To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much was spent by his Department on (a) staff and (b) communication training in the last 12 months. (153049)

During the last 12 months £8,834,098 was spent by the human resources directorate in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on staff training. These are direct training costs only.

Policy and technical training provided by other FCO Directorates, individual home departments and overseas posts has not been included because collating this information would incur disproportionate cost.

During the last 12 months £222,594 was spent by the human resources directorate on written and oral communications training.

This figure does not include media, press and public affairs training, for which a budget of £225,000 has been allocated for this financial year (FY) and approximately £200,000 was spent in FY 2006-07. Nor does it include training provided by individual overseas posts or home departments and directorates because collating this information would incur disproportionate cost.