Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has a soft power strategy.

The role of soft power is being considered as part of the Integrated Review of Security, Defence, Development and Foreign Policy. This will be informed by the conclusions of the cross-government work already undertaken on our strategic approach to this area.

The UK has huge soft power strengths and the FCDO is supporting these, for example through our funding of the British Council, BBC World 2020 programme and Chevening, Marshall and Commonwealth Scholarships. Our determination to work as a force for good in the world is an important part of our soft power, as we are seeing through our hosting of COP26, which is showcasing our leadership on climate, the introduction of 'Magnitsky' sanctions to hold human rights abusers to account, and our support for a globally accessible Covid-19 vaccine.