Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102954173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
The British Council has been flexible in moving its attention and resources to match new UK priorities, particularly in the Islamic World and the Far East. It continues to implement numerous and extensive internal changes aimed at increasing its effectiveness and efficiency, though delivery of projects and change has been uneven across its global network. The Council's approach to measuring its performance is well developed. Its scorecard shows positive results across most aspects of activity, including audience sizes, customer satisfaction scores, and the perceptions of stakeholders and partners.The Council increasingly depends on contributions from external partners and commercial sponsors, to expand its activities and impacts. This will mean reversing the downward trend in sponsorship and other contributions of the last six years. The Council has recognised the importance of good customer service, but it is not yet meeting the standards it sets for itself across the whole network. It also needs to implement a customer database to enable it to track customer contacts and better understand its audiences.The British Council's £181 million English language teaching and examinations business has a strong reputation and more than covers its costs. The teaching operation also supports UK public diplomacy, notably by helping overseas governments expand the teaching of English in their schools and colleges.But the teaching business has a high cost base, charges premium prices, and has limited reach outside overseas capital cities. Although there has been an increase in the numbers of students taught, the network of teaching centres has contracted in recent years. To continue to grow the business, the Council will need to put into action its ideas about alternative lower-cost ways to deliver good quality teaching.
The British Council
Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102954173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
The British Council has been flexible in moving its attention and resources to match new UK priorities, particularly in the Islamic World and the Far East. It continues to implement numerous and extensive internal changes aimed at increasing its effectiveness and efficiency, though delivery of projects and change has been uneven across its global network. The Council's approach to measuring its performance is well developed. Its scorecard shows positive results across most aspects of activity, including audience sizes, customer satisfaction scores, and the perceptions of stakeholders and partners.The Council increasingly depends on contributions from external partners and commercial sponsors, to expand its activities and impacts. This will mean reversing the downward trend in sponsorship and other contributions of the last six years. The Council has recognised the importance of good customer service, but it is not yet meeting the standards it sets for itself across the whole network. It also needs to implement a customer database to enable it to track customer contacts and better understand its audiences.The British Council's £181 million English language teaching and examinations business has a strong reputation and more than covers its costs. The teaching operation also supports UK public diplomacy, notably by helping overseas governments expand the teaching of English in their schools and colleges.But the teaching business has a high cost base, charges premium prices, and has limited reach outside overseas capital cities. Although there has been an increase in the numbers of students taught, the network of teaching centres has contracted in recent years. To continue to grow the business, the Council will need to put into action its ideas about alternative lower-cost ways to deliver good quality teaching.
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102954173
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
The British Council has been flexible in moving its attention and resources to match new UK priorities, particularly in the Islamic World and the Far East. It continues to implement numerous and extensive internal changes aimed at increasing its effectiveness and efficiency, though delivery of projects and change has been uneven across its global network. The Council's approach to measuring its performance is well developed. Its scorecard shows positive results across most aspects of activity, including audience sizes, customer satisfaction scores, and the perceptions of stakeholders and partners.The Council increasingly depends on contributions from external partners and commercial sponsors, to expand its activities and impacts. This will mean reversing the downward trend in sponsorship and other contributions of the last six years. The Council has recognised the importance of good customer service, but it is not yet meeting the standards it sets for itself across the whole network. It also needs to implement a customer database to enable it to track customer contacts and better understand its audiences.The British Council's £181 million English language teaching and examinations business has a strong reputation and more than covers its costs. The teaching operation also supports UK public diplomacy, notably by helping overseas governments expand the teaching of English in their schools and colleges.But the teaching business has a high cost base, charges premium prices, and has limited reach outside overseas capital cities. Although there has been an increase in the numbers of students taught, the network of teaching centres has contracted in recent years. To continue to grow the business, the Council will need to put into action its ideas about alternative lower-cost ways to deliver good quality teaching.
