Mr. Joe Hackett:

Like all Departments, there is a code and policy on the misuse of drugs and alcohol across the Civil Service and we comply with that. That does not include guidance or rules on the storage and consumption of alcohol on premises and the same applies to all Departments. This is certainly an area that we could look at but it is not there.

I would stress that there is no culture of widespread consumption of alcohol for personal use in the Department. That is just not my experience and there is quite a different culture in place in the Department. When I think of the culture that is in place in the Department of Foreign Affairs, I think about the people that we have sitting in Kyiv at the moment waiting with Russians on the border, people who face death threats in Ethiopia, or the people who helped with the consular case in Shanghai. There is all this talk about the culture in the Department-----