INTRODUCTION
1. The Foreign Affairs Committee is responsible for
scrutinising the, "administration, expenditure and policy"
of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and its associated bodies—most
notably the BBC World Service and the British Council.[1]
We exercise such scrutiny in all the work that we do, examining
the whole breadth of the Foreign Office's work; both in specific
countries and regions (such as our recent Reports on Iran and
on South Africa)[2] and
by covering key themes (such as developments in the European Union
and the war against terrorism).[3]
However, each year the Committee uses the publication of the Foreign
Office's annual report as an opportunity to conduct especially
detailed scrutiny, on behalf of the taxpayer, of how the Office
exercises stewardship of the resources voted to it by Parliament.
This Report sets out the findings of our inquiry and our recommendations
to the Foreign Office on how it manages theses resources in a
wide range of areas—most notably finance, personnel, estate
management, security, the network of overseas posts and the entry
clearance operation.
2. In the course of our inquiry, the Committee received
a number of useful memoranda. We also took oral evidence on two
occasions: on 23 June, from Mr Nigel Chapman, then Acting Director,[4]
and Mr Andrew Hind, Chief Operating Officer, BBC World Service,
and from Sir David Green KCMG, Director-General, Dr Robin Baker,
Deputy Director-General, and Mrs Margaret Mayne, Director of Finance,
British Council; and on 29 June, from Sir Michael Jay KCMG, Permanent
Under-Secretary, Mr Dickie Stagg CMG, Director General, Corporate
Affairs, Mr Simon Gass CMG CVO, Director, Finance, and Mr David
Warren, Director, Human Resources, FCO. All the evidence we received
is printed in full at the end of this volume.[5]
Two visits undertaken by Committee Members were also particularly
pertinent to the inquiry. In November 2003, three of us visited
the FCO posts in New Delhi and Mumbai (India) and Istanbul (Turkey)
with Members of the Constitutional Affairs Committee to examine
the visa entry clearance operations there. We also visited Bush
House, headquarters of the BBC World Service, on 8 June this year.
3. We wish to stress that our conclusions and recommendations
are based not only on the evidence we have specifically collected
for this Report, but on our ongoing dialogue, both formal and
informal, with Ministers and officials in the Foreign Office,
its agencies and external interested parties. We also make it
our practice to take advantage of all our overseas visits to listen
to the views of diplomatic and local users of the services provided
by posts. We are grateful to all those who have assisted us in
our work.
1 House of Commons, Standing Orders of the House of
Commons: Public Business 2003 (2), HC 3, November 2003, SO No.
152 Back
2
Foreign Affairs Committee, Third Report of Session 2003-04, Iran,
HC 80, and Fifth Report of Session 2003-04, South Africa,
HC 117 Back
3
Foreign Affairs Committee, Developments in the European Union,
HC 631-I (latest publication), and Seventh Report of Session 2003-04,
Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism, HC
441 (latest Report-for full list of Reports in this inquiry, see
footnote 76 below). Back
4
On 22 July 2004 Mr Chapman was confirmed in his position as Director
of BBC World Service. He will report to Mr Richard Sambrook, who
was appointed Director of the BBC's World Service & Global
News division on the same day. ("New leaders for BBC's UK
and global news operations", BBC World Service press release,
22 July 2004.) Back
5
Ev. 1 ff. Back
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