To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many full-time equivalent members of staff in (a) his Department and (b) its associated public bodies are working on projects relating to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games; how many of them are working on (i) project management, (ii) legacy planning, (iii) project oversight and (iv) financial oversight; and what plans he has for future staffing levels in each case. (279820)

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) currently has seven full-time equivalent members of staff based in the UK working on projects related to the London 2012 Olympic games and Paralympic games. Of these, project management accounts for four and a half full-time equivalent posts. Legacy planning, project oversight and financial oversight jointly account for the remainder. A small number of full-time equivalent staff overseas will be working on a UK 2012 Public Diplomacy Campaign from this autumn.

The FCO envisages that by 2012, a full team of staff will be working on London 2012 projects including security, protocol, and public diplomacy. However it is difficult to predict at this stage how many staff might be involved in this work.

The British Council currently has 19 full-time equivalent members of staff working on projects related to the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games. Of these, project management accounts for 13 full-time posts, all of which are overseas. Legacy planning, project oversight and financial oversight jointly account for six full-time posts, all of which are in London. From 2009 to 2013, on existing programmes, the British Council will have a maximum of up to 20 full-time posts working on project management and six full-time posts working on legacy planning, project oversight and financial oversight.