British Council
Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Public Accounts Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215525468
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
This report (HC 814, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215525468) looks at the work of the British Council and what impact the Council has working with whole societies, how it makes best use of resources and their efforts to increase consistency across the British Council network. It follows an NAO report (HCP 625, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102954173), on the same topic. The British Council is a Registered Charity and an executive Non-Departmental Public Body as well as a Public Corporation. It aims to build relationships between people in the UK and other countries, through teaching English and running cultural projects. It operates in over 110 countries and engages with over 15 million people a year worldwide. The Committee has set out a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: that the British Council should be congratulated for its achievements in promoting the English language and culture overseas; the Committee believes though that the current teaching model, based on premium prices and concentrated mainly in capital cities, severely restricts its reach; that the Council's recent programme of change has had a negative effect on staff and their view of the Council's leadership; the Council is without a single customer relationship management system, which it is now going to address; that sponsorship and partner income has fallen year on year since 2000-01, and the Council should do more to reverse this trend; the Committee has identified a lack of consistency across the network.
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215525468
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 44
Book Description
This report (HC 814, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780215525468) looks at the work of the British Council and what impact the Council has working with whole societies, how it makes best use of resources and their efforts to increase consistency across the British Council network. It follows an NAO report (HCP 625, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102954173), on the same topic. The British Council is a Registered Charity and an executive Non-Departmental Public Body as well as a Public Corporation. It aims to build relationships between people in the UK and other countries, through teaching English and running cultural projects. It operates in over 110 countries and engages with over 15 million people a year worldwide. The Committee has set out a number of conclusions and recommendations, including: that the British Council should be congratulated for its achievements in promoting the English language and culture overseas; the Committee believes though that the current teaching model, based on premium prices and concentrated mainly in capital cities, severely restricts its reach; that the Council's recent programme of change has had a negative effect on staff and their view of the Council's leadership; the Council is without a single customer relationship management system, which it is now going to address; that sponsorship and partner income has fallen year on year since 2000-01, and the Council should do more to reverse this trend; the Committee has identified a lack of consistency across the network.
The work of the British Council 2008-09
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215543813
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 52
Book Description
The British Council is the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Its purpose is to "build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide." As well as education, it runs programmes in the arts, science, sport, governance and English language in 110 countries and territories worldwide. 2009 marked the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Council. It receives Grant-in-Aid from the FCO for its public diplomacy activity: £209 million 2008-09, a 6% increase from 2007-08. The Committee concludes that the change in extent of data provided and the presentation of that data in the British Council's 2008-09 annual report makes it more difficult to track and evaluate the Council's performance over a period of years. In future the annual report should include fuller performance data, including corporate performance scores and reach, to facilitate year-on-year analysis. The recent decline in some of the scores achieved in relation to quality of service, particularly in that relating to engagement with decision makers and senior influencers, gives cause for concern. The Committee welcomes the Council's efforts to re-establish itself in Iran and Zimbabwe, its increased focus on China, and its progress in implementing NAO suggested administrative reforms (HC 625, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102954173). 2009-10 will be a difficult year for the British Council and further cuts in staff and services may be unavoidable. In these circumstances it is important that the Council concentrates its activities on its core business and key objectives.
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215543813
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 52
Book Description
The British Council is the UK's international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Its purpose is to "build engagement and trust for the UK through the exchange of knowledge and ideas between people worldwide." As well as education, it runs programmes in the arts, science, sport, governance and English language in 110 countries and territories worldwide. 2009 marked the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Council. It receives Grant-in-Aid from the FCO for its public diplomacy activity: £209 million 2008-09, a 6% increase from 2007-08. The Committee concludes that the change in extent of data provided and the presentation of that data in the British Council's 2008-09 annual report makes it more difficult to track and evaluate the Council's performance over a period of years. In future the annual report should include fuller performance data, including corporate performance scores and reach, to facilitate year-on-year analysis. The recent decline in some of the scores achieved in relation to quality of service, particularly in that relating to engagement with decision makers and senior influencers, gives cause for concern. The Committee welcomes the Council's efforts to re-establish itself in Iran and Zimbabwe, its increased focus on China, and its progress in implementing NAO suggested administrative reforms (HC 625, session 2007-08, ISBN 9780102954173). 2009-10 will be a difficult year for the British Council and further cuts in staff and services may be unavoidable. In these circumstances it is important that the Council concentrates its activities on its core business and key objectives.
