3FCO resources dedicated to the Commonwealth
The management of the Summit
23.In March 2017, the Prime Minister said that she would oversee preparations to ensure that the Summit was a cross-government effort, including through a new, dedicated inter-ministerial group co-chaired by the Foreign-Secretary and the Home Secretary. Within the Civil Service, the Summit is being managed by former UK Ambassador to Japan Tim Hitchens, who was appointed the Summit’s Chief Executive in January 2017 and leads a team of 80 civil servants reporting directly to the Prime Minister. Mr Hitchens told us about this team when he appeared before us:
In my team, I have about 80 people. Of those, I would say that a team of about eight people are working on values. About half of the 80 are on the logistics side and the preparation for the summit—hotels and what have you. Of the other half, we divide ourselves broadly into the [four themes of the Summit]: security, fairness, trade and climate change.33
The FCO’s Commonwealth-specific resources after the Summit
24.Lord Ahmad, Tim Hitchens and Richard Oppenheim told us that the 80-strong Summit unit is based in the Cabinet Office but that it is envisaged it will move to the FCO after the event. It was not clear, however, how many of the roughly 40 civil servants that are working on the non-logistical elements of the Summit will be kept in place for the UK’s tenure as Chair-in-Office and if any will be retained by the FCO after this tenure ends in 2020. Tim Hitchens said: “We clearly will have a reinforced team looking after the Commonwealth for certainly the next two years of the Chair-in-Office period”. He added he was confident that “we will have a reinforced team in place” beyond that.34 Lord Ahmad said: “It is certainly our intention from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that after the summit, for the two years as Chair-in-Office, we will not suddenly let everyone go”.35
25.Richard Oppenheim said that the FCO was making a number of bids to the Treasury that would allow it to retain some of those recruited or redeployed for the Summit from elsewhere in the Civil Service. Lord Ahmad said that “the intention is to retain and sustain the experience and expertise that we have built up from other Departments”.36 He added that “there is a lot of momentum that has been built up and a lot of expertise, and we do not want to lose that” but that this uplift would not come at the expense of other areas. He said:
This isn’t about trade-offs. This is about ensuring that we continue with the momentum we’ve built up to the summit, and that for our two years in office—as Chair—we also have the resources available to us at the Foreign Office, to be able to deliver as Chair-in-Office, in terms of our role and in terms of the resources.37
26.Mr Oppenheim also told us that it was envisaged that the inter-ministerial group coordinating cross-Government planning for the Summit would be kept in place for the UK’s tenure as Chair-in-Office. This has been supported by a steering board of senior officials from across Government and it was expected that this too would continue after the Summit.38 Again, however, there was no suggestion that this resource would remain beyond 2020.
27.When the Foreign Secretary appeared before us on 21 March 2018, he told us that the FCO had secured funds from HM Treasury that would allow it to deploy an additional 250 UK-based staff overseas and to open ten additional overseas Posts.39 He spoke about this in terms of the ‘Global Britain’ campaign:
The job of the Global Britain campaign is to show to our friends and partners that our decision on the European Union can be and is being accompanied by an intensified engagement with the world, not just in the EU, where we are adding 50 diplomats, but around the world where, as I just told the Committee, we are adding another 250 diplomats.40
Sir Simon McDonald told us, however, that Ministers had not yet decided where these additional staff would be deployed, while the Foreign Secretary said that the priorities would be “the Americas and North America, the European region and Asia-Pacific”.41
28.In evidence to us, the FCO Minister of State for the Commonwealth emphasised the diversity of its 53 members. This undoubtedly enriches the organisation but harnessing the collective potential of this diverse group inevitably requires significant, long-term, frontline investment. The Foreign Secretary told us that the FCO has secured funding for 250 additional UK-based staff42 to be deployed in its overseas network and to open ten new Posts overseas, to support its ‘Global Britain’ campaign. This is welcome but it is not clear that the FCO sees the Commonwealth as a sufficiently high priority for ‘Global Britain’ to warrant significant additional investment beyond the Summit and the UK’s tenure as Chair-in-Office. Without this additional, dedicated resource, it will be difficult for the UK to convince its Commonwealth partners that it is serious about the rejuvenation of the organisation and that ‘Global Britain’ wants to play a leadership role within it, rather than simply increasing trade with its most attractive economies. The FCO should therefore consider the Commonwealth as a distinct priority in planning for the deployment of 250 additional UK-based staff and the opening of ten additional Posts.
29.In its response to this Report, the FCO should clarify how much money Her Majesty’s Government currently spends on the Commonwealth, including the UK’s subscription to the Commonwealth Secretariat, and the amounts the FCO and other government departments contribute to Commonwealth programmes and initiatives. The FCO should also tell us what assessments it has made of the resources that will be needed beyond 2020 to achieve the Government’s long-term goal of rejuvenating the Commonwealth and what plans are in place to increase the resources it devotes to the Commonwealth and its member states.
33 Q83
34 Q19
35 Q19
36 Q27
37 Q30, Q32
38 Q19
39 Oral evidence taken on 21 March 2018, HC (2017–19) 538, Q259
40 Oral evidence taken on 21 March 2018, HC (2017–19) 538, Q283
41 Oral evidence taken on 21 March 2018, HC (2017–19) 538, Q284 [Sir Simon McDonald], Q288 [Foreign Secretary]
42 UK-based staff are staff employed by the FCO in the UK and deployed overseas. In contrast, locally-engaged staff are recruited directly by UK Posts.
Published: 5 April 2018