Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

(asked on 25th September 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to the Government Response to the Foreign Affairs Committee, Second Report of Session 2019–21, Merging success: Bringing together the FCO and DFID, published on 22 September, which Members of Parliament were consulted on the merger.


Answered by
James Duddridge Portrait
James Duddridge
This question was answered on 6th October 2020

The Foreign Secretary and the wider Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) Ministerial Team engage with Parliamentarians from both Houses, both formally and informally, on a continual basis and discuss a wide-range of issues when doing so. As such, it is not possible to provide a full account of the Parliamentarians whom they have consulted regarding the creation of the FCDO.

The Government has consulted widely across Parliament following the Prime Minister's 16 June statement announcing the forthcoming creation of the FCDO. Key Parliamentarians consulted include Sarah Champion MP (Chair of the International Development Committee); Tom Tugendhat MP (Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee); Baroness Anelay (Chair of the International Relations and Defence Committee); Mark Garnier MP (Chair of the Committees on Arms Exports Control) and Tobias Ellwood MP (Chair of the Defence Committee).

In addition to the above consultation, the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary listened carefully to the views of ninety-nine Members of Parliament expressed over the course of discussion in the House immediately following their statements to the House of 16 June 2020, 18 June 2020 and 2 September 2020 on this subject.

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