Supplementary written evidence submitted
by the British Council
RELATIONSHIP OF
REVENUE-EARNING
AND GRANT-FUNDED
ACTIVITY
The British Council's work in English teaching
and examinations to more than 1.2 million people worldwide is
self-financing. There are clear financial firewalls between our
revenue-earning activities and our grant-funded work, with our
accounts being regularly audited by the National Audit Office.
The fees paid by our teaching centre and examination
customers cover all our costs, both at local level (for example,
teachers, proportion of premises costs) and at the corporate level
(for example, headquarter support services, investment in teaching
materials, equipment and premises, and protecting against adverse
risk).
Our teaching centres and other paid services
enable us to run a genuinely global network in 110 countries.
Indeed, without our teaching centres and paid services operations,
we would be present in fewer countries and thus less able to provide
impact for the UK abroad.
Our work in this sector is an integral part
of our public diplomacy work. By drawing in 300,000 people into
English classes, and 900,000 into sitting British Council-administered
examinations on behalf of a number of examination bodies, we are
able to funnel relevant target audiences into a deeper relationship
with the United Kingdom, cross-marketing UK educational opportunities
and grant-funded activities in areas such as the arts, science,
governance, etc.
The surpluses we earn from our revenue-earning
operations are used to fund the teaching of English in countries
with more difficult environments where this provides public diplomacy
benefit. For example, in Saudi Arabia, we are the only western
organisation able to have direct engagement with young men and
women through our teaching operations.
It has been argued that the private sector could
undertake the same work. However, few private sector operators
undertake teaching in more difficult environments where there
are severely limited business prospects and serious security risks.
Equally, there would be little or no likelihood of private sector
providers (who may be international companies, or Australian,
Canadian, Irish or American in origin) being able to draw English
language learners or those taking examinations into broader grant-funded
work of the kind undertaken by the British Council.
We agree with the Carter report's observation
that we should not be complacent about our ability to generate
income, and note the acknowledgement of the review in paragraph
5.2.8 that this income supports our global presence. We keep the
contribution of English teaching and examinations to our stated
outcomes of improving perceptions of the UK, greater mutual understanding
and stronger ties with other countries constantly under review.
We note the reference in the Carter report to
the advent of new technologies and new means of delivering English,
and would point out that the British Council is recognised as
an innovative leader in complementing its face-to-face engagement
with on-line resources (for example through our go4english
for learners from Arabic and in2english on-line resources
in China, the latter in partnership with the BBC World Service).
As stated in our note of 8 March 2006 we have
undertaken a review of taxation and status issues and are pro-actively
working to resolve these across our network.
Martin Dowle
Head, Director-General's office
8 March 2006
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