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 was itself created in 1968 by the merger of the Foreign Office (FO) and the Commonwealth Office. The department in its various forms is responsible for representing and promoting British interests worldwide.
Sir David Norman Reddaway is a retired British diplomat who was High Commissioner to Canada and Ambassador to Ireland and Turkey.
Sir Sherard Louis Cowper-Coles is a British former diplomat. He was the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2009–2010. After leaving the Foreign Office, he worked briefly for BAE Systems as international business development director. He left BAE Systems in 2013 and is now a senior adviser to the group chairman and the group chief executive of HSBC. He is also president of the Jane Austen Society.
Sir Geoffrey Doyne Adams served as the British Ambassador to Egypt from 2018 to 2021, as a member of the British Diplomatic Service. He was Ambassador to the Netherlands from 2013 to 2017.
Sir Dominic Anthony Gerard Asquith is a British career diplomat and former Ambassador to Iraq, Egypt, and Libya. He was First Secretary at the British Embassy in Washington DC. He was most recently the British High Commissioner to the Republic of India.
Sir Simon James Fraser is a British former diplomat who served as the Permanent Under-Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from August 2010 to July 2015, having served as Permanent Secretary of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from May 2009 to August 2010. Sir Simon is a Trustee of the Patchwork Foundation, founded by Harris Bokhari. Sir Simon is currently Deputy Chairman of Chatham House and serves as Adviser to the Europe Programme. He is also Managing Partner of Flint Global.
Sir Mark Justin Lyall Grant, is a former senior British diplomat who was previously the United Kingdom's National Security Adviser and Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations.
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 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.
Sir Brian James Proetel Fall is a retired British diplomat who was the UK's Special Representative for the South Caucasus 2002–12.
Sir Patrick Robin Fearn KCMG was a British diplomat who was ambassador to Cuba and Spain.
Sir John Jenkins is a British former diplomat who was ambassador to several countries.
Sir Roger John Carrick is a former British diplomat and an author and business adviser.
James Wilfrid Watt CVO is a British former diplomat who was ambassador to Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt.
Sir James Sebastian Lamin Wood,, usually known by his middle name Sebastian, is a British diplomat who was the Ambassador to China from 2010 to 2015, and Ambassador to Germany from 2015 to 2020.
Sir Adam McClure Thomson is a former British diplomat who is director of the European Leadership Network, a pan-European think tank based in London. He served as Permanent Representative to NATO between 2014 and 2016.
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 Thomas Drew is a British diplomat who is currently Director General, Defence and Intelligence, at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and has previously been British High Commissioner to Pakistan.
The International Academy is an institution of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the United Kingdom. It was originally the Diplomatic Academy when it was part of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). The International Academy is located in the main building of the FCDO in King Charles Street, London.
Sir Richard Peter Moore is a British civil servant, currently chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and formerly Director General for Political Affairs, at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and previously the British ambassador to Turkey.
