Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps they are taking to help ensure that their Department (a) gives sufficient attention to long term strategic challenges, (b) does not allow current events to slow down work on long term strategic issues and (c) consistently undertakes horizon scanning.

The FCDO's planning framework brings together the Integrated Review Refresh, our Outcome Delivery Plan and the Foreign Secretary's priorities to drive long-term impact. The FCDO's analytical teams, with partners across government, conducts regular, cross-cutting, inter-disciplinary analyses and horizon scanning of trends and disruptions over the short, medium and long term to inform strategic decision making. These assessments are used in planning and resource decisions to ensure the department can maintain focus on long-term objectives. The FCDO has also developed a range of capability development and learning initiatives to equip staff to understand and address long-term strategic challenges.