Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 18
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 ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
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 posts, which allowed FCDO to calculate that its true maintenance backlog was £450 million.48 FCDO told us that it employed professionals to do this asset data collection because it did not have the capacity on the ground to do it. At the same time, FCDO told us it has also been training posts and that around 1,500 staff had participated in training to improve estate data collection.49 45 Q 31 46 Qq 50, 74; C&AG’s report, para 1.24 47 C&AG’s report, para 2.7 48 Qq 27, 45 49 Q 50 13
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.