The British Council and Anglo-Greek Literary Interactions, 1945-1955
Author: Peter Mackridge
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317039904
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, and with British political influence over Greece soon to be ceded to the United States, there was a considerable degree of cultural interaction between Greek and British literati. Sponsored or assisted by the British Council, this interaction was notable for its diversity and quality alike. Indeed, the British Council in Greece made a more significant contribution to local culture in that period than at any other time, and perhaps in any other country. Many of the participants – among them Patrick Leigh Fermor, Steven Runciman, and Louis MacNeice – are well known, while others deserve to be better known than they are today. But what has been less fully discussed, and what the volume sets out to do, is to explore the two-way relations between Greek and British literary production in which the British Council played a particularly important role until the outbreak of armed conflict in Cyprus in 1955, which rendered further contacts of this kind difficult. Close attention is paid to the variety of ways – marked by personal affinities and allegiances, but also by political tensions – in which the British Council functioned as an agent of interaction in a climate where a complex blend of traditional Anglophilia or Philhellenism found itself encountering a new post-war and Cold War environment. What is distinctive about the volume, beyond the inclusion of much recent archival research, is its attention to the British Council as part of the story of Greek letters, and not just as a place in which various British men and women of letters worked. The British Council found itself, sometimes more through improvisation and personal affinities than through careful planning, at the heart of some key developments, notably in terms of important periodical publications which had a lasting influence on Greek letters. Though in the cultural forum that influence was arguably to be less pervasive than that of France, with its more ambitious cultural outreach, or than that of the USA in later decades, the role of the British Council in Greece in this crucial period of Greek (and indeed European) post-war history continues to make a rich case study in cultural politics. This volume thus fills a gap in the rich bibliography on Anglo-Greek relations and contributes to a wider scholarly and public discussion about cultural politics.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317039904
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 245
Book Description
In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, and with British political influence over Greece soon to be ceded to the United States, there was a considerable degree of cultural interaction between Greek and British literati. Sponsored or assisted by the British Council, this interaction was notable for its diversity and quality alike. Indeed, the British Council in Greece made a more significant contribution to local culture in that period than at any other time, and perhaps in any other country. Many of the participants – among them Patrick Leigh Fermor, Steven Runciman, and Louis MacNeice – are well known, while others deserve to be better known than they are today. But what has been less fully discussed, and what the volume sets out to do, is to explore the two-way relations between Greek and British literary production in which the British Council played a particularly important role until the outbreak of armed conflict in Cyprus in 1955, which rendered further contacts of this kind difficult. Close attention is paid to the variety of ways – marked by personal affinities and allegiances, but also by political tensions – in which the British Council functioned as an agent of interaction in a climate where a complex blend of traditional Anglophilia or Philhellenism found itself encountering a new post-war and Cold War environment. What is distinctive about the volume, beyond the inclusion of much recent archival research, is its attention to the British Council as part of the story of Greek letters, and not just as a place in which various British men and women of letters worked. The British Council found itself, sometimes more through improvisation and personal affinities than through careful planning, at the heart of some key developments, notably in terms of important periodical publications which had a lasting influence on Greek letters. Though in the cultural forum that influence was arguably to be less pervasive than that of France, with its more ambitious cultural outreach, or than that of the USA in later decades, the role of the British Council in Greece in this crucial period of Greek (and indeed European) post-war history continues to make a rich case study in cultural politics. This volume thus fills a gap in the rich bibliography on Anglo-Greek relations and contributes to a wider scholarly and public discussion about cultural politics.
