Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Recommendation 10
2nd Report - The write to protect: Britain’s pen on the world stage
Published 21 Sep 2025
Addressed to Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Foreign Affairs Committee The UK at the United Nations Security Council All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Where agreement or consensus with the US may not be forthcoming, the Government must engage the US proactively, in behind-the-scenes and backdoor diplomacy. Simultaneously, the Government should have the confidence to develop robust alliances with Elected Members to the United Nations Security Council to advance British values including the belief in a rules and values-based international order and commitment to reduce global conflict and to secure progress on UK penholder files. (Recommendation, Paragraph 52) Government coordination and alignment
From: Foreign Affairs Committee, 2nd Report - The write to protect: Britain’s pen on the world stage (HC 930), 21 September 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 1 December 2025 (deadline 21 November 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government marks most recommendations "Agree", "Partially agree" on some, and "Disagree" on three, including co-penholding and mandated Myanmar reporting.
- On co-penholding (Recommendation 10) it says "Disagree", stating that "co-penning is not appropriate for every agenda item" and it does not agree the UK should take a "one size fits all" approach.
- On ODA (Recommendation 7) it "Partially agree"s. It remains committed to restoring 0.7% of GNI "as soon as the fiscal circumstances allow", but says it is "not possible" to commit to ringfencing any future spend.
- On Myanmar (Recommendation 15) it says "Disagree". It recognises the call for mandated, more regular reporting but says there is "not yet the requisite support across the UN Security Council", including among the permanent members.
- On Somalia (Recommendation 18) it "Partially agree"s and says a new "joint fund" mechanism "would likely encounter similar challenges". It announced £16.5 million to AUSSOM.