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This report is the Committee's annual review of how the FCO is managing its resources. This year a key area off interest has been the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review because the Committee think it is one of the tightest in Whitehall and it risks jeopardising some of the FCO's important work. Apart from this the other subjects covered are: measuring performance; operational efficiency; management and leadership; FCO services; diplomatic representation overseas; transparency and openness; public diplomacy; British council; BBC World Service.
The FCO departmental report and resource accounts 2008-09 published as HC 460-I,II (ISBN 9780102961614)
This report is the Committee's annual review of how the FCO is managing its resources, examining the departmental annual report for 2007-08 (Cm. 7398, ISBN 9780101739825). Chapters cover: new strategic framework; performance measurement; global network; essential services; FCO Services; personnel issues; transparency and openness; financial management; public diplomacy and communication; the British Council; the BBC World Service. The Committee is concerned that the FCO is facing serious financial pressures in this financial year due to the Treasury's withdrawal of its support for the Overseas Pricing Mechanism (OPM) which used to protect departments from the weakening of sterling. There is a risk that the FCO may not be able to meet higher international subscriptions over the next two financial years, causing its performance against Public Service Agreement targets to suffer. The likely increase in the UN Regular Budget and other international subscriptions will push this figure even higher. The FCO should have to shoulder the financial burden from within its already tight budget to pay for subscriptions which also benefit other Government departments. The Committee recommends that additional nondiscretionary costs should properly be met by the Treasury.
This is the first annual scrutiny by the Treasury Committee of the Chancellor of Exchequer's Departments. The Committee sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: that the Treasury should include within its' annual reports a summary of the results of the annual surveys of stakeholder opinion and the Treasury's response to stakeholders; the Committee recommends that the Treasury set itself a target to ensure that the Public Service Agreements finalised as part of the next Spending Review in 2009 or 2010 include a clear statement about the resources to be allocated across Government to the delivery of each Agreement; the Committee criticises the Treasury's failure to meet its objective for the appointment of professionally-qualified Finance Directors in all Departments by December 2006 and that a relevant accountancy qualification be described as an essental criterion in all future post advertisements; the Committee views the Value for Money Delivery Agreements across Government as disappointing, and wants the Government to develop programmes that measure quality of service and efficiency effectively; the Committee commends the Royal Mint's return to profitability but is concerned about the ambitious target set for next year; that the Office of Government Commerce has failed to publish a regular annual report; the Committee expresses surprise that HM Revenue and Customs had approved a 60% increase in senior civil service bonus payments over a period of poor performance and headcount reductions, also the Committee highlights the problems experienced in VAT registrations and the failure of HMRC to meet its processing target of VAT receipts as well as poor administration of tax credits.
Climate migration, as an image of people moving due to sea-level rise and increased drought, has been presented as one of the main security risks of global warming. The rationale is that climate change will cause mass movements of climate refugees, causing tensions and even violent conflict. Through the lens of climate change politics and securitisation theory, Ingrid Boas examines how and why climate migration has been presented in terms of security and reviews the political consequences of such framing exercises. This study is done through a macro-micro analysis and concentrates on the period of the early 2000s until the end of September 2014. The macro-level analysis provides an overview of the coalitions of states that favour or oppose security framings on climate migration. It shows how European states and the Small Island States have been key actors to present climate migration as a matter of security, while the emerging developing countries have actively opposed such a framing. The book argues that much of the division between these states alliances can be traced back to climate change politics. As a next step, the book delves into UK-India interactions to provide an in-depth analysis of these security framings and their connection with climate change politics. This micro-level analysis demonstrates how the UK has strategically used security framings on climate migration to persuade India to commit to binding targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The book examines how and why such a strategy has emerged, and most importantly, to what extent it has been successful. Climate Migration and Security is the first book of its kind to examine the strategic usage of security arguments on climate migration as a political tool in climate change politics. Original theoretical, empirical, and policy-related insights will provide students, scholars, and policy makers with the necessary tools to review the effectiveness of these framing strategies for the purpose of climate change diplomacy and delve into the wider implications of these framing strategies for the governance of climate change.
