Foreign and Commonwealth Office Annual Report 2007-08 - Foreign Affairs Committee Contents


Letter to the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Foreign and Commonwealth Office from the Chairman of the Committee

INFORMATION-SHARING

  At its last meeting, the Foreign Affairs Committee considered your letter of 28 April 2008 about the FCO's Top Risks Register. While we welcome the commitment to include further detail on the issues covered in the Register in the Permanent Under-Secretary's quarterly management letter, we are disappointed that the FCO is unwilling to share this document with us, even on a classified basis. We consider assessing whether the FCO has correctly identified its Top Risks to be a key part of our scrutiny function. Withholding this Register clearly limits us in this role. We will pursue this issue further during the course of our inquiry into the FCO's Annual Report 2007-08.

  During our meeting we also considered a letter from the Head of Select Committee Liaison at the FCO asking us to treat Public Diplomacy Board minutes previously shared with the Committee as if they had been classified as confidential. I would like to confirm that we will respect this request. However, we would be grateful if you could confirm that unredacted minutes of the Board will continue to be sent to the Committee.

9 May 2008





 
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