§ Mr. Ben ChapmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the differences in the activities of a British Council office and a Foreign and Commonwealth Office mission abroad. [112005]
§ Mr. HainThe British Council is the United Kingdom's principal agency for cultural relations abroad. Its overseas offices engage in a range of people-to-people activities in pursuit of the FCO' s cultural policy objectives. Foreign and Commonwealth Office missions overseas engage primarily in government-to-government relations across the range of the Department's objectives. The activities of British Council offices and our diplomatic missions are carefully co-ordinated to ensure complementarity and avoid duplication or overlap.