Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon on 20 February (HL5413), whether the staff savings being made in Asia, the Americas and Africa include (1) the planned closure of any UK diplomatic posts, and (2) the localisation of positions previously held by UK-based staff; and what is the breakdown of any such changes.

We are not planning to close posts to fund the increase in resources to our Europe network, but the plans do involve some localisation of UK-based roles. We keep our network under constant review to ensure we have the right resources in the right locations to deliver current and emerging priorities; we do not expect the overseas diplomatic network to remain static. The answer to parliamentary question HL5876 provides further detail.