Departmental Secondment

Mr. Hayes
To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what proportion of staff in his Department have worked on attachment to institutions of the European Union.

Mr. McFadden
Secondments to the EU Institutions are a valuable means of building relationships and influencing policy. In recent years, at any given time there have been approximately 12 BIS staff working in the Institutions as Seconded National Experts. In addition, we usually support the participation of at least two members of staff per year in the European Commission’s National Experts in Training Programme, which entails six month attachments. An investigation to determine the proportion of staff who have ever worked on attachment to the Institutions would incur disproportionate cost.