Departmental Public Participation

Mr. Hoban
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what opinion polls his Department has conducted of (a) the public and (b) staff since 27 June 2007; and what the (i) name of the firm employed to conduct the poll, (ii) purpose and (iii) cost to the public purse was in each case.

Meg Munn
Information on public opinion polls conducted by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) including at its overseas posts is not held centrally. To collate this information would incur disproportionate cost. No staff opinion poll involving an external organisation has been conducted since 27 June 2007. The FCO occasionally surveys a small proportion of its staff about internal issues. These are conducted through in-house methods. The next all-staff survey involving an external consultant will take place in late November/December. An Investors in People health check survey will also be conducted later in November.