Scrutiny of the Foreign Office's
associated public bodies
46. The two principal associated public bodies of
the FCO are the British Council and the BBC World Service. We
often comment on the work of one or both of these bodies in the
course of our work on specific foreign policy issues,[33]
but we also ensure that we scrutinise their overall finance and
operations as part of our annual inquiry into the FCO's Departmental
Report.
47. In our Report on the FCO's Departmental Report
for 2003-04, we commented on several aspects of the British Council's
work. For example, when visiting Moscow, we had discussed with
the British Council Director there and with senior Russian officials
the Russian taxation authorities' heavy-handed attempts to impose
taxes on the Council's cultural and educational activities across
Russia.[34] This dispute
remains unresolved.
48. We have also noticed with concern the increasing
tendency to remove United Kingdom branding from the Council's
offices overseas, particularly the failure to use the very strong
brand image of the Union Flag. We concluded in our Report on the
FCO Annual Report that the British Council was in danger of repeating
the mistake made by British Airways some years ago, when as part
of its attempt to re-brand itself as a world airline it misguidedly
dropped the flag from its livery.[35]
We were also unimpressed by the new Council logo, consisting of
four dots. Defending the logo, the FCO told us that the four dots
meet a requirement for a logo which is "contemporary"
and "modern" and which "attracts attention".[36]
However, the four dots could just as well be the logo of an international
banking corporation, or a manufacturer of microchips; they do
not stand for anything distinctively British or cultural. We remain
disappointed that the British Council is not projecting its Britishness.
49. In relation to both the British Council and the
BBC World Service, we have sought assurances for some years that
the ring-fencing of government financial support is not under
threat from the Treasury. We were therefore pleased to be reassured
by the FCO that there is no current threat to ring-fencing.[37]
We will remain vigilant on this point.
Scrutiny of major appointments
50. We have yet to carry out our intention of scrutinising
any major diplomatic or consular appointment of a person from
outside the diplomatic service. We have noted the Government's
announcement of its intention to appoint our colleague, Mrs Helen
Liddell MP, to be the United Kingdom's High Commissioner in Australia,
if it wins the next election.[38]
We have also noted the Secretary of State's announcement in relation
to the United Kingdom's representation to the Holy See that the
FCO will "widen the pool of potential candidates as ambassador
to beyond the FCO when we look for a successor to the present
incumbent next summer."[39]
If either of these appointments is made after a general election,
we trust that our successors in the next Parliament will wish
to consider it.
26 See, for example, HC, 2003-04, 220, paras 46-48 Back
27
HC, 2003-04, 745, para 89 Back
28
FCO Resource Accounts 2003-04, Report of the Comptroller and Auditor
General to the House of Commons, Rationalisation of the Glencairn
Estate, Dublin, HC, 2003-04, 1088, pp 48-49 Back
29
HC, 2003-04, 745, para 91 Back
30
Cm 6415, p7 Back
31
HC, 2003-04, 745, para 31 Back
32
Cm 6415, p2 Back
33
For example, South Africa (see paras 22 - 24 above) Back
34
HC, 2003-04, 745, para 197 Back
35
HC, 2003-04, 745, para 206 Back
36
Cm 6415, p16 Back
37
Cm 6415, p16 Back
38
FCO press release, 4 April 2004 Back
39
HC Deb, 15 December 2004, col 138WS Back