British Council

Lord Bellingham Excerpts

Tuesday 9th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

As I said, the loan must comply with the UK Subsidy Control Act, but the Government have already made some concessions by extending it to 2027. The British Council submitted its turnaround plan in August 2025, and it has been independently reviewed. It is obviously highly commercially sensitive, and therefore I will not give a running commentary. However, as I am sure the noble Baroness will be pleased to hear, we hope that the FCDO will agree to restructuring the loan in the coming weeks.

[Lord Bellingham (Con)]

My Lords, almost exactly one year ago, Russia designated the British Council an “undesirable organisation”, and the British Council was then forced to suspend all its remaining activities in Russia. Can the Minister tell us what the current situation is? Has any of its work there been reactivated? For example, are Russian students now able to access the IELTS, the global English standardised test?

[Lord Lemos (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord for his questions. As he knows, the problems that the British Council has encountered in Russia go back a long time, and we take very seriously the recent problems that he mentioned. It is not a comfortable position for the British Council at all. I do not know the specific answer to the question about IELTS, but I am happy to come back to the noble Lord on that.