Mr. Joe Hackett:

The open-plan office is the area where most of the UN policy team was normally based. It was also used because it is a large space. In non-Covid times it had potentially 152 office spaces, with six further offices along its side. It was decided, therefore, that that was where people should concentrate because of the space it provided specifically to comply with social distancing. As the review makes clear, the serious social distancing breach to which we referred was the one minute surrounding the taking of the photograph. The review also points out, however, that after the photograph was taken and as people dispersed, we could not rule out the possibility that there were minor breaches of the 2 m rule as people moved around, given the nature of the events involved.

As for major policy areas the Department is focused on in a UN context, does the Minister wish to comment?