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,Commonwealth and Development 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.
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.
Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe,CCS was a Sri Lankan diplomat and civil servant. He was High Commissioner to India and concurrently Ambassador to both Nepal and Afghanistan (1963–1967) and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Finance and Treasury and the Ministry of Health. Amerasinghe served as Ceylon's Permanent Representative to the United Nations 1967 to 1980 and served as President of the United Nations General Assembly in 1976. He was also one of the leaders of the negotiations to draft the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
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.
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.
Edward David Gerard Llewellyn,Baron Llewellyn of Steep,is a British diplomat and former political adviser serving as the British Ambassador to Italy since 2022. He previously served as the British Ambassador to France from 2016 to 2021 and as the Downing Street Chief of Staff under former prime minister David Cameron from 2010 to 2016.
Alexander Wykeham "Alex" Ellis CMG is a British civil servant,currently British High Commissioner to India. Previously,he was Deputy National Security Adviser for the Integrated Review on diplomacy,development and defence. Ellis was previously the Director General of the Department for Exiting the EU. He had previously been Britain's ambassador to Brazil from July 2013 to January 2017.
Peter Richard Hayes is a British diplomat. He was formerly the Commissioner of the British Indian Ocean Territory and the British Antarctic Territory.
Colin Roberts is a British diplomat and the former Governor of the Falkland Islands and former Commissioner of the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Antony John Phillipson is a British diplomat,and as of 2021,British High Commissioner to South Africa. He was High Commissioner to Singapore from 2011 to April 2015,and from 2017 to June 2021 was the British Consul-General in New York and Her Majesty's Trade Commissioner for North America.
Katherine Lucy Smith is a British diplomat who served as British Ambassador to Greece from January 2017 until July 2021.
Same-sex marriage has been legal in the British Indian Ocean Territory since 3 June 2014. An Order in Council to legalise same-sex marriages was enacted by the Privy Council of the United Kingdom on 28 April 2014,and took effect on 3 June. The British Indian Ocean Territory,despite having no permanent population,was among the first British Overseas Territories to legalise same-sex marriage.
John Evan Murton is a British diplomat. He is currently the UK's COP26 Envoy and responsible for coordinating UK diplomacy in relation to COP26. Prior to this,he served in Kinshasa as British Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He was also non-resident British Ambassador to the Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic. He was previously the UK's Permanent Representative to UNEP and UN HABITAT as well as Deputy High Commissioner to Kenya. Between 2010 and 2013 he was head of the FCO's East Asia and Pacific Department and the UK's senior official at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM). Between 2007 and 2010 he was British High Commissioner to Mauritius and non-resident Ambassador to Madagascar and Comoros. He joined the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1997 and served in London and Tokyo before being seconded to the Office of the Secretary General of NATO in Brussels between 2004 and 2007. He was appointed to his current post in 2019. He is married with five children.
Benjamin Robert Merrick is a British civil servant who was Director of Overseas Territories at the Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Office from August 2017 until July 2021.
