Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment the Government has made of the principal financial pressures facing the British Council; and what the main drivers of those pressures are.

I refer the Hon Member to (a) the answer I provided on 28 October 2025 in response to question 906060, (b) the oral evidence provided to the Foreign Affairs Committee on 9 December 2025 by the Permanent Under-Secretary to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and on 16 December 2025 by the Foreign Secretary, and (c) the Written Ministerial Statement I made on 26 March 2026 (Statement UIN HCWS1470), where these issues were addressed at length.