On 10 November 2010, Sir Philip Barton KCMG OBE, Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Head of the Diplomatic Service, gave his first evidence session to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (FASC). He was joined by Juliet Chua, Director General, Finance and Corporate, at the FCDO. Below, we summarise some of the most pertinent revelations of a rich and insightful discussion.<\/p>\n
Sir Philip Barton set out his priorities for his tenure, which will span a dynamic period of change in the UK\u2019s foreign policy apparatus:<\/p>\n
1. Ensuring the FCO and DFID merger is truly \u2018transformational\u2019, leveraging the benefits of an integrated development and diplomatic policy to ensure they become \u201cmore than the sum of their parts\u201d.<\/p>\n
2. Ensuring the safety of the FCDO\u2019s staff, but also ensuring the FCDO is hiring the brightest talents, is reflective of the diversity of the UK, and then building the capabilities of its staff \u2013 including building new skills and strengths in data, economics, languages and trade policy.<\/p>\n
3. Ensuring the UK\u2019s diplomatic corps are effective, and delivering a \u201crelentless focus\u201d on the UK\u2019s foreign policy ambitions.<\/p>\n
In terms of his personal role as a diplomat and the substance of the FCDO\u2019s work, he highlighted:<\/p>\n
– The need for an authentic moral mission around the notion of the UK as a \u2018force for good in the world\u2019 \u2013 citing media freedom, and the Magnitsky sanctions;<\/p>\n
– The potential for trade to be better integrated and more central to the UK\u2019s foreign policy \u2013 leaving open the question as to whether DIT will ultimately find itself within the FCDO<\/em> \u2013 and as a bridge between domestic and international policy; and<\/p>\n – Shepherding the transition as the UK leaves the European Union.<\/p>\n When pressed on the UK\u2019s tools to deploy in achieving its ambitions, Sir Philip Barton highlighted both the COP26 summit and the UK\u2019s presidency of the G7 next year as crucial platforms through which to project power and influence. Expanding on the detail around their measures of success, Sir Philip said:<\/p>\n – To ensure meaningful outcomes, development assistance will be tied to the COP26 agenda, and the FCDO will help our global partners with adaption and resilience.<\/p>\n – The relationship between the G7 presidency and COP26 is clearly close, with a plan to use both forums to create \u201cweigh points\u201d to ensure commitments are upheld.<\/p>\n – A successful COP26 summit was defined as leaving the UK \u201cmore confident than we can be now that we\u2019re not heading for a climate catastrophe\u201d.<\/p>\n – The election of Joe Biden as President of the United States was highlighted as an important development for the UK’s ambitions on climate change, and the common interest in this area was emphasised as a key focus for the \u2018special relationship\u2019.<\/p>\n Specifically questioned on the issue of engagement with China on climate change, Sir Philip Barton could not say whether he believes in the substance of China\u2019s commitment to net zero. He does, however, perceive that China has recognised that it has a part to play in solutions to climate change, and said the UK has opened \u201ca dialogue\u201d with China about this. He acknowledged the way that China\u2019s economic growth plans may temper its commitment to environmental action, but said the UK has a role in helping those nations reliant on coal to transition to a cleaner energy future. He noted that \u201cmaking a success of COP26 is going to be a complicated jigsaw\u201d.<\/p>\n Turning to operations, Sir Philip Barton underscored the progress the FCDO was making in advancing its crisis communications, particularly during the pandemic, and starting to explore how social media can be better harnessed as a tool of influence and analysis, and in communicating with the British diaspora.<\/p>\n He acknowledged that the adjusted scope of the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) meant the FCDO is now only able to submit a one-year bid, although work is going on behind the scenes to continue long-term planning, \u201cto ensure coherence\u201d.<\/p>\n Sir Philip Barton was joined by Juliet Chua, the Director General, Finance and Corporate, at the FCDO, who was able to speak more specifically to the FCDO\u2019s financial position. Due to the unprecedented falls in GNI in 2020 due to the pandemic \u2013 which dictate the scope of the enshrined 0.7% development commitment \u2013 she explained that just under \u00a33 billion of savings have been identified to help balance against the expected budget reduction. These savings have been made through moving payments around, shrinking programmes and prioritising ODA spend on a series of core issues: global health, girls\u2019 education, climate change, open societies, democracy and human rights.