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Keeping Britain and British nationals safe from terrorism is a top priority for the
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), and we are fully committed to safeguarding
the UK's national security. We constantly monitor and review our projects, programmes
and diplomatic engagement, as our part of the wider Government efforts on counter-terrorism,
to ensure our resources are having the maximum possible impact in the right places
as the global security environment changes. The FCO Counter Terrorism Programme Fund
(CTPF) is the main fund for terrorism-related assistance to foreign countries used
by the FCO Counter Terrorism Department. This is complemented by other budgets used
for counter-terrorism related activities and the tri-departmental (FCO, Department
for International Development and Ministry of Defence) Conflict Pool, as I set out
in my statement to the House on 24 June 2014, Official Report, columns 9-12WS. CTPF
has been reduced as we redirect FCO resources to where they can have the most impact,
and move some programmes to other Government Departments who are better placed to
carry out that work. It is not the case that important activities have ceased or are
now under-funded. The FCO's work on counter-terrorism goes well beyond CTPF - it is
at the heart of our diplomacy across our overseas network, particularly in areas of
instability. We have, for example, recently: opened an Embassy in Mogadishu to support
our work on stability and security in Somalia; brought together key players on Nigeria
to secure much needed assistance to tackle the threat from Boko Haram; and continued
our work to stop terrorists getting their hands on money to fund their activities,
through leading efforts on disrupting financial flows from sources such as ‘Kidnap
for Ransom'.
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