Speeches by Naish.

“Anna, I will come to you first. Time is ticking, so swift answers, if possible. We talked about the shift in approach. What opportunities do you think are presented by the four essential shifts?”

“Freddie, will the shifts save the FCDO money in the long term? Do you believe that the four essential shifts will actually lead to financial savings, which was obviously described earlier as one of the core motivations? Do you think the Department has the skills in-house to deliver those shifts today?”

“Emma, will the shifts achieve that saving for the FCDO, and is there the capacity in-house to deliver them?”

“More broadly to the panel, what are the opportunities and risks of the four essential shifts?”

“Would you advocate a greater reduction in actual ODA spend if, in return, you managed to hold up the capacity of the FCDO? In the long run, do you think that is the better outcome?”

“Anna, I will come to you first. Time is ticking, so swift answers, if possible. We talked about the shift in approach. What opportunities do you think are presented by the four essential shifts?”

“May I clarify? Relative to the last time you went through something similar in the FCDO, albeit not on this scale, what is the sense of change? Were you speaking to people at different levels in those previous instances, compared with now? What would be the three or four identifiable differences, so we can say, “This i…”

“Is this the Development Minister or the Foreign Secretary overall, because these staff are ultimately all part of the FCDO?”

“That 500 is not part of the 1,885. That 1,885 is on top of the 500.”

“Have you seen any evidence of that already? Obviously, the cuts were announced in February; we were actually on the way to Abercrombie House as they were announced. Have you seen evidence of the workforce starting to leave? Is that part of the strategy?”

“And for how long have you been told it is coming?”

“Could you clarify what the cadence of updates is? Are there weekly meetings? How structured is the approach? It sounds like absolute chaos.”

“Are they telling you that is coming?”

“I will.”

“Financially, that will not be making a big difference anyway.”

“I have a quick question. Do you have any idea of the value of the work? If you are talking about 2,000 jobs, give or take, do you know roughly how much of the FCDO’s budget that would equate to, or have you not calculated that?”

“When you say “they”, where is the drive coming from? Is a consulting firm being brought in to add the speed and pace necessary to achieve this work, or is it being left to staff to deliver—or do you not know the answers to those questions?”

“Emma, will the shifts achieve that saving for the FCDO, and is there the capacity in-house to deliver them?”

“Would you advocate a greater reduction in actual ODA spend if, in return, you managed to hold up the capacity of the FCDO? In the long run, do you think that is the better outcome?”

“Freddie, will the shifts save the FCDO money in the long term? Do you believe that the four essential shifts will actually lead to financial savings, which was obviously described earlier as one of the core motivations? Do you think the Department has the skills in-house to deliver those shifts today?”