<\/p>\n Sir Philip Barton acknowledged that it had been difficult to merge the FCO and DFID in a period of significant geopolitical instability. He also stressed that the decision to integrate the departments was not driven by a desire to drive cost efficiencies \u2013 although they may eventuate. Juliet Chua noted that there is an objective to merge the majority of teams by April, and that she does believe there will be some potential savings of resources over the longer time, as duplication is removed. Sir Philip Barton later clarified the reality that some personnel will not be retained when the merger is finalised.<\/p>\n Sir Philip Barton made the point that the Integrated Review was a \u201cPrime Minister-led review\u201d, which emphasises the political centrality of the Review \u2013 with its significance extending well beyond the FCDO and right into the heart of Number 10.<\/p>\n When pressed on the Review\u2019s priorities, he outlined the UK\u2019s \u2018force for good agenda\u2019, the heavily trailed Indo-Pacific tilt, as well as strengthening development, diplomacy, defence and security capabilities, and underscoring the importance of the UK\u2019s role in NATO and in leading counter-terrorism efforts. Interestingly, Sir Philip Barton also flagged the UK\u2019s potential in leading work in global governance for emerging areas such as cyber and space \u2013 an area of considerable potential influence the BFPG has highlighted as part of our work on advancing the UK\u2019s soft power<\/em>.<\/p>\n There has been a concern, in a constrained financial climate, about the \u2018cost\u2019 of the Indo-Pacific tilt as potentially coming at the expense of the FCDO\u2019s investments in other areas of the world. When questioned on this point, Sir Philip Barton said the manifestation of the \u201cincreased effort\u201d in the region is currently unclear, as this will be clarified in the CSR process.<\/p>\n The session covered a considerable degree of ground regarding the UK\u2019s global relationships and some of the key geopolitical issues of the day. Highlights of the remaining session include the following revelations:<\/p>\n Nord Stream 2: <\/strong>Sir Philip Barton made clear that the UK has concerns about the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline and its potential impact on Ukraine, although he was not able to set out any specific interventions the UK will be making beyond expressing these concerns to \u201cclose European partners\u201d. The pipeline plan has divided European Union member states and is a source of tension with the incoming Biden administration in Washington, worried about the consequences of European energy dependency on Russia.<\/em><\/p>\n Foreign Interference: <\/strong>In response to questioning regarding the ISC\u2019s Russia Report, Sir Philip Barton said the FCDO was on the frontline of efforts to address foreign interference, particularly from Russia. However, he confirmed the position that there was \u201cno evidence of successful [foreign] intervention in the EU referendum\u201d.<\/p>\n COVID-19 Pandemic: <\/strong>The FCDO is working closely with other governments to learn lessons about fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The department has taken on board lessons from its struggles in the early phases of the crisis, particularly around emergency repatriation.<\/p>\n Europe:<\/strong> Part of the FCDO\u2019s \u201cglobal uplift\u201d has been directed to reinforcing the UK\u2019s presence in Europe, and the E3 (the UK, France and Germany) was cited as a key mechanism of cooperation beyond the UK’s mission to Brussels.<\/p>\n United States: <\/strong>Sir Philip Barton emphasised the shared values and shared objectives between the United Kingdom and the United States, and committed to \u201cworking very closely\u201d with the Biden administration, emphasising that the United State is \u201cour closest and most important ally\u201d.<\/p>\n This session provided a revealing degree of detail about the substance, priorities and scope of the UK\u2019s foreign policy during an especially consequential period. Along with the Foreign Secretary\u2019s recent evidence to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, which the BFPG has summarised here<\/a>, Sir Philip Barton\u2019s appearance offered illuminating insights about the direction of the Integrated Review and the Global Britain project as a whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On 10 November 2010, Sir Philip Barton KCMG OBE, Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and Head of the Diplomatic Service, gave his first evidence session to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee (FASC). He was joined by Juliet Chua, Director General,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":20536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-uk-perspectives"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/86"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bfpg.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}COP26 and the G7<\/strong><\/h3>\n
FCDO Operations and Budgets<\/strong><\/h3>\n
The Integrated Review<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Other Notable Points<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n