Events & News
February 22, 2016 How the FCO has been taking on the Spending Review challenge
I started as Permanent Under-Secretary in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) on 1 September last year. Three days later I had to clear the draft letter from the Foreign Secretary to the Chief Secretary modelling a 25% cut to the FCO’s budget over the next four years.
The Spending Review was tough. In the end our final settlement was better than expected, with the Chancellor treating the FCO’s budget in the same way as the other main departments operating overseas. But, like all parts of the Civil Service, the FCO must play its part in balancing the books by finding further savings in the way government works overseas.
