Letter to Head, Parliamentary Relations
Team from Second Clerk of the Committee
I attach a list of questions related to the
FCO's 2007-08 Departmental Report and the 2008-09 Main Estimate.
I would be most grateful to receive answers to these questions
by 30 September.
18 August 2008
STRATEGIC PRIORITIES/DSOS
1. The FCO's Departmental Report for 2007-08
shows that the new strategic framework consists of three core
elements and that "these [core elements] are the basis on
which the FCO—like all government departments receives its
funding from the taxpayer, and against which its performance is
judged" (p 16). How will the FCO objectively measure its
performance against these three core elements? Will these core
elements have targets and indicators against which progress could
be measured?
2. In the 2007-08 Departmental Report, it
is stated (p 85) that "each of our DSO owners produced a
`DSO plan' to identify the key outputs that they expect to deliver
during the next three years." Are these plans publicly available?
Could you provide the committee with summary of the key outputs
for each DSO?
3. The Departmental Report also states that
"each of these outputs [in the DSO plan] is in turn supported
by a series of achievable outcomes, and by delivering these outcomes
we will be able to measure our performance during the reporting
period" (p 85). Could you provide the committee with details
of these "achievable outcomes" including how they are
to be measured and the timescale over which they are to be achieved?
4. The eight constituent parts of the three
core elements represent the new DSOs and replace the existing
framework of ten priorities. Given the emphasis on achieving outcomes,
why was it felt that one of the new priorities should be input-based:
"a flexible global network of staff and offices servicing
the whole of the British Government"?
5. Of the 10 strategic priorities, three
appear not to be reflected in the new DSOs; these are SP2 (reducing
harm to the UK from international crime), SP7 (promoting sustainable
development and poverty reduction) and SP10 (ensuring the security
and good governance of the UK's overseas territories). How is
the department's work in these areas reflected in the DSOs and
why was it felt these areas were not significant enough to warrant
their own DSO?
PSA TARGETS
6. Please can you provide an explanation as
to why the ratings of the following targets have changed since
the time of the Autumn Performance Report:
|
| Change in rating from the Autumn Performance Report
|
|
PSA 1 WMD
D. Threat reduction schemes
| Amber to green |
PSA 2 Terrorism
A. Awareness of terrorist threat
| Amber to green |
PSA 2 Terrorism
B. Preventative action
| Amber to green |
PSA 2 Terrorism
E. Reduction in Vulnerability
| Amber to green |
PSA 2 Terrorism
F. Capacity to deal with consequences
| Amber to green |
PSA 3 Conflict prevention
A4. Iraq? |
Red to amber |
PSA 3 Conflict prevention
A8. Sierra Leone?
| Amber to green |
PSA 4 Effective EU
I. Stronger relationship with Russia
| Red to amber |
PSA 7 Islamic countries
B1 political pluralism
| Red to amber |
PSA 7 Islamic countries
B6 Removal of barriers to investment
| Red to amber |
PSA 8 Sustainable development
A Access to information?
| Amber to green |
PSA 8 Sustainable development
B Natural resource management?
| Amber to green |
PSA 8 Sustainable development
C Tackling illegal logging
| Amber to green |
PSA 8 sustainable development
D Environment charters in OTs
| Amber to green |
|
7. The assessments under the sub-targets for PSA9a (entry
clearance) were based on provisional figures. Have they now been
finalised? If not, when will they be finalised? If they have been
finalised, has the assessment of any of the indicators changed
from that shown in the Departmental Report?
SHARED SERVICES
8. The 2007-08 FCO Departmental Report states: "By
April 2011, the programme aims to put in place shared service
centres to cover the UK, Europe, Asia/Pacific and Americas with
an initial focus on finance and procurement processes, a number
of regional facilities management contracts and procurement optimisation
to achieve better value for money through regional and global
deals" (p.108). Where will the shared services centres be
located? How many staff numbers will be cut as a result of shared
services?
9. In your response to our questions on the 2006-07 Departmental
Report last year, you estimated "that by the end of CSR07
the individual projects in the Shared Services Programme could
potentially reduce the FCO's baseline spend on corporate services
by a net total of approximately £22 million" (letter
of 13 June 2007, Response 12iv). The FCO's Value for Money Delivery
Agreement indicates that shared services will generate efficiency
savings of £16 million. Does this mean that you have revised
the figure of £22 million down to £16 million? Please
could you provide a breakdown of the £16 million, showing
what components will make it up?
