Our overview of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) examines its spending and performance. It brings together insights from our reports and other publicly available sources including the FCDO’s annual report and accounts.
Jump to downloadsKey takeaways
Financial management and reporting
Total spending in 2025-26: In 2025-26, FCDO spent a total of £11.6 billion against a budget of £12.3 billion, a decrease of £0.9 billion total spending compared with the previous year.
Official Development Assistance (ODA) spending across departments: FCDO is the largest spender of ODA, the UK’s overseas aid budget. It spent £9.1 billion of the UK’s £13.1 billion ODA in 2025, 69% of the total UK ODA spending.
The British Council’s financial sustainability: The British Council continues to face financial challenges following the COVID-19 pandemic, and FCDO has been providing loan support for six years. The current value of the outstanding fixed-term loan is £197 million.
Productivity
Efficiency targets: As part of the 2025 Spending Review, FCDO committed to delivering £85 million of net efficiency savings per year from 2028-29 onwards, equivalent to 4.3% of FCDO’s 2025‑26 day‑to‑day spending.
Headcount reduction: FCDO has reported that by 2029 it will need to make a 15% to 25% reduction in its overall headcount due to reduced budgets.
Risk and resilience
Limited assurance opinion: FCDO’s internal audit has provided a limited assurance opinion for three years in a row over its governance, risk management and control framework.
Reduced ODA budget: In February 2025, the government announced UK ODA spending would reduce from 0.5% of Gross National Income (GNI) to 0.3% by 2027. In 2025, UK ODA spending was 0.44% of GNI, a larger reduction for 2025 than FCDO had previously indicated.
FCDO ODA programme spending: FCDO plans to spend £6.2 billion on ODA programmes in 2028-29, down from £8.7 billion in 2025-26.
International Climate Finance: The government has published its new International Climate Finance strategy, committing to spend around £6 billion of ODA between 2026-27 and 2028-29. This is alongside £6.7 billion of additional public finance to tackle climate change and nature loss.