The secretary of state for foreign,Commonwealth and development affairs,also known as the foreign secretary,is a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom,with responsibility for the Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Office. The role is seen as one of the most senior ministers in the UK Government and is a Great Office of State. The incumbent is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom and National Security Council,and reports directly to the prime minister.
The Embassy of the United Kingdom in Moscow is the chief diplomatic mission of the United Kingdom in the Russian Federation. It is located in the Arbat District of Moscow,on Smolenskaya Embankment of the river Moskva. The current ambassador is Nigel Casey.
David George Hamilton Frost,Baron Frost is a former British diplomat,civil servant and politician who served as a Minister of State at the Cabinet Office between March and December 2021. Frost was Chief Negotiator of Task Force Europe from January 2020 until his resignation in December 2021.
Nigel Kim Darroch,Baron Darroch of Kew,is a former British diplomat. He served as the British Ambassador to the United States between January 2016 and December 2019,and previously as National Security Adviser and UK Permanent Representative to the European Union.
Mark Philip Sedwill,Baron Sedwill,is a British diplomat and senior civil servant who served as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Home Civil Service to Prime Ministers Theresa May and Boris Johnson from 2018 to 2020. He also served as the United Kingdom National Security Adviser from 2017 to 2020. He was previously the United Kingdom's Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010 and the NATO Senior Civilian Representative in Afghanistan in 2010. He was the Permanent Under-Secretary of State at the Home Office from February 2013 to April 2017.
Sir Julian Beresford King is a British diplomat and civil servant who served as the final British European Commissioner from 2016 to 2019 prior to Brexit,having previously served as the British ambassador to Ireland (2009–2011) and France (2016).
Sir Simon Lawrance Gass is a British civil servant. He chaired the Joint Intelligence Committee from 2019 to 2023 and served as the British Prime Minister's representative on Afghanistan from 2021 to 2022 concurrently. Between 2018 and 2019,he was the Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies. During his diplomatic career,he served as British ambassador to Greece and to Iran. In May 2023,it was announced he was stepping down as Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee and succeeded by Madeleine Alessandri.
Nigel Marcus Baker is a British diplomat,who was formerly Ambassador to Bolivia and Ambassador to the Holy See. He was Head of the Latin America department at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 2016 to 2019,and in August 2020 took up his appointment as British Ambassador to Slovakia.
Sir Timothy Earle Barrow is a British diplomat who served as Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the European Union from 2017 to 2020 and as the British Ambassador to the European Union from 2020 to 2021. He currently serves as National Security Adviser.
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.
David Quarrey is a British diplomat and the British Ambassador to NATO since 2022. He was formerly acting National Security Adviser,having taken over the role while David Frost continued as the United Kingdom's Chief Negotiator to the European Union during the Brexit negotiations. He was the UK's Ambassador to Israel from 2015 to 2019.
Sir Thomas Drew is a British diplomat who was the Director General,Defence and Intelligence,at the Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Office and has previously been British High Commissioner to Pakistan.
Alison Mary Blake,is a British diplomat who is currently serving as Governor of the Falkland Islands and Commissioner of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. She previously served as High Commissioner to Bangladesh and Ambassador to Afghanistan.
Kumar Sabapathy Iyer is a British economist and civil servant. He is currently the Director General for Economics,Science and Technology at the Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). He leads all cross-cutting work on international economic policy including oversight of the UK’s sanctions regime. His most recent roles include Director General in the Prime Minister’s COVID-19 Taskforce and before that Chief Economist and a Board Member at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
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 Political Director of the Foreign,Commonwealth and Development Office since 2023. He previously served as British High Commissioner to Pakistan from 2019 to 2023.
A permanent under-secretary of state,known informally as a permanent secretary,is the most senior civil servant of a ministry in the United Kingdom,charged with running the department on a day-to-day basis. Similar offices,often employing different terms,exist in many other Westminster-style systems and in some other governments. In the United States,the equivalent position is a Deputy Secretary of an executive department,though British permanent secretaries are career civil servants.
