Foreign and Commonwealth Office
Annual Report 2007-08
35. The Committee's annual inquiry into how the
FCO is managing its resources takes the Department's Annual Report[14]
as its starting point, and examines expenditure and administration
as well as policy. In the past we have described this exercise
in scrutiny as being "at the heart of our work", [15]
and that continues to be the case.
36. In 2008 the annual reports of government
departments were published somewhat later than usual, in May,
which had a knock-on effect on the timing of our inquiry, with
most of the evidence being taken in the autumn. We shall publish
our Report early in 2009.
37. A particular focus in this year's Report
will be on the work of FCO Services, in the light of that organisation's
transformation on 1 April 2008 from an Executive Agency of the
FCO to a Trading Fund. In June 2008 we visited FCO Services' headquarters
at Hanslope Park near Milton Keynes, and the following month we
took oral evidence from Chris Moxey, its Chief Executive.
38. Our Report will also consider a wide range
of aspects of the work of the FCO, including its recently introduced
Strategic Framework, its performance against PSA targets, the
future of the global network of Posts, planned changes to the
overseas passport operation and visa services, financial and personnel
issues, public diplomacy, transparency and openness, and the work
of the British Council and BBC World Service.
13