Books by "Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office"
12 books found
The role of the FCO in UK government
by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee
2011 · The Stationery Office
The Foreign Affairs Committee believes the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) will not be back at the centre of Government and able to lead UK foreign policy, in line with the Foreign Secretary's ambitions, unless it can provide deep foreign policy expertise and judgement to underpin and implement Government decision-making. The FCO must have the resources and skills required to fulfil this role, especially specialist geographical expertise and knowledge of foreign languages. The FCO has a vital role to play for the Government, namely the timely provision of world-class foreign policy information, analysis, judgement and execution. Finances, people and buildings must be well-managed, but managerial requirements must not divert time and focus disproportionately from the FCO's core foreign policy functions. Given the resource constraints facing the FCO, however, there is doubt whether the department can achieve the Government's ambitions for enhanced commercial work while maintaining its core foreign policy functions at the required standard. The committee regards the FCO's network of overseas posts as integral to the department's ability to discharge its functions, and recommends that the FCO should seek to maintain a global UK presence. The committee also called "confusing" the fact that under the current Government the FCO has three sets of priorities: the Foreign Secretary's, the Cabinet Office's Business Plan for the department, and the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review.
British and Foreign State Papers
by Great Britain. Foreign Office, Great Britain. Foreign and Commonwealth Office
1910
Includes list of members, 1882-1902, proceedings of the annual meetings and various supplements.
Report of the Commissioners Appointed in 1898 to Inquire and Report what Methods of Treating and Disposing of Sewage (including Any Liquid from Any Factory Or Manufacturing Process) May Properly be Adopted
by Great Britain. Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal
1904
Contains the 4th session of the 28th Parliament through the session of the Parliament.
British foreign policy and the 'Arab Spring'
by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee
2012 · The Stationery Office
Eighteen months since the Arab Spring began, there has been extraordinary progress in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Yet many challenges still lie ahead, not least the need to support and reform the economies of these Arab Spring states. In 2011, the G8 Deauville Partnership identified $38 billion of funding available to support reform. The UK must use its leadership in the EU and G8 to ensure that we deliver on our promises. The Government needs to learn lessons from its experience in anticipating and handling the Arab Spring. Questions arose about the FCO's staffing levels, linguistic expertise and information gathering in the Middle East and North Africa region, although diplomats understood well the long-term problems in the region. The report welcomes the Government's recent moves to establish contacts with Islamist parties in the region and calls for deeper engagement to demonstrate at an early stage the UK's support and assistance for democratically elected leaders who respect human rights and democratic reforms. The BBC's Arabic Service further highlighted the importance of the BBC World Service in providing an independent news service and enhancing the UK's standing in the region. The Committee welcomes the Government's decision to reverse planned cuts to the Arabic Service last year, expresses concerns that cuts made elsewhere in the World Service will prove detrimental to the national interest, and urges that there be a sustained investment in the World Service
The FCO's Human Rights Work 2011
by Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee
2012 · The Stationery Office
It is inevitable that the UK will have strategic, commercial or security-related interests overseas which have the potential to conflict with its human rights work, says the Foreign Affairs Committee in a report published today. The Government should not be trying to assert that the two can co-exist freely: it should instead be explaining publicly its judgments on how to balance them in particular cases. The Committee's recommendation comes in the light of the FCO's decision not to designate Bahrain as a "country of concern" in its 2011 report on its human rights work, despite the repression of demonstrations in Bahrain in 2011. The Committee recommends that the criteria for designation should be based purely on assessments of human rights standards and should not be coloured by strategic or other considerations. The Committee also challenges the Government for being inconsistent in not taking a public stance on the Bahrain Grand Prix but boycotting group stage games at Euro 2012 in Ukraine. On rendition, the Committee finds that the protracted police investigations had an unacceptable impact on the work of the Gibson Inquiry and of relevant committees. The Government should explain why current investigations into claims of rendition made by two Libyans are expected to take so long. The Committee accepts that enough progress has been made in Burma to justify some relaxation of the EU's sanctions regime, but it says that Burma's human rights record remains seriously blemished. It recommends that the UK should call for better access to those still detained as political prisoners, and should press the Burmese authorities to allow independent observers to visit Rakhine state, to assess the extent to which the rights of the Rohingya minority are being respected.
Published papers whose appeal lies in their subject-matter rather than their technical statistical contents. Medical, social, educational, legal,demographic and governmental issues are of particular concern.