The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom. Equivalent to other countries' ministries of foreign affairs, it was created on 2 September 2020 through the merger of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The FCO, itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office, was responsible for protecting and promoting British interests worldwide.
The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remnants of the former British Empire and do not form part of the United Kingdom itself. The permanently inhabited territories are internally self-governing, with the United Kingdom retaining responsibility for defence and foreign relations. Three of the territories are inhabited, chiefly or only, by a transitory population of military or scientific personnel. All but one of the rest are listed by the UN Special Committee on Decolonization as non-self-governing territories. All fourteen have the British monarch as head of state. These UK government responsibilities are assigned to various departments of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and are subject to change.
The Commissioner for the British Antarctic Territory (BAT), is the head of government in the Antarctic Territory of the United Kingdom. As one of the British Overseas Territories, the commissioner is appointed by the monarch of the United Kingdom on the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Alan Edden Huckle is an English senior diplomat in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government. He was the commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and the British Antarctic Territory from 23 April 2001 until 12 January 2004, when he left to become the governor of Anguilla in the Caribbean. He was the Governor of Anguilla from 29 July 2004 to July 2006, having been appointed in July 2003.
The British Indian Ocean Territory is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It is administered by a Commissioner, located at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London. There is no Governor appointed to represent the King in the territory as there are no permanent inhabitants.
The Commissioner for the British Indian Ocean Territory is the head of government in the United Kingdom's overseas territory of the British Indian Ocean Territory. The Commissioner is appointed by the British monarch on the advice of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The Commissioner does not reside in the territory, as it has had no native population since the forced depopulation of the Chagossian people in the 1970s, and the only population is the military of the United States and the United Kingdom at the joint base at Diego Garcia.
The British Indian Ocean Territory Police serve in the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). BIOT is a territory which does not have a permanent civil population, like most British Overseas Territories. The population are mostly members of the British Armed Forces and United States Armed Forces.
Robert Leigh Turner is a writer and British former diplomat. His final role was British Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Vienna from August 2016 to September 2021. As Ambassador and UK Permanent Representative he wrote a regular blog published in English and German.
The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom situated in the Indian Ocean, halfway between Tanzania and Indonesia. The territory comprises the seven atolls of the Chagos Archipelago with over 1,000 individual islands – many very small – amounting to a total land area of 60 square kilometres. The largest and most southerly island is Diego Garcia, 27 square kilometres, the site of a Joint Military Facility of the United Kingdom and the United States.
Paul Damian Madden is a retired British diplomat, who was High Commissioner to Singapore and to Australia, and Ambassador to Japan between 2017 and 2021.
Simon Gerard McDonald, Baron McDonald of Salford, is a British former diplomat who was the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Head of the Diplomatic Service until September 2020. He was the last professional head of the Foreign & Commonwealth Office before the creation of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He has been the Master of Christ's College, Cambridge, since September 2022.
Sir Philip Robert Barton is a British diplomat, currently the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. He was previously British High Commissioner to India; he was High Commissioner to Pakistan from 2014 to 2016.
Paul Brummell is a British diplomat and travel writer.
Dame Sarah MacIntosh is a British diplomat who is the Deputy National Security Adviser for International Affairs. She previously served as High Commissioner to Sierra Leone, Ambassador to Liberia and British Ambassador to NATO from 2017 to 2022.
Joanna Louise Roper, is a British diplomat serving as British Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Alison Mary Blake is a British diplomat who is currently serving as Governor of the Falkland Islands and Commissioner of the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. She previously served as High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Ambassador to Afghanistan.
Madeleine Kay Alessandri is a British civil servant who has had a career in the security and diplomatic services. As of February 2020, she is the Permanent Secretary for the Northern Ireland Office, replacing Sir Jonathan Stephens following his retirement.
Martin Alexander Baillie Reynolds is a British civil servant who served as Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister Boris Johnson from 2019 to 2022. Reynolds previously served as British Ambassador to Libya under Prime Minister Theresa May and as the principal private secretary to Johnson when he served as Foreign Secretary in May's government.
Christian Philip Hollier Turner is a British diplomat, serving as the British High Commissioner to Pakistan since 1 December 2019.
Paul Candler is a British civil servant. Since 2021, he serves as the Commissioner for the British Antarctic Territory, Commissioner for the British Indian Ocean Territory, and Director, Overseas Territories at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