Assessing English on the Global Stage
Author: Cyril J. Weir
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781794920
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This book tells the story of the British Council's seventy-five year involvement in the field of English language testing. The first section of the book explores the role of the British Council in spreading British influence around the world through the export of British English language examinations and British expertise in language testing. Founded in 1934, the organisation formally entered the world of English language testing with the signing of an agreement with the University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate (UCLES) in 1941. This agreement, which was to last until 1993, saw the British Council provide substantial English as a Foreign Language (EFL) expertise and technical and financial assistance to help UCLES develop their suite of English language tests. Perhaps the high points of this phase were the British Council inspired Cambridge Diploma of English Studies introduced in the 1940s and the central role played by the British Council in the conceptualisation and development of the highly innovative English Language Testing Service (ELTS) in the 1970s, the precursor to the present day International English Language Testing System (IELTS). British Council support for the development of indigenous national English language tests around the world over the last thirty years further enhanced the promotion of English and the creation of soft power for Britain. In the early 1990s the focus of the British Council changed from test development to delivery of British examinations through its global network. However, by the early years of the 21st century, the organisation was actively considering a return to test development, a strategy that was realised with the founding of the Assessment Research Group in early 2012. This was followed later that year by the introduction of the Aptis English language testing service; the first major test developed in-house for over thirty years. As well as setting the stage for the re-emergence of professional expertise in language testing within the organisation, these initiatives have resulted in a growing strategic influence for the organisation on assessment in English language education. This influence derives from a commitment to test localisation, the development and provision of flexible, accessible and affordable tests and an efficient delivery, marking and reporting system underpinned by an innovative socio-cognitive approach to language testing. This final period can be seen as a clear return by the British Council to using language testing as a tool for enhancing soft power for Britain: a return to the original raison d'etre of the organisation.
Publisher: Equinox Publishing (UK)
ISBN: 9781781794920
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
This book tells the story of the British Council's seventy-five year involvement in the field of English language testing. The first section of the book explores the role of the British Council in spreading British influence around the world through the export of British English language examinations and British expertise in language testing. Founded in 1934, the organisation formally entered the world of English language testing with the signing of an agreement with the University of Cambridge Local Examination Syndicate (UCLES) in 1941. This agreement, which was to last until 1993, saw the British Council provide substantial English as a Foreign Language (EFL) expertise and technical and financial assistance to help UCLES develop their suite of English language tests. Perhaps the high points of this phase were the British Council inspired Cambridge Diploma of English Studies introduced in the 1940s and the central role played by the British Council in the conceptualisation and development of the highly innovative English Language Testing Service (ELTS) in the 1970s, the precursor to the present day International English Language Testing System (IELTS). British Council support for the development of indigenous national English language tests around the world over the last thirty years further enhanced the promotion of English and the creation of soft power for Britain. In the early 1990s the focus of the British Council changed from test development to delivery of British examinations through its global network. However, by the early years of the 21st century, the organisation was actively considering a return to test development, a strategy that was realised with the founding of the Assessment Research Group in early 2012. This was followed later that year by the introduction of the Aptis English language testing service; the first major test developed in-house for over thirty years. As well as setting the stage for the re-emergence of professional expertise in language testing within the organisation, these initiatives have resulted in a growing strategic influence for the organisation on assessment in English language education. This influence derives from a commitment to test localisation, the development and provision of flexible, accessible and affordable tests and an efficient delivery, marking and reporting system underpinned by an innovative socio-cognitive approach to language testing. This final period can be seen as a clear return by the British Council to using language testing as a tool for enhancing soft power for Britain: a return to the original raison d'etre of the organisation.
