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Select committee: Foreign Affairs Committee

Second Special Report - Government response to the Committee’s First Report of Session 2021–22: In the room: the UK’s role in multilateral diplomacy

Published 10 September 2021

Foreign Affairs Committee The UK’s role in strengthening multilateral organisations Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to First report - In the room: the UK’s role in multilateral diplomacy.

This is the government's response, published 10 September 2021.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The government responds on a report-by-report basis, agreeing with the Committee on defending the multilateral system, while setting out its own position on funding, INTERPOL, the WTO and aid conditionality.

  • On reform, it "agrees that large-scale reform, subject to intergovernmental negotiation, comes with potential risks as well as benefits" and says reform should not be "an end in itself".
  • On funding, it points to a new £340mn voluntary contribution to the WHO over four years, "linked to achievement of reform objectives", and says it will evaluate the mechanism at the end of that period.
  • It does not accept incentivising ICC compliance through development assistance: "we do not believe it is appropriate" and says conditionality of this type "does not work".
  • On INTERPOL, it says it is "considering" a joint statement against abuse of INTERPOL systems in a G7 communique, and says INTERPOL "has sufficient tools and measures" to address member behaviour.

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

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