10. In your response to our questions on the 2006-07
Departmental Report last year you stated "The FCO-DfID Shared
Service Delivery plan seeks to increase the proportion of co-located
offices by over 10% and the proportion of DfID staff in co-located
offices by over 25% by the end of the CSR07 period" (letter
of 13 June 2007, Response 12ii). In your response to our questions
on the Autumn Performance Report you stated that under current
planning assumptions, the following offices of Abuja, Bridgetown,
Dhaka, Harare, Jerusalem, Kampala, New Delhi, and Pretoria will
become co-located by the end of the CSR07 period and that proposals
for co-locating in Beijing are being considered ( Letter of 3
April 2008—Response 15). What progress have you made in
co-locating these offices? What efficiency savings will this generate?
11. The 2007-08 FCO Departmental Report states that the
FCO has set up a UK process centre at Hanslope Park which has
resulted in reduced staff numbers and invoices being paid more
quickly (p.82). How many staff numbers have been cut?
INTERNATIONAL SUBSCRIPTIONS
12. In the Government's Response to the Committee's Report
on the 2006-07 Departmental Report (CM 7302), you stated "The
FCO's CSR Settlement recognised the growing burden of international
organisation subscriptions and adjusted the balance of the existing
cost-sharing agreement with the Treasury so that in future the
FCO budget will only be required to meet 40 per cent of costs
above the £102,000,000 baseline set in SR2002. However, the
Chief Secretary to the Treasury did not agree to an increase in
this baseline." (para 5) Is the arrangement between you and
the Treasury on international subscriptions satisfactory or do
you forsee having to curtail activities due to cost pressures
arising from higher international subscription charges?
13. In your response to our questions on the Spring Supplementary
Estimate, you informed us that claims arising from the normal
operation the Overseas Pricing Mechanism (OPM) and the International
Subscriptions Cost Sharing Agreement (both in RFR1) were exempt
from being paid back until the time of the 2007 CSR. You stated
that the 2007 CSR " abolished the OPM and removed the recoup
exemption from the cost sharing agreement" (letter of 16
May 2008, Response 4). What has replaced the OPM? Will the FCO
now have to pay back Reserve Claims that arise from having to
comply with the International Subscriptions Cost Sharing Agreements?
CIVILIAN COSTS
OF CRISIS
MANAGEMENT IN
IRAQ AND
AFGHANISTAN
14. In the Government's response to the Committee's Report
on the FCO Annual Report 2006-07 (CM 7302), you stated that the
Stabilisation Aid Fund will be established to cover activity alongside
military activity in "hot conflict zones" but that you
"remain concerned that these proposals do not fully solve
the problem of resourcing civilian deployments alongside the military,
as there is no new money for activity which does not qualify as
overseas Development assistance" and that "there should
be access to the Reserve for the additional costs of civilian
deployments"(para 10). What arrangements are there with the
Treasury for access to the Reserve for the additional costs of
civilian deployments? How could these arrangements be improved
from the FCO perspective?
FIVE STAR
FINANCE
15. The 2008 Departmental Report states that the FCO
is on course to achieve four stars in Finance by autumn 2008 (p
104). Are you still on course to achieve this?
EXTERNAL CONSULTANTS
16. In the Government response to the Report on the FCO
Annual Report 2006-07, you stated that "the FCO operates
a devolved system for the contracting of management consultants
and no central record is yet maintained of the exact areas in
which it is currently being assisted by outside expertise"
and "to address this issue, the FCO's Corporate Procurement
Group is in the process of creating a central database that will
contain complete and accurate information on engaged consultants"
(para 23). Has the FCO now completed this central database of
engaged consultants?
THE STRATEGIC
PROGRAMME FUND
(FORMER GLOBAL
OPPORTUNITIES FUND)
17. Are you intending to contribute more funds to the
renamed Strategic Programme Fund? How are you going to meet your
aim of making the projects within the Fund more ambitious and
focused on the FCO's new policy priorities?
