Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answers by Baroness Chapman of Darlington on 28 March (HL5890 and HL5892), what assessment they have made of the impact of physical presence of the British Council in the countries in which it operates on the outcomes it delivers.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) works with the British Council to ensure strategic alignment between HMG / FCDO objectives and British Council activity, and is considering these issues in the round as part of the Spending Review process, which will allocate departmental budgets between the financial years 2026-27 and 2028-29. Decisions relating to the size and footprint of the British Council's overseas network are operational matters for British Council.

In an increasingly digital age, the British Council's impact should be judged by the outcomes it delivers through its programmes and operations, rather than its physical presence alone.