Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom.
"Foreign Office" redirects here. For other uses, see Foreign Office (disambiguation).Department overview
1782 (as the Foreign Office)
King Charles Street
London SW1
51°30′11″N 0°07′40″W / 51.50306°N 0.12778°W
£1.1bn (current) & £0.1bn (capital) in 2015–16[1]
The office was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID).[2] The FCO was itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office. The department in its various forms is responsible for representing and promoting British interests worldwide.
The head of the FCDO is the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, commonly abbreviated to "Foreign Secretary". This is regarded as one of the four most prestigious positions in the Cabinet – the Great Offices of State – alongside those of Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary. Former Prime Minister David Cameron was appointed Foreign Secretary on 13 November 2023.
The FCDO is managed day-to-day by a civil servant, the permanent under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, who also acts as the Head of His Majesty's Diplomatic Service. Sir Philip Barton took office as permanent under-secretary on 2 September 2020.
The expenditure, administration and policy of the FCDO are scrutinised by the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.[3]
According to the FCDO website, the department's key responsibilities (as of 2020) are as follows:[4]
In addition to the above responsibilities, the FCDO is responsible for the British Overseas Territories, which had previously been administered from 1782 to 1801 by the Home Office, from 1801 to 1854 by the War and Colonial Office, from 1854 to 1966 by the Colonial Office, from 1966 to 1968 by the Commonwealth Office, from 1968 to 2020 by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and since 2020 by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (this did not include protectorates, which fell under the purview of the Foreign Office, or to British India, which had been administered by the East India Company until 1858, and thereafter by the India Office).[5] This arrangement has been subject to criticism in the UK and in the overseas territories. For example, the chief minister of Anguilla, Victor Banks, said: "We are not foreign; neither are we members of the Commonwealth, so we should have a different interface with the UK that is based on mutual respect".[6] There have been numerous suggestions on ways to improve the relationship between the overseas territories and the UK. Suggestions have included setting up a dedicated department to handle relations with the overseas territories, and the absorption of the OTD in the Cabinet Office, thus affording the overseas territories with better connections to the centre of government.[7]
FCDO Services[edit]
In April 2006, a new executive agency was established, FCO Services (now FCDO Services), to provide corporate service functions.[50] It moved to Trading Fund status in April 2008, so that it had the ability to provide services similar to those it already offers to the FCDO[51] to other government departments and even to outside businesses.
It is accountable to the secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, and provides secure support services to the FCDO, other government departments and foreign governments and bodies with which the UK has close links.[52]
Since 2011, FCDO Services has been developing the Government Secure Application Environment (GSAE) on a secure cloud computing platform to support UK government organisations.[53] It also manages the UK National Authority for Counter Eavesdropping (UK NACE) which helps protect UK assets from physical, electronic and cyber attack.[54]
FCDO Services is a public sector organisation, it is not funded by the public and has to rely on the income it produces to meet its costs, by providing services on a commercial basis to customers both in the UK and throughout the world. Its accounting officer and chief executive is accountable to the secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs and to Parliament, for the organisation's performance and conduct.
Devolution[edit]
International relations are handled centrally from Whitehall on behalf of the whole of the United Kingdom and its dependencies. However, the devolved administrations also maintain an overseas presence in the European Union, the U.S. and China alongside British diplomatic missions. These offices aim to promote their own economies and ensure that devolved interests are taken into account in British foreign policy. Ministers from devolved administrations can attend international negotiations when agreed with the British Government, e.g. EU fisheries negotiations.[60]
