Foreign & Commonwealth Office Annual Report And
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Annual Report & Accounts: 2019–2020 HC 553 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Annual Report and Accounts 2019–20 (For the year ended 31 March 2020) Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 16 July 2020 HC 553 2 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Annual Report and Accounts 2019–20 © Queen’s Printer and Controller of HMSO 2020 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available on our website at: www.gov.uk/government/official-documents Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at: Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Finance Directorate, King Charles Street, London, SW1A 2AH ISBN 978-1-5286-2047-5 CCS0120001876 07/20 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by the APS Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office Designed in-house by the FCO Communication Directorate CORRECTION SLIP Title: Foreign & Commonwealth Office Annual Report and Accounts Session: 2019/20 HC 553 ISBN: 978-1-5286-2047-5 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 16 July 2020 Correction: 1. Page 25: Text currently reads: We used £26m of this to give extra grant funding to the British Council, to help mitigate the financial impact of Covid-19. This meant that the FCO fully funded the costs of the Council’s overseas network in 2019-20, avoiding the need for the Council to cross-subsidise from its commercial operations. Text should read: We used £26m of this to give extra grant funding to the British Council, to help mitigate the financial impact of Covid-19. This meant that the FCO fully funded the grant related costs of the Council’s overseas network in 2019-20, avoiding the need for the Council to cross-subsidise from its commercial operations. 2. Page 46: This correction slip replaces an error made in the “Senior Management—Single total figure of remuneration” table. Text in 4th column from the left: Jonathan Sinclair Pension benefits 2019-20 (£’000 to the nearest £1000) currently reads: 336 Text should read: 36 3 Contents Performance Report ................................................................................................................ 4 Performance Overview ........................................................................................................ 4 Foreword by the Foreign Secretary ........................................................................................... 4 Executive Summary—Permanent Under-Secretary .................................................................... 6 Who we are and what we do .................................................................................................. 8 Our Objectives in 2019–20 ....................................................................................................... 9 Performance Analysis ........................................................................................................ 10 Protect our people ................................................................................................................. 10 Project our influence and demonstrate diplomatic leadership ................................................. 12 Promote our prosperity .......................................................................................................... 16 International platform ............................................................................................................ 18 Engaging with Parliament ...................................................................................................... 19 Engaging with the Devolved Nations ...................................................................................... 19 Investing in our people .......................................................................................................... 20 Accountability Report ............................................................................................................ 22 Corporate Governance Report ............................................................................................... 34 Remuneration and Staff Report ..............................................................................................44 Parliamentary Accountability and Audit Report ....................................................................... 56 Accounts ............................................................................................................................... 66 Annex: Core Tables (unaudited) ........................................................................................... 102 4 Foreign & Commonwealth Office Annual Report and Accounts 2017–20182019–20 Performance Report Performance Overview This section assesses the department’s performance in the last financial year from the perspective of the Foreign Secretary and Permanent Under-Secretary, and provides an overview of the FCO’s global network, objectives and single departmental plan. Foreword by the Foreign Secretary The Rt Hon Dominic Raab MP I write this as the coronavirus pandemic has dramatically altered the global landscape. The response has been an unprecedented challenge, and there will be long-standing ramifications, in every country around the world. Throughout the crisis, I am proud to say that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has operated with integrity and ingenuity. Work on the response is ongoing, and this report does not cover the FCO’s total response. But the organisation has played a vital role in the UK fight against the coronavirus pandemic. From the outset, we deployed our diplomatic network right around the world, to source and buy ventilators and billions of items of protective equipment for the NHS frontline. At the same time, we’ve worked with other governments and the airlines to keep commercial routes open, helping well over one million British travellers return home. And we have deployed charter flights to bring home tens of thousands more, prioritising our most vulnerable citizens. This was achieved while receiving a record number of calls to our contact centres at ten times the usual volume, making more changes to our travel advice and answering more letters than we would normally do in an entire year. Along with our focus on procurement and repatriation, the UK has led the international response. As the biggest donor to the global fund to find a coronavirus vaccine, the UK has played a vital role in the development of diagnostics, treatments “With a foreign policy that will and vaccines. We have pledged a total of £744m of serve the citizens of this country, UK Aid to stop the spread of Covid-19, find a vaccine and save lives around the world, including in the UK. we will continue to lead the way This crisis has also shown that necessity is the on the world stage, as partners of mother of invention. Our international response to choice in trade and security, and the pandemic was a cross-government effort that not only demonstrated the benefits of integration, as a global force for good.” it shone a light on the potential for us to go even further. The Prime Minister announced last 5 The Foreign Secretary with Jens Stoltenberg, NATO Secretary General, at the Meeting of NATO Ministers of Foreign Affairs, November 2019 Covid-19 Press Conference, March 2020 month that the Department for Outside of the EU, we already Global Britain is a force for good in International Development and hold historic trading partnerships. the world. Our guiding lights, have the Foreign and Commonwealth But we now have the potential always been— and will always be— Office will merge to become the to do more. As we think about the values of democracy, human rights new Foreign, Commonwealth broadening our horizons, the UK and the international rule of law. and Development Office. will be seeking to embrace the Climate change poses an enormous huge opportunities in the rising Beginning on 1 September, we will global challenge. The UK will continue economies of the future. Earlier this place our world-class aid programme to take responsible leadership to year, we re-committed to launching at the beating heart of our foreign push forward a green recovery. As negotiations on ambitious Free Trade policy decision making. We will we look ahead to hosting COP26 in Agreements between a number of integrate the development expertise Glasgow in November 2021, we are high-priority countries, including of DfID with the diplomatic muscle determined to achieve a step change the United States and Australia. of the Foreign Office, ensuring in the international response. that our impact abroad is bigger Meanwhile, vital national security On human rights, we will continue than the sum of its parts. work persists. In December, we hosted to defend media freedoms and the NATO Leaders Meeting here in For example, at the GAVI vaccine protect freedom of religion. In London to celebrate 70 years of the summit, which the Prime Minister order to hold human rights abusers most successful Alliance in history. recently hosted, we smashed the and violators to account, we have target for vaccine funding, with US$8.8 We have continued to hold Iran