The Guide to English Language Teaching Yearbook 2005
Author: S. M. H. Collin
Publisher: Modern English Publishing
ISBN: 190454908X
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
The Guide to English Language Teaching 2005 is an essential reference guide for anyone involved in English language teaching or for anyone considering starting as an English language teacher. It provides the latest information on qualifications, courses and course-providers in over 100 countries, together with paths for career development from initial certificate through to Masters and PhDs. If you are planning a career as an English language teacher, this book is for you Fully updated for 2005, this is a comprehensive, in-depth guide to the international English language teaching industry. This guide provides details of the qualifications you will need to work, how and where to train andhow to find a job (with a directory of websites). Once you have qualified, you can work almost anywhere in the world - and this guide includes profiles of over 100 countries, with descriptions of their job prospects, salary, cost-of-living, working conditions, legal, tax and visa requirements, and safety.
Publisher: Modern English Publishing
ISBN: 190454908X
Category : English language
Languages : en
Pages : 335
Book Description
The Guide to English Language Teaching 2005 is an essential reference guide for anyone involved in English language teaching or for anyone considering starting as an English language teacher. It provides the latest information on qualifications, courses and course-providers in over 100 countries, together with paths for career development from initial certificate through to Masters and PhDs. If you are planning a career as an English language teacher, this book is for you Fully updated for 2005, this is a comprehensive, in-depth guide to the international English language teaching industry. This guide provides details of the qualifications you will need to work, how and where to train andhow to find a job (with a directory of websites). Once you have qualified, you can work almost anywhere in the world - and this guide includes profiles of over 100 countries, with descriptions of their job prospects, salary, cost-of-living, working conditions, legal, tax and visa requirements, and safety.
The British Council
Author: Lady Frances Lonsdale Donaldson
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Book Description
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 460
Book Description
Proceedings of IAC 2019 in Vienna
Author: Group of Authors
Publisher: Czech Institute of Academic Education
ISBN: 8088203112
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
Scientific articles form: International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and E-learning International Academic Conference on Management, Economics and Marketing International Academic Conference on Engineering, Transport, IT and AI
Publisher: Czech Institute of Academic Education
ISBN: 8088203112
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 251
Book Description
Scientific articles form: International Academic Conference on Teaching, Learning and E-learning International Academic Conference on Management, Economics and Marketing International Academic Conference on Engineering, Transport, IT and AI
The British Council and Anglo-Greek Literary Interactions, 1945-1955
Author: Taylor & Francis Group
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780367591199
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
The British Council and Anglo-Giwk Literary Interactions, 1945-1955, In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, and with British political influence over Greece soon to be ceded to the United States, there was a considerable degree of cultural interaction between Greek and British literati. Sponsored or assisted by the British Council, this interaction was notable for its diversity and quality alike. Indeed, the British Council in Greece made a more significant contribution to local culture in that period than at any other time, and perhaps in any other country. Many of the participants - among them Patrick Leigh Fermor, Steven Runciman, and Louis MacNeice - are well known, while others deserve to be better know n than they are today. But what has been less fully discussed, and what the volume sets out to do, is to explore the two-way relations between Greek and British literary production in which the British Council played a particularly important role until the outbreak of armed conflict in Cyprus in 1955, which rendered further contacts of this kind difficult. Close attention is paid to the variety of ways - marked by personal affinities and allegiances, but also by political tensions - in which the British Council functional an agent of interaction in a climate where a complex blend of traditional Anglophilia or Philhellenism found itself encountering a new post-war and Cold War environment. What is distinctive about the volume, beyond the inclusion of much recent archival research, is its attention to the British Council as part of the story of Greek letters, and not just as a place in which various British men and women of letter worked. The British Council found itself, sometimes more through improvisation and personal affinities than through careful planning, at the heart of some key developments, notably in terms of important periodical publications which had a lasting influence on Greek letters. Though in the cultural forum that influence was arguably to be less pervasive than that of France, with its more ambitious cultural outreach, or than that of the USA in later decades, the role of the British Council in Greece in this crucial period of Greek (and indeed European) post-war history continues to make a rich case study in cultural politics. This volume thus fills a gap in the bibliography on Anglo-Greek relations and contributes to a wider scholarly and public discussion about cultural politics. Book jacket.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9780367591199