UKTI
18. How much does the UKTI want to increase its revenue
by over the 2007 CSR period?
19. The UKTI target related to research and development
activity in UK is to help at least 1,000 businesses increase their
R&D activity in the UK. Why is the target focussed at raising
the number of businesses that invest in R&D rather than raising
the overall level of R&D?
MANAGED MIGRATION
20. What is the FCO's role in the Returns and Re-integration
Fund?
FINANCE
21. (p.121, Table 5) Why has the resource budget for
FCO programme declined by 12.0% from £167 million in 2007-08
to £147 million in 2008-09?
MAIN ESTIMATES
22. The Main Estimates Memorandum states that the management
of the Global Conflict Prevention programme has transferred to
DFID from 1 April 2008, except for those elements that have been
incorporated into the new Stabilisation Aid Fund, which has been
placed in the MoD baseline (para 5). Given that the FCO is the
lead Department on CSR 2007 PSA 30 (Reduce the impact of conflict
through enhanced UK and international efforts) why has management
of the Global Conflict Prevention programme transferred to DFID?
What impact has this had on FCO staff and administration? What
role does the FCO play in the Stabilisation Aid Fund?
23. The Main Estimates Memorandum notes that the Treasury
has agreed an initial amount of £200 million applied to the
Main Estimate for peace support and that the Chief Secretary to
the Treasury has not yet agreed the total amount for which parliamentary
approval should be sought for peacekeeping expenditure in 2008-09.
What will the £200 million be used for? What additional amount
is the FCO requesting from the Treasury in 2008-09?
— The £200 million will be a Reserve Claim.
The Treasury's Consolidated Budgeting Guidance indicates that
when Reserve Claims are made, any future under-spends would be
used to pay back Reserve Claims, rather than being rolled forward
as is normal practice to next year's budget through the End-Year
Flexibility (EYF) mechanism: (HM Treasury, Consolidated Budgeting
Guidance, para 15.4) Is the Treasury expecting the Department
to use any future under-spends to pay back its Reserve Claim for
peace support? If so, what impact will this have on other projects
or programmes of the Department, which could potentially under-spend,
given that they cannot roll-forward under-spends in the normal
way through EYF?
24. The Main Estimates Memorandum states that "final
administration cost outturn was £15.8 million higher than
provision forecast after apportionment of visa and consular overheads
to other current was taken into account". Why were visa and
consular overheads higher than expected? What measures are the
FCO taking to ensure that administration costs are maintained
within the budget?
25. The Main Estimates Memorandum gives the End Year
Flexibility carried forward into 2008-09 as £104.78 million
(table in para 14). However the Public Expenditure Outturn paper
(Vm7419) gives the FCO EYF as £171.9 million (p.14). Why
are the figures different?
EFFICIENCY TARGETS
26. In your response to our written questions on the
APR and CSR 07 Value for Money Delivery Agreement (VfMDA), you
provided us with a table of all the current FCO VfM projects.
Of the 17 projects listed, only five were included in the VfMDA.
Why were so few projects included in the VfMDA?
27. The response also includes a note on "allocative
efficiencies" stating that these "are efficiencies obtained
by prioritising work in order to achieve maximum impact of our
resources." In what areas of the FCO's work would these "allocative
efficiencies" feature? Could you provide us with a real-world
example of an allocative efficiency and explain how it would be
"cash releasing", as well as how these efficiencies
are "cash releasing" in general?
28. In the VfMDA you set out how benefits will be measured
against a counterfactual baseline using the Treasury GDP deflator
on 2007-08 spend. How will benefits be measured for "allocative
efficiencies" when the efficiency will be achieved through
achieving maximum impact rather than reducing expenditure?
THEFT OF
PASSPORTS AND
VISA VIGNETTES
29. Further to your letter of 1 August 2008, the Committee
would like to receive copies of the most recent reviews carried
out by the FCO into the arrangements with 3MSPSL. If these reviews
did not include a security threat assessment, the Committee would
like to know when the last such assessment was carried out, and
by whom, and to receive a copy of this assessment. In particular
the Committee would like to know whether the FCO was advised at
any time previously that armoured vans should be used for this
transport operation.
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