Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department plans to implement the recommendations of the report by the Eminent Persons Group entitled A Commonwealth of the People – Time for Urgent Reform, published in October 2011.
The 2011 Eminent Persons' report made a valuable contribution to the debate on Commonwealth reform. A number of recommendations were adopted, including the establishment of the Commonwealth Charter, which was signed by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on 11 March 2013 and reaffirmed by His Majesty the King on 13 March 2023. The role of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group was also strengthened as a consequence of the Eminent Persons' report recommendations. Further reforms were adopted at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Kigali in 2022. The UK remains a strong proponent of Commonwealth reform and fully supports the reform agenda of the Commonwealth Secretary-General.