Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 17
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 told us that it is very challenging to collect the data it needs to manage its estate as it is a “federated organisation,” and its central estate function relies on staff at each of its 282 posts to provide it with data.45 Staff at posts are responsible for updating data on the estate, such as on size and condition, but have not always had the resources or skills necessary to do so. The NAO’s survey of posts found that 41% of respondents considered using IT systems to collect and report data a challenge. In 2023, FCDO reported that 85% of posts did not have a complete register of their physical estate assets or building components. FCDO told us that for day-to-day maintenance and management of the estate, you need to know what you have and what to look after, and that there has been a drive to increase awareness amongst its staff of the importance of having a complete and up to date asset register.46 This is important, for example, in case of fire destroying a building.
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.