Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to increase the UK’s soft power capabilities.

Soft power is fundamental to the UK's impact and reputation around the world. It fosters friendships, builds relationships, promotes our values, and drives our own growth and prosperity. But we have not taken a sufficiently strategic approach to our huge soft power assets as a country. This is why we have set up a Soft Power Council to channel British expertise in these areas. Members of the Soft Power Council are establishing working groups to devise ways of deploying our soft power and broadening the reach of key moments in the global calendar. They will also help shape and drive a new Soft Power Strategy for the UK that will deliver on our foreign policy priorities.