Keywords

ALB, Arm’s Length Bodies, Public Bodies, Quangos, Public Servants, Civil Servants

British Council (BritCounc)

[British Council is a Executive NDPB sponsored by Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. The British Council is the UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. It supports peace and prosperity by building connections, understanding and trust between people in the UK and countries worldwide. The British Council does this through its work in arts and culture, education and the English language.

The British Council also has a unique mixed classification and funding model: as well as being a Charity incorporated by Royal Charter, it is classified as a Public Corporation (as designated by the ONS due to the proportion of income commercially generated) and an executive NDPB of the FCDO (as designated by the Cabinet Office). This model means that British Council funding is approximately 14% from UK Government grant-in-aid and 86% is from contracts and commercial income generated itself.

As part of the British Council transformation, it is in the process of delivering a major overhaul of its corporate functions including elements of outsourcing, internal restructuring and other cost savings. This includes outsourcing significant amounts of transactional work across the organisation to its new Shared Services partner Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The transformation will reduce spend on our corporate functions (Finance, HR, Procurement and Digital and Technology). This has an impact on some of the responses provided below for the year 2023-24, including higher spending on consultants than in a typical year.]{style=“margin:0px;”}

Regional Remit

BritCounc operates in the UK and overseas. Their headquarters are located in London.


Cabinet Office | ALB Landscape Analysis 2023-24

Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025

2023/24 Chair's Name

Paul Thompson

Established

1934

Ombudsman

Parliamentary & Health Service Ombudsman

Cabinet Office | ALB Landscape Analysis 2023-24

Finances

This figure provides an overview of British Council’s income and expenditure during the 2023/24 financial year.

Some ALBs, such as those with Trading Fund status, do not classify their spending data by RDEL, CDEL, and AME and will report £0 for these values.
For more information regarding RDEL, CDEL and AME, please see our analysis of ALB Spending.

Cabinet Office | ALB Landscape Analysis 2023-24


Staffing

The figure below shows the types of staff employed by British Council on 31 March 2024.


Cabinet Office | ALB Landscape Analysis 2023-24

Arms Length Bodies

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