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 262
Book Description
The British Council and Anglo-Giwk Literary Interactions, 1945-1955, In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, and with British political influence over Greece soon to be ceded to the United States, there was a considerable degree of cultural interaction between Greek and British literati. Sponsored or assisted by the British Council, this interaction was notable for its diversity and quality alike. Indeed, the British Council in Greece made a more significant contribution to local culture in that period than at any other time, and perhaps in any other country. Many of the participants - among them Patrick Leigh Fermor, Steven Runciman, and Louis MacNeice - are well known, while others deserve to be better know n than they are today. But what has been less fully discussed, and what the volume sets out to do, is to explore the two-way relations between Greek and British literary production in which the British Council played a particularly important role until the outbreak of armed conflict in Cyprus in 1955, which rendered further contacts of this kind difficult. Close attention is paid to the variety of ways - marked by personal affinities and allegiances, but also by political tensions - in which the British Council functional an agent of interaction in a climate where a complex blend of traditional Anglophilia or Philhellenism found itself encountering a new post-war and Cold War environment. What is distinctive about the volume, beyond the inclusion of much recent archival research, is its attention to the British Council as part of the story of Greek letters, and not just as a place in which various British men and women of letter worked. The British Council found itself, sometimes more through improvisation and personal affinities than through careful planning, at the heart of some key developments, notably in terms of important periodical publications which had a lasting influence on Greek letters. Though in the cultural forum that influence was arguably to be less pervasive than that of France, with its more ambitious cultural outreach, or than that of the USA in later decades, the role of the British Council in Greece in this crucial period of Greek (and indeed European) post-war history continues to make a rich case study in cultural politics. This volume thus fills a gap in the bibliography on Anglo-Greek relations and contributes to a wider scholarly and public discussion about cultural politics. Book jacket.
Public Diplomacy
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Foreign Affairs Committee
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215028327
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
The term 'public diplomacy' relates to activities designed to promote the image and interests of the UK overseas in support of the Government's objectives. The BBC World Service and the British Council are the main government-funded bodies involved in public diplomacy activity, and in 2004-05, they received £225 million and £172 million of grant-in-aid respectively. The Committee's report examines the work of these two organisations, in light of the recommendations of the review by Lord Carter of Cole (more details available at http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPageandc=Pageandcid=1007029395249) on the effectiveness of the Government's public diplomacy work, published in December 2005. The report makes 31 conclusions and recommendations, including the need for the Foreign Office to support an increase in the grant-in-aid funding for the BBC World Service so that it can introduce other television services such as the Arabic television news service; and that although it is appropriate for a Foreign Office minister to chair the new Public Diplomacy Strategy and Performance Management Board to ensure parliamentary accountability, this must not be allowed to compromise the editorial independence of the BBC World Service or the operational independence of the British Council.
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215028327
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 160
Book Description
The term 'public diplomacy' relates to activities designed to promote the image and interests of the UK overseas in support of the Government's objectives. The BBC World Service and the British Council are the main government-funded bodies involved in public diplomacy activity, and in 2004-05, they received £225 million and £172 million of grant-in-aid respectively. The Committee's report examines the work of these two organisations, in light of the recommendations of the review by Lord Carter of Cole (more details available at http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPageandc=Pageandcid=1007029395249) on the effectiveness of the Government's public diplomacy work, published in December 2005. The report makes 31 conclusions and recommendations, including the need for the Foreign Office to support an increase in the grant-in-aid funding for the BBC World Service so that it can introduce other television services such as the Arabic television news service; and that although it is appropriate for a Foreign Office minister to chair the new Public Diplomacy Strategy and Performance Management Board to ensure parliamentary accountability, this must not be allowed to compromise the editorial independence of the BBC World Service or the operational independence of the British Council.