Against a backdrop of historically weak financial management and significant under-spending, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office has made considerable progress over the past three years to improve the accuracy, reliability and timeliness of financial information. Having recognised the need to take action, the Department set up its 'Five Star Finance' project which is due to completed in the summer of 2010. Of particular benefit has been the recruitment of a professionally qualified finance director and increasing the number of professionally qualified accountants within the finance function. An important factor has been the need for better information on the costs of individual embassies and this has been strengthened. Further action, though, is still required to implement a workable and effective system of costing activity in all locations to enable it to make informed decisions about its operational priorities. Given that over half of the Department's expenditure of some £2 billion is paid out in foreign currency the Department has suffered a significant reduction in purchasing power as a result of the weakening of the Sterling. The Department now forward purchases US dollars, euros and yen but with input from the Treasury it also needs to work with other Departments to identify the most effective way to manage exchange rate risk for the government as a whole. The Department confirmed that its aim is to maximise the benefits from each of its embassies in pursuit of British trade and foreign policy interests and that it has no plans to sell-off any of its prestigious buildings around the world
Royal assent, 19th July 2006. An Act to authorise the use of resources for the service of the year ending with 31st March 2007 and to apply certain sums out of the Consolidated Fund to the service of the year ending with 31st March 2007; to appropriate the supply authorised in this session of Parliament for the service of the year ending with 31st March 2007; to repeal certain Consolidated Fund and Appropriation Acts.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has made good progress in its financial management, aiming to establish itself as one of the best departments in Whitehall in this respect. It has shown strong leadership in raising the profile of good financial management across the Department. Up to 2007-08, however, the FCO has underspent consistently against its budget. The Department has introduced a financial management improvement programme "Five Star Finance", the aim of which is for the department to be a Whitehall leader in financial management. It currently rates itself at three and a half stars on a 1(low) to 5 (high) scale, a rating confirmed by NAO. The FCO operates in a challenging environment in terms of the global nature of its operations. The fluctuations of global currency markets pose particular difficulties for the Department. Until 2007-08, its budgets were protected by the Treasury from exchange rate fluctuations. When this protection was withdrawn, the FCO introduced alternative measures to manage its exposure, principally the forward purchase of major foreign currencies. It needs to ensure that its finance team has the right skills and experience to manage the financial risks it now faces. The FCO is taking action to avoid future underspends against its budget. In other respects, FCO's financial management has improved. The accuracy, reliability and timeliness of its financial reporting have all been enhanced. In 2007-08 it laid its accounts on 30 June, the earliest date it has ever achieved after the March year-end.
The National Audit Office has played an important role in the checks and balances of the UK parliamentary and political system over the last 40 years. This new book, more than just a history of the UK’s supreme audit institution, examines the very definition of accountability through both an historic and an academic lens, critically exploring questions about the role of audit in a democracy and how well it is working. Holding Government to Account draws on several unique sources of evidence, including interviews with senior officials from the National Audit Office and the civil service, as well as senior parliamentarians with experience of the NAO’s relationships with government and legislature. These interviews are supplemented by an analysis of previously unpublished manuscript material in the National Archives, examination of NAO reports and parliamentary and other reports focused on accountability. The book begins with a history of the National Audit Office in the context of the UK’s wider history. It then offers an overview of the constitutional, political and human legacies of the Exchequer and Audit Department, followed by a close examination of the National Audit Office’s leadership and decision-making from inception in 1984 through to the present. The authors conclude with an exploration of the way in which the meaning of public sector audit has evolved over time, in accordance with its wider political, ideological and material context. In doing so, they demonstrate that any question about the National Audit Office’s future and organisation is really a question about what democracy and good government mean in a modern bureaucratic state. Holding Government to Account will be of keen interest to students enrolled in courses on accounting, public administration, law and politics as well as to politicians, civil servants and Supreme Audit Institutions internationally.
Dated June 2007. Supplied via TSO's On-Demand Publishing Service