Departmental Languages

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department received coaching in a foreign language in the last 12 months; what expenditure his Department incurred in providing such coaching; and in what languages such coaching was provided. (320544)

The information requested is as follows:

(a) No Home Office Ministers have attended coaching in a foreign language in the last 12 months.

(b) There is no central mechanism for recording coaching in a foreign language for Home Office staff; to gather this information would incur a disproportionate cost. Where there is a business need, particularly for staff involved in EU and international business, language training is available and paid for out of local training budgets.