Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UN special envoy missions there have been in each of the last five years.

This response answers PQ 44298 and PQ 44301. For the purpose of these PQs we have defined ‘UN special envoy missions’ as Special Political Mission thematic cluster I, which covers special and personal envoys and advisers of the UN Secretary General.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office pays the UK’s assessed contributions for these as a part of our contribution to the UN Regular Budget, which are mandatory under the UN Charter. The UK’s fixed percentage share of the budget for each Special Political Mission was 6.604% during 2011 and 2012, and 5.179% from 2013 to 2015. The peacekeeping budget does not fund Special Political Missions. The UK does not hold a central register of UK voluntary contributions to SPMs

The table below provides the total number, annual budget and UK contribution to the cluster I SPM for calendar years 2011-2015.
Year Number Total budget (UK contribution) in US$ millions
2015 11 $37.3m ($1.93m)
2014 10 $24.9m ($1.29m)
2013 8 $16.7m ($0.866m)
2012 7 $11.43m ($0.755m)
2011 6 $8.69m ($0.574m)