Aid Workers: Sexual Offences
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many safeguarding concerns were reported to her Department in 2025/26; how many SEAH cases there were where staff were the (a) subject of the complaint and (b) complainant; and what the outcome of those complaints was.
Answered by Seema Malhotra
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) continues to take safeguarding concerns extremely seriously, and has made concerted steps to encourage individuals to come forward whenever they have concerns to raise.
In terms of safeguarding concerns reported to the FCDO where either the survivor or subject of complaint was an FCDO staff member, there were 129 such cases in 2025-26, 55 per cent where FCDO staff were the subjects of a complaint, and 45 per cent where FCDO staff were the survivors. In 2025-26, we closed 114 such internal cases, in roughly the same proportions as above. In all cases where the allegation was proven against an FCDO staff member, action up to and including dismissal was taken.
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