Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 16
53rd Report - Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate
Published 12 Nov 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
FCDO’s large estates projects are delivered centrally, and FCDO considers that it has very strong controls on spending for specific projects.43 However, FCDO acknowledges that it currently lacks oversight of how all its projects align with each other or with its policies for other areas, such as maintenance, and whether its prioritisation processes are being used properly. Previously, FCDO had two separate estate departments: one managing policy and large projects, and the other the day-to-day management and maintenance of the estate. FCDO told us that this separation meant these departments were not able to join the dots between both sides of the business and it has now merged them. FCDO is also planning on establishing a new estates governance board in the autumn, with the aim of bringing together into one place its management of spending, policy, projects and intervention and support programmes.44 37 Q 58 38 Committee of Public Accounts, Twenty-Ninth Report of Session 2024–26, Condition of Government property, summary and para 9 39 Q 35 40 C&AG’s report, paras 2.4, 2.18 41 Q 35 42 Qq 57-58 43 Qq 39, 57 44 Qq 39-40; C&AG’s report para 1.16 12 2 FCDO’s management of its estate FCDO data
From: Public Accounts Committee, 53rd Report - Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate (HC 884), 12 November 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifty-third Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026 (deadline 12 January 2026).
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifth-third report from Session 2024-26
Published 19 January 2026.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each of the report's recommendations, and reports some as implemented and others with target dates.
- On estate strategy, the government agrees; an Overseas Network Review fully launching in January 2026 will look at the overall size and shape of the FCDO footprint, and the estates strategy is "due to be updated next in Spring 2026".
- On the maintenance backlog, the government agrees; the Overseas Estate Department is developing a more robust approach to its annual programme of works, with a target implementation date of end March 2029, and it will write to the Committee within six months categorising buildings by risk.
- On governance, the government agrees; a new Estates Committee was established in October 2025 and will meet quarterly, and an external review of the operating model and project delivery is due in Spring 2026.
- On lessons learned from capital projects, the government agrees; the FCDO "is re-establishing a comprehensive lessons-learned process across all capital projects", with a target implementation date of March 2026.