British Overseas Territories - Relations With The United Kingdom

Relations With The United Kingdom

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has the responsibility of looking after the interests of all overseas territories except the Sovereign Base Areas territory, which comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence. Within the FCO, the general responsibility for the territories is handled by the Overseas Territories Directorate, which is headed by the Minister for the Overseas Territories. As of September 2011 the Minister is Henry Bellingham, a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.

In 1999, the FCO published the Partnership for Progress and Prosperity: Britain and the Overseas Territories report which set out Britain's policy for the Overseas Territories, covering four main areas:

• Self-determination
• Responsibilities of Britain and the territories
• Democratic autonomy
• Provision for help and assistance

Britain and the overseas territories do not have diplomatic representations, although the governments of the overseas territories with indigenous populations all retain a representative office in London. The United Kingdom Overseas Territories Association (UKOTA) also represents the interests of the territories in London. The governments in both London and territories occasionally meet to mitigate or resolve disagreements over the process of governance in the territories and levels of autonomy.

Britain provides financial assistance to the overseas territories via the Department for International Development. Currently only Montserrat and Saint Helena receive budgetary aid (i.e. financial contribution to recurrent funding). Several specialist funds are made available by the UK, including:

• The Good Government Fund which provides assistance on government administration;
• The Economic Diversification Programme Budget which aim to diversify and enhance the economic bases of the territories.

The territories have no official representation in the UK Parliament, but have informal representation through the All-Party Parliamentary Group, and can petition the UK Government through the Directgov e-Petitions website.