Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee
Conclusion 11
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 ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
We are concerned about the cuts to the FCDO’s budget, including those to the Directorate responsible for multilateral organisations such as the UN. Such measures will reduce the UK’s ability to be an effective penholder at the United Nations and to lead on the resolution of global conflict through the United Nations Security Council. More so, these cuts risk ceding further influence to China and Russia within the multilateral system. Indeed, such detrimental measures open the door, willingly, to our competitors and adversaries. (Conclusion, Paragraph 60)
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.