Conclusions and recommendations
The FCO’s strategic vision for the Summit and the UK’s tenure as Chair
1. We welcome the Government’s ambition to deliver the largest ever Commonwealth Summit. But the Summit is simply the start of a process. During the Summit, the UK will become the Commonwealth Chair-in-Office, a position it will hold until 2020. It is not solely for the UK as host of the Summit or as Chair-in-Office to dictate the agenda and direction of the Commonwealth, which is an organisation based on consensus among its 53 members. But the UK will have a unique position of leadership and influence. It is imperative that the UK starts its tenure as Chair-in-Office with clear aims for what it wants to achieve by 2020. This demands a credible strategy, with specific objectives and metrics for success. (Paragraph 7)
2. In its response to this Report, the FCO should provide the Committee with a statement of its priorities and objectives for the UK’s tenure as Chair-in-Office, and the metrics it will use to judge success when the UK hands over the Chair to Malaysia in 2020. In April 2019, the FCO should provide the Committee with a mid-term account of progress thus far. This should take into account the priorities of the Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. The devolved administrations should also be consulted, as appropriate. (Paragraph 8)
3. The FCO should consider the feasibility during the UK’s tenure as Chair-in-Office of launching an online Commonwealth news channel to broadcast news coverage from Commonwealth national broadcasters. The FCO should report its conclusions to the Committee by 3 September 2018. (Paragraph 9)
The FCO’s Commonwealth policy
4. We recognise that the work of numerous government departments touches on the Commonwealth. But if the UK is to exercise influence among, and harness the potential of, this diverse group of partners, it is essential that the FCO shows leadership. For the Commonwealth to be more than a collection of bilateral relationships, the FCO needs to clarify what it is about common membership of the Commonwealth that distinguishes the UK’s relationships with the 52 other Commonwealth members and, on this basis, set out a long-term vision for the UK’s relationship with the Commonwealth and its members. Only with such a long-term vision in place can the FCO coordinate the work of other government departments to ensure that the UK’s relationship with the Commonwealth is more than the sum of its parts. Within the next three months, the FCO should provide this Committee with a statement of Her Majesty’s Government’s long-term vision for the UK’s relationship with the Commonwealth and clarify what the 52 other members can expect from a post-Brexit ‘Global Britain’. This statement should refer to the work of other government departments but must demonstrate how the FCO will lead the cross-Government relationship and in what ways the work of other departments will feed into the FCO’s overall Commonwealth strategy. (Paragraph 20)
5. When the FCO lays out its long-term vision for the UK’s relationship with the Commonwealth, it should consider the potential for a new institutionalised forum that allows legal practitioners from across the Commonwealth to come together to share best practice on implementing international human rights law and embedding the rule of law, and to identify common solutions to critical issues such as cyber security, data protection and online privacy. In doing so, the FCO should consult as necessary the Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association, and the Commonwealth Lawyers Association. (Paragraph 21)
6. In its response to this Report, the FCO should provide more detail about how it plans to build a Commonwealth caucus in the General Assembly and to leverage UK membership of the Commonwealth throughout the UN. (Paragraph 22)
FCO resources dedicated to the Commonwealth
7. 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 staff 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. (Paragraph 28)
8. 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. (Paragraph 29)
Published: 5 April 2018