The future of the UK

 

THE FUTURE OF THE UK

1. We have always worked for the benefit of the four nations which make up the UK. We continue to do this at the same time as reducing our call on taxpayer funding.

2. We have been active across Europe since our foundation and work with the European Union as well as with institutions and people in all of the EU member states to deliver our cultural relations work in Europe and around the world.

3. We are regulated as a charity and cannot take any party-political position as an organisation.

4. Our staff and our partners reflect the diversity of the UK. Their views therefore reflect the broad spectrum of opinion in the UK.

 

For the whole UK

•             Since its foundation in 1934, the British Council has been developing closer cultural relations between all four countries of the United Kingdom and other countries around the world.

•             We distribute management and corporate responsibilities among our different offices in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast and Manchester to make sure that we represent and bring employment and opportunity to the whole of the UK.

•             The great diversity of the UK is reflected in our work which promotes the very best of Scottish, English, Welsh and Northern Irish arts and culture globally.

 

Active across the EU to deliver our cultural relations work

•             The British Council has offices and teaching centres across Europe. We promote the UK’s arts and education and provide access to high quality English language teaching and UK exams to participants across the EU.

•             We deliver major educational programmes under contract with the EU, for example the ERASMUS scheme that supports thousands of UK students to study at universities across Europe.

 

Organisationally apolitical

•             Our charitable purposes require us to be apolitical and operationally independent from Westminster and devolved UK governments.

•             The work we do is for, and on behalf of, the UK and receives core funding from the UK government. We deliver education and other contracts for the European Union, Scottish government and Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies.

•             These activities and the representational element of our work for the UK require us to have working relationships with all four UK governments, parliaments and assemblies, as well as with the European Union and the governments of individual member states within the European Union.

•             As an organisation, the British Council is required to remain clearly apolitical, including on the issues of Scottish independence and the UK’s relationship with the rest of the EU.

•             This means we do not organisationally favour one particular outcome in the debates on Scottish independence or the future of the UK’s relationship with the rest of the EU.

•             Should there be a change in the governance of the UK affecting our role and our work, we will always respond to it positively and constructively. We reflect and represent the diversity of the whole UK and believe in open and frank debate between different cultures and points of view around the world and in the UK

•             Nearly 7,000 people work for the British Council around the world, including many UK and EU citizens.

•             All of the people who work with us will have personal views about governance and civil society, informed by their own experience in different environments around the world.

•             All of our work, but particularly our work in the arts, international development and governance, puts our people in situations around the world where they experience at first hand different ways of seeing identity, culture, nationality, democracy and representation.

•             People around the world are interested in what is happening in the UK and our people’s opinions on these issues.

•             As part of representing the broad spectrum of responsible UK opinion, we encourage our people to share their own views on topics and issues, including their views on the future of the UK. This helps others understand the country we represent and stimulates open and constructive debate.

 

FACTS

The Foreign Office grant in 2011–12 was £180 million. Of this, operating expenditure in the UK, excluding overhead and support costs, is £26 million. We calculate that between seven per cent and 8 per cent of this is spent in Scotland.

We are a charity operating globally, with the majority of our programmes and services delivered outside the UK but with expertise, input and participants from the UK.

Those activities and EU programmes we deliver in the UK have beneficiaries in all four countries of the UK, from St Ives to Stornoway.

The vast majority of programmes connect UK young people, educators, English language and artists and creative professionals and their organisations with international counterparts. As a result, we do not apportion international spend, contract income and earnings against different countries within the UK.

The Scottish government’s planned referendum on Scottish independence is expected to be held in autumn 2014.

The UK Prime Minister has set out proposals for a referendum on the UK’s relationship with the EU following the UK general election, expected in May 2015.