Spain receives the largest number of UK visitors anywhere in the world, by a long shot: around 15m last year. We have around 300,000 British nationals registered as living here permanently. And we work closely with Spain on a whole host of important bilateral and global issues. We are a great example of dynamic diplomacy delivering for the whole of HMG.
And it genuinely is a cross-government effort. The Foreign Office, UK Trade & Investment, UK Visas & Immigration, HM Revenue & Customs, Visit Britain, the Department of Health, and the Department for Work and Pensions are among those represented by the 250 people working in Madrid and throughout Spain in our network of consulates. Only a handful are, like me, career diplomats on overseas postings. Ninety percent of our workforce is made up of people who live permanently in Spain. They bring fantastic knowledge of the country and great continuity of expertise. That complements the perspectives of those of us who are passing through on a four-year posting.
I’m the deputy head of mission, or deputy ambassador, so it’s my job to have an overview of everything we do and to ensure we are using effectively all the resources available to us. And, like our team, what we do in Spain is broad and diverse.
Looking after Brits who come here on holiday or who live here permanently is a top priority for us. The vast majority of holiday-makers don’t need our help. But we are here to assist those who do. That might be replacing a lost passport; supporting a Brit who has become a victim of crime; or helping those involved in accidents – and sadly we have many very tragic cases. Our consulates in Spain handle more than 20% of all FCO consular assistance cases worldwide.
Prevention is always better than cure. So we are working hard – through traditional and social media in Spain and the UK – to give people advice to help them avoid problems in the first place and to take sensible precautions in case things do go wrong (top of the list: travel insurance!).
The permanent British community tend to be more independent. But in recent years we have been helping them lobby the Spanish authorities on behalf of more than 9,000 who have discovered they are living in houses which were built illegally, or have some kind of legal problem. Some are even under threat of demolition.
Some Brits come to Spain to evade justice in the UK, and we enjoy fantastic collaboration with the Spanish authorities in tracking them down. Joint campaigns over the last six years have led to the detention of some 68 of the 86 most wanted Brits.
Spain is an important international partner for the UK. My political team and I work to ensure close collaboration with Spain in the EU, Nato and the UN. Many of our interests coincide. Of course, we have different views on Gibraltar. The British position is clear: Gibraltar and the waters around it are British. We have an important responsibility to ensure the Spanish authorities understand that.
Over 700 British companies are investing in Spain, and 400 Spanish companies are registered in the UK. It’s our job in the embassy to help sustain and expand those bilateral commercial links, supporting British economic growth.
Any good embassy is always working hard to understand what is going on around it, where the British interest lies and how to influence events in support of that interest. Getting out and about, meeting people and building networks have long been among the core skills of any diplomat. The same skills apply in today’s world of social media. That’s where so many of the people we want to reach are talking to each other, about the issues we want to influence. We have to be part of that conversation too. That’s why the Embassy has ten (yes ten!) social media channels. You can follow me on Twitter at @DanielPruce.
I’m very lucky to be working in Spain. What we do is at the cutting edge of modern, whole of government diplomacy, serving the full range of UK interests.
This article was originally published in Civil Service World.