{"id":64622,"date":"2015-11-25T16:07:26","date_gmt":"2015-11-25T16:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?guid=61e21452dd1d240d4ad51af4cdf8ac57"},"modified":"2015-11-25T16:07:26","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T16:07:26","slug":"press-release-foreign-offices-settlement-at-the-spending-review-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/?p=64622","title":{"rendered":"Press release: Foreign Office&#8217;s settlement at the Spending Review 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"govspeak\">\n<p>The Chancellor has published the results of the spending review, including details of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office\u2019s (FCO) budget over the course of this parliament.<\/p>\n<p>The Spending Review and Autumn Statement delivers on the government\u2019s priority to provide security to working people at every stage of their lives. It sets out a 4 year plan to fix the public finances, return the country to surplus and run a healthy economy that starts to pay down the debt.  By ensuring Britain\u2019s long term economic security, the government is able to spend \u00a34 trillion on its priorities over the next 4 years. <\/p>\n<p>For the Foreign and Commonwealth Office this means: <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>protecting the FCO\u2019s budget in real terms to promote British interests globally and maintain the network of diplomatic posts which host 26 different government departments and agencies around the world, and to coordinate the UK\u2019s presidency of the EU in 2017;<\/li>\n<li>funding to open new embassy buildings in Abuja and Budapest and further investment across the FCO estate to keep people safe while they are working for the UK abroad;<\/li>\n<li>funding for the British Council will also be protected in real terms, and in addition, it will be able to bid competitively for up to \u00a3700 million from a cross-government fund to improve links with emerging economies, help tackle extremism globally and support good governance,<\/li>\n<li>efficiency savings of \u00a353 million by 2019-20<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"8\">Foreign and Commonwealth Office<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td> <\/td>\n<td>2015 to 2016 baseline (\u00a3billion)<\/td>\n<td>2016 to 2017 plans (\u00a3billion)<\/td>\n<td>2017 to 2018 plans (\u00a3billion)<\/td>\n<td>2018 to 2019 plans (\u00a3billion)<\/td>\n<td>2019 to 2020 plans (\u00a3billion)<\/td>\n<td>2020 to 2021 plans <sup>(2)<\/sup> (\u00a3billion)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Resource <abbr title=\"Departmental Expenditure Limits\">DEL<\/abbr> <sup>(1)<\/sup>\n<\/td>\n<td>1.0 <\/td>\n<td>1.0 <\/td>\n<td>1.0 <\/td>\n<td>1.0 <\/td>\n<td>1.0 <\/td>\n<td>* <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Capital <abbr title=\"Departmental Expenditure Limits\">DEL<\/abbr>\n<\/td>\n<td>0.1<\/td>\n<td>0.1<\/td>\n<td>0.1<\/td>\n<td>0.1<\/td>\n<td>0.1<\/td>\n<td>0.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Total <abbr title=\"Departmental Expenditure Limits\">DEL<\/abbr>\n<\/td>\n<td>1.1<\/td>\n<td>1.1<\/td>\n<td>1.1<\/td>\n<td>1.1<\/td>\n<td>1.1<\/td>\n<td>* <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><sup>(1)<\/sup> In this table, resource DEL excludes depreciation<br \/>\n<sup>(2)<\/sup> 2020 to 2021 resource DEL departmental budgets have only been set for some departments. For the rest, these budgets will be set in full at the next spending review. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"security\">Security<\/h2>\n<p>The FCO will spend up to \u00a324 million over the next 4 years to increase the presence of its counter terrorism and extremism experts overseas.<\/p>\n<p>The Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), through which the FCO funds much of its conflict prevention work, will grow by 19% in real terms by 2019-20. This will strengthen the UK\u2019s ability to support stabilisation in Syria, Ukraine, Somalia and Pakistan and increase the UK\u2019s response to serious transnational threats including extremism, serious and organised crime and uncontrolled migration.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"long-term-investment\">Long term investment<\/h2>\n<p>The government will invest \u00a360 million a year to deliver the renewed GREAT campaign.<br \/>\nThis funding will ensure over 140 overseas posts will continue to promote the UK as a world-class destination for trade, investment, education and tourism.<\/p>\n<p>The FCO will maintain the global reach of the UK\u2019s diplomatic network, which consists of more than 260 posts and missions in over 160 countries and territories across the world.<\/p>\n<p>There will also be funding for improvements in Mandarin, Russian and Arabic language skills, building country and regional expertise, and investment to maximise the benefit of open source information.<\/p>\n<p>The GREAT programme will increase from \u00a346.5m to \u00a360m a year, generating returns to the UK of \u00a31.6bn a year.  For instance \u00a31bn each year will be derived from increased exports for UK companies and foreign direct investment attracted to the UK. This will be achieved by increasing investment in key target markets such as China, the US, India, Brazil, Germany and France, and in selected new high-growth markets in South East Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. <\/p>\n<h2 id=\"efficiency-and-reform\">Efficiency and Reform<\/h2>\n<p>Over the Parliament the FCO will work with other government departments to find further savings in the way government works overseas, making reductions in the travel budget across the FCO and controlling staff costs both overseas and in the UK.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"foreign-secretary-philip-hammond-said\">Foreign Secretary, Philip Hammond, said:<\/h3>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The Spending Review settlement will maintain our world class Diplomatic Service and global presence to protect our national security, promote our prosperity and project the UK\u2019s values.  Spending on the Government\u2019s international priorities will increase, with a larger Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF), a new Prosperity Fund and more funding for the British Council to increase our soft power projection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"last-child\">Like all departments, the Foreign &amp; Commonwealth Office has to find efficiencies to help reduce the deficit, playing its part in bringing the public finances back into balance. But the announcement today protects our ability to use our diplomacy to continue to play a major role on the world stage.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3 id=\"further-information\">Further information<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PHammondMP\">@PHammondMP<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Follow the Foreign Office on Twitter <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/foreignoffice\">@foreignoffice<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<p>Follow the Foreign Office on <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/foreignoffice?ref=hl\">Facebook<\/a> and <a rel=\"external\" href=\"https:\/\/plus.google.com\/b\/105922144104190309938\/+foreignoffice\/posts\">Google+<\/a><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"contact \" id=\"contact_193\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h3>Media enquiries<\/h3>\n<div class=\"vcard contact-inner\">\n<div class=\"email-url-number\">\n<p class=\"email\">\n              <span class=\"type\">Email<\/span><br \/>\n              <a class=\"email\" href=\"mailto:newsdesk@fco.gov.uk\">newsdesk@fco.gov.uk<\/a>\n            <\/p>\n<p class=\"tel\">\n              <span class=\"type\">News Desk <\/span><br \/>\n              020 7008 3100\n            <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Chancellor has published the results of the spending review, including details of the FCO&#8217;s budget over the course of this parliament<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64622"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64622"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64622\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mostafa.openonline.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}