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Select Committee · Public Accounts Committee

Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate

Status: Open Opened: 6 May 2025 8 recommendations 18 conclusions 1 report

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s (FCDO) overseas estate encompasses over 6,000 properties spread over almost 180 countries and valued at around £2.5 billion. The varied locations and uses of properties in this estate each present their own unique challenges which range from supply issues to security concerns. The overseas estate also hosts the operations …

Clear

Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
53rd Report - Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate HC 884 12 Nov 2025 26 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

2 items
10 Conclusion 53rd Report - Cost of maintaining the F… Not Addressed

Poor condition of FCDO's overseas estate presents a severe risk and significant maintenance backlog.

FCDO told us that it is not happy with the current condition of its overseas estate and that this presents a severe risk to the organisation.21 Of FCDO’s 6,500 overseas buildings, 933 (around 15%) do not meet its internal target condition score of 70% or higher, according to which buildings …

Government response. Acknowledges the committee's conclusion that much of FCDO's overseas estate is in poor condition and has a large maintenance backlog.
HM Treasury
18 Conclusion 53rd Report - Cost of maintaining the F… Not Addressed

FCDO's maintenance backlog was severely underestimated, necessitating external professionals for accurate assessment.

In November 2023, FCDO recognised that its £150 million estimate of its overseas estate maintenance backlog was likely to be an underestimate and commissioned professional surveyors to conduct a one-off exercise to identify the true backlog.47 FCDO ran a programme between April and October 2024 to collect data at 100 …

Government response. Acknowledges the committee's conclusion that FCDO's overseas estate is in poor condition and has a large maintenance backlog.
HM Treasury

Oral evidence sessions

1 session
Date Witnesses
10 Jul 2025 Dr Ian Collard OBE · Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, Eddie Hannah OBE · Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, Nick Dyer · Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, Sir Oliver Robbins KCMG CB · Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office View ↗

Correspondence

4 letters
DateDirectionTitle
16 Mar 2026 From cttee Letter to the Permanent Secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development …
26 Jan 2026 To cttee Letter from the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Dev…
4 Sep 2025 To cttee Letter from the Second Permanent Under-Secretary of State of the Foreign, Commo…
4 Sep 2025 From cttee Letter to the Permanent Under-Secretaries of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Deve…