Speeches by Naish.

“When Nick Dyer was here, he told us that the global response to insecurity in the Sahel had effectively failed. What impact is that having, and what impact will it have over the coming months and years, on the instability in Nigeria?”

“So you think it is primarily a lack of focus and interest.”

“From October 2024 onwards, I did my best to engage fully and properly with the assisted dying debate that took place across England and Wales. I met campaigners on both sides of the debate in my constituency, and did my best to explain my conclusions to constituents at all times. Today I am presenting a petition signed…”

“How confident are you that we can retain the FCDO expertise that is needed to do that, given that overall we are looking to scale back our resources and we are going to need the best of the best to be able to influence these global funds?”

“What is going to be essential to make sure that we see a return on those things is the ability to leverage the multilaterals in a way that suits UK interests.”

“Going back to multilaterals, Baroness Chapman, you said earlier that we are multilateralists. That is a fair position to take but can you explain to us the thinking behind which items were prioritised within the range of multilateral choices that you had and which were not?”

“—and I am not saying there should be, but it must be recognised by the FCDO that there are some inherent risks in the way that this has been sequenced over the last 12 months.”

“The original question, Foreign Secretary, was about the risk register. Just clarify that the FCDO is aware of the risks of the sequencing of all these events. There is no perfect solution—”

“One of the things that the Conservative Government did that I think undermined support among the public was cutting support for development education in schools. Have you thought about this, and is there any scope to work with the DfE to try to restart some of that work? It might not show up immediately in the polls, I…”

“You have made your decisions, though. A lot of the big decisions have been made already.”

“The overseas network review is still not finished, is it?”

“This is to reinforce some of the points that David Mundell is making. As Government, as an example in this country, we have said to local councils that we are moving them to multi-year settlements to give them a level of certainty. I accept at the total level the Global Fund does have that certainty but having only £19…”

“There is an inherent risk here. These cuts have been known about since February last year. I believe we were flying up to Scotland to see the FCDO on the day that they were announced. We are 12 months into that process. You are saying that 12 months on, staff right now are going through the process of telling you what …”

“You must recognise, Mr Dyer, that there is a risk in doing that now after you have already made these big choices. You started losing and haemorrhaging staff on the basis of cuts before you knew what your skillset was.”

“We know now pretty much where the UK cuts are going to be. Given your knowledge of what other partners are doing globally, do you see any gaps in the international picture where you are starting to have greater concerns about than others, where other partners maybe are not playing as deep a role as you were expecting?”

“We did a lot of work as a Committee around the changes in the staffing, as Baroness Chapman knows. We were particularly concerned about the lack of a meaningful skills audit up front and the potential lack of clarity around a strategic workforce plan. Are they on that risk register for when the key decisions were taken…”

“Skills capability is absolutely key for us to be able to make the shift for FCDO 2030 restructuring to happen. Has either of you seen the risk register around the FCDO 2030 programme, and what are your key concerns about the risks that the programme entails given the scale of it?”

“Will there be the same four shifts or do you see there being a different set of changes needed within that multilateral space?”

“We will be leading on that?”

“We talk about four essential shifts. From what you are describing there, are you suggesting that those essential shifts also need to happen within the multilaterals?”