Written question asked by Neil O'Brien (Conservative) on Wednesday, 29 October 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 3 November 2025. It was answered by Seema Malhotra (Labour) on Thursday, 6 November 2025 on behalf of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Languages
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many officials in her Department hold language qualifications in (a) Mandarin, (b) Cantonese, (c) Russian, (d) Ukrainian, (e) Arabic, (f) Farsi, and (g) Hebrew, broken down by C1 and C2 levels.
- Answer
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The language proficiency of Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) staff cannot adequately be assessed solely by looking at the number with current C1 and C2 qualifications, as this does not take into account those staff members who may hold other qualifications in those languages or be native speakers. A full record of staff language capabilities is not centrally held, and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 86285
- Session
- 2024-26
- Related items
- Subjects
- Languages Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
- Contains statistics
- Yes
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-04-01 09:57:14 +0100
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2024-26/86285
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2024-26/86285
- In Solr
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