Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the process for accrediting ambassadors to the UK.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office follows a process of reviewing each State's proposed appointee as Head of Mission to the United Kingdom in accordance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (VCDR) 1961. The process is sufficiently robust and no recent appraisal of its adequacy has therefore been required.

The appointment of Heads of Mission, both Ambassadors and High Commissioners, to the Court of St. James's is governed in international law by Article 4(1) of the VCDR. The Article requires that the sending State must ensure that agrément for the person it proposes to accredit as Head of Mission has been granted by the receiving State, before that person may be permitted to undertake the role.

On the recommendation of the Secretary of State, Her Majesty The Queen gives formal approval of Head of Mission appointments.