Publication scheme

The publication scheme specifies the categories of information that the department and its agencies publish and explains how to get that information.

This information page was withdrawn on

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) was replaced by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in September 2020. This FCO page is no longer current. Instead, see the FCDO publication scheme.


The Freedom of Information Act requires us to tell members of the public how they can find information that is routinely made available. More information about this requirement can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website. We have formally adopted the model publication scheme.

We publish the majority of our information on this website, and specific documents can be found using the publication search.

If the information you want is not routinely published, you can make a request for it under the Freedom of Information Act. Where the information is published elsewhere you will find the required link in the list below.

Classes of information

Who we are and what we do

Most of this information can be found on our department page and includes:

What we spend and how we spend it

This can be found using a search of all our transparency data, and includes:

What our priorities are and how we are doing

This includes:

How we make decisions

This includes:

Our policies and procedures

This includes:

Lists and registers

This includes:

  • public registers and registers held as public records
  • asset registers and information asset register
  • disclosure logs
  • register of gifts and hospitality provided to ministers and senior personnel
  • any register of interests kept in the department
  • other lists required by law

Most documents supplied by the FCO will have been produced by government officials and will be protected by Crown copyright.

You may re-use the Crown copyright protected material (not including the Royal Arms and other departmental or agency logos) free of charge in any format for non-commercial research, private study or internal circulation within your organisation. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and you must give the title of the source document/publication.

Please see The National Archives website for information on Crown copyright policy.

All the content on this website is under the Open Government Licence, except where otherwise stated.

Information supplied to you continues to be protected by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Therefore information you receive which is not subject to Crown copyright continues to be protected by the copyright of the person, or organisation, from which the information originated. You must ensure that you gain their permission before reproducing any third party (non-Crown copyright) information.