Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure its services are available online; and if he will make a statement.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is implementing its Digital Strategy which envisages providing its services digitally by default where possible. As envisaged in that strategy, the FCO has put in place a small Digital Transformation Unit with the necessary skills to drive that agenda. That Unit has put in place a prioritised plan for the transformation of the FCO’s services and has thus far transformed Chevening Scholarship applications and begun the roll out of a new online booking service for Consular appointments.