Corporate report

Executive Summary - Permanent Under-Secretary

Updated 4 August 2015

This was published under the 2015 to 2016 Cameron Conservative government

“This is my last Annual Report as PUS. Since my appointment in 2010, I have been proud to lead this outstanding organisation and of what we have achieved.”

The last five years has been a tumultuous period in foreign policy. As I step down, the world remains unpredictable, creating many challenges and also opportunities for the UK. I am confident that the FCO is in a strong position to meet these challenges, but we must be agile in adapting to rapid change.

This report outlines our assessment of our performance against the ambitious (and in some cases aspirational) objectives that we set ourselves for 2014-15. We have fully achieved four of our thirteen Priority Outcomes, made progress on seven and faced significant obstacles on the remaining two. Our work is wide ranging and goes beyond these headline priorities. In particular, since those objectives were set, we have in addition had to:

• Counter the growing threat from ISIL in the Middle East;
• Lead the Government’s response to Russia’s illegal actions in Ukraine and the Crimea, including the MH17 tragedy;
• Address the challenges of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

We have reprioritised our resources in year to take on those tasks. We established a cross-Whitehall ISIL Task Force in the FCO in September 2014 in response to the rapid rise of ISIL in Iraq and Syria, and the threat it posed to regional stability and to our own national security. Its purpose is to contribute to the international effort to defeat ISIL. We have increased our staffing on Russia/Ukraine by 25%, including extra staff in the Embassies in Kiev and Moscow. We have contributed to the UK’s substantial programme of financial support to Ukraine through bilateral projects and the tri-departmental Conflict Pool programme, and delivered a successful NATO Summit in Wales. We reinforced our High Commission in Sierra Leone, and Embassies in neighbouring Guinea and Liberia with six additional FCO staff to support the Ebola response, making available over £500 thousand in additional funding. We also established a FCO task force in London at its height numbering 20 people, to deliver international support for the response including a major conference, which brought together more than 20 governments, a dozen charities and NGOs, the UN, World Bank, health experts and the private sector to pledge over £100 million of funds and equipment.

The security risks we face around the world have grown over the last year.

Sharp deteriorations of the security situation in Libya and Yemen required us temporarily to suspend the operations of our Embassies there in August 2014 and February 2015. We have temporarily opened a Libya office in Tunis and a Yemen Office in Jeddah. Tragically, in November, a locally-employed member of staff and a British Civilian Security team member working for our Embassy in Afghanistan were killed. I pay tribute to the courage and commitment of our people, both UK based and locally employed. We remain committed to ensuring their safety and wellbeing to the best of our ability.

Our budget since 2010 has required us to make £100 million of sustainable savings in our administrative spending each year, which we have now achieved. And we are also on track to deliver a 10% UK based staff headcount reduction by March 2016. Our staff, both UK-based and local, currently number at 13,600^{[footnote 1]}. We have continued to regionalise our support service functions, including through professionalising our HR, finance and procurement functions overseas while achieving savings of £5 million per annum. In pursuit of our goal to achieve a united effort as “One HMG overseas” we have deepened our collaboration with other Whitehall Departments allowing us to work more effectively, maximise our impact on the UK’s international objectives and make further savings in the overseas network. We have modernised and rationalised our overseas estate, delivering savings of £11.2 million for 2014-15.

From 1 April 2015, UKTI staff will be reported separately.

We have improved the consular service we provide to British nationals abroad by continuing to focus on those people who most need our help.

We have provided a quicker, more consistent handling of enquiries; a consistent and rapid response to crises and more efficient delivery of documentation and other transactional services. FCO travel advice on GOV.UK was accessed by 28.9 million people, an increase of 21% on the previous year. We took calls from nearly 98,000 people looking for assistance around the world. We provided support to grieving families following over 3,600 deaths overseas and issued nearly 38,000 emergency passports. We exceeded the target set for British residents overseas to register to vote. We led the cross government response to 15 major crises including in Ukraine, Iraq, Gaza, Libya and Yemen; supporting, and in some cases, evacuating British nationals.

We have continued to adapt our overseas network to boost our representation in the fastest growing regions of economic and political power.

This is essential to our support for British business abroad. We have since April 2014 opened new Posts in Chandigarh and Wuhan. We worked with UKTI including through GREAT Britain campaign activity, which is expected to contribute over £300 million of economic benefit for the British economy.

We continued to invest in the capability and skills of our staff, through the Diplomatic Excellence initiative established in 2011. This initiative, focusing on three interlinked themes of policy, people and network, has built confidence, provided a sense of purpose and strengthened the FCO as an institution. We took a major step forward this year by opening our new Diplomatic Academy, providing structured and high-quality training for all FCO staff to enable us to share and build on the knowledge and expertise within and outside the organisation. Our Language Centre, reopened in 2013; it is now running at capacity and allowing us to make sure our missions abroad are staffed with capable foreign language speakers. We have also continued to improve digital skills across the FCO. We have digitised four services, are using advanced digital monitoring tools for policy and crisis response work and have nearly 300 ambassadors, embassies and missions influencing debate through social media discussions around the globe.

Throughout my time at the FCO, it has been one of my top personal priorities to build an inclusive and diverse workforce.

This is about fairness and opportunity, but also about achieving high performance by drawing on a wide pool of talent. It includes our drive to bring together our UK based and local staff in one global workforce. The FCO Management Board is now 45% female; over 27% of our senior managers are now women and we currently have 36 female heads of mission, up from 22 in 2008. Another 13 female heads of mission will take up their roles this year, which will take us to our highest ever number. We have improved our recruitment techniques to seek out the best candidates from all backgrounds and have introduced measures to improve support for under-represented groups at the FCO. We have achieved a great deal, but still have more to do to ensure we have a motivated and diverse workforce at all levels who feel supported to achieve their full potential.

The FCO is its people. I end by paying tribute to our staff, both UK-based and locally-employed, in our posts around the world. They do an excellent and often unsung job of promoting and protecting British interests and British values and supporting British people in need. And they do so sometimes in difficult and dangerous circumstances. They represent the very best of the spirit and values of public service and it has been an honour to lead them.

Sir Simon Fraser Permanent Under-Secretary

1. Figure as of 31 March 2015, and includes UKTI staff overseas within the FCO. ↩