53rd Report - Cost of maintaining the FCDO’s overseas estate

Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee HC 884 12 November 2025
Report Status Government responded
Conclusions & Recommendations 26 items (9 recs)
Source View on Parliament website
Government Response (AI assessment · 26 of 26 classified)
Accepted 16
Acknowledged 5
Deferred 3
Not Addressed 2
Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Fifth-third report from Session 2024-26 · published 19 Jan 2026
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Recommendations & Conclusions

2 results
10 Conclusion Not Addressed
Poor condition of FCDO's overseas estate presents a severe risk and significant maintenance backlog.
Conclusion
FCDO told us that it is not happy with the current condition of its overseas estate and that this presents a severe risk to the organisation.21 Of FCDO’s 6,500 overseas buildings, 933 (around 15%) do not meet its internal target … Read more
Government Response Summary
Acknowledges the committee's conclusion that much of FCDO's overseas estate is in poor condition and has a large maintenance backlog.
HM Treasury
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18 Conclusion Not Addressed
FCDO's maintenance backlog was severely underestimated, necessitating external professionals for accurate assessment.
Conclusion
In November 2023, FCDO recognised that its £150 million estimate of its overseas estate maintenance backlog was likely to be an underestimate and commissioned professional surveyors to conduct a one-off exercise to identify the true backlog.47 FCDO ran a programme … Read more
Government Response Summary
Acknowledges the committee's conclusion that FCDO's overseas estate is in poor condition and has a large maintenance backlog.
HM Treasury
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