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Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Parliamentary Database

On 6 April, the then Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my noble friend Lady Symons, announced the database of parliamentarians' foreign affairs interests that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had created. Since then, the FCO has been working on a new Parliamentary Question (PQ) management system so that it can be compatible with the next generation of the FCO's desktop IT system which will be introduced next year. The new PQ management system will allow officials throughout the department to see the FCO Questions that noble Lords have asked. In order to concentrate parliamentary information in one place, this new system will also replace the database of parliamentary interests, and in addition to records of Parliamentary Questions noble Lords have asked, it will include records of their participation in foreign affairs debates.