Departmental Secondment

John McDonnell
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs on how many occasions (a) Ministers and (b) officials from his Department have (i) met and (ii) spoken on the telephone to representatives of (A) Anglo American plc, (B) BHP Billiton plc, (C) Rio Tinto plc, (D) Vedanta plc and (E) Xstrata plc since April 2007; and how many staff from each such company have been seconded to his Department in that period.

Gillian Merron
Information is not available on the number of occasions Foreign and Commonwealth Ministers and officials met or were consulted by telephone by representatives of these companies. This information could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

No one from these companies has been seconded to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office since April 2007.