To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many staff by grade are employed as professional statisticians in his Department; how many of these staff have been accepted as fast stream by the Civil Service Selection Board; and how many have been granted chartered statistician status by the Royal Statistical Society. [81203]

There is one Home Civil Service Grade 7 statistician in the FCO. The person concerned joined the Civil Service as a fast stream entrant. Although not having chartered statistician status, the statistician is a Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society and has an MSc in Statistics.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many staff who have worked as professional statisticians in his Department have left on early retirement in each of the past 10 years. [81183]

One statistician left the FCO in 1997 on early retirement.