British Embassy Bangkok sale: 426 million pounds spent on our “World Class Diplomacy”

A freedom of information disclosure to a Bangkok resident states that the sale of the British embassy in Wireless Road netted 426 million pounds.  

The money will be spent on the Foreign Office’s “world class diplomacy”. And it has also been revealed that a new embassy and residence will be constructed elsewhere. The British embassy trumpets that there will be no interruption to their service this year. Further requests from a Thaivisa member for clarification of recently published embassy work figures also reveal that 250 expats and residents were among 489 cases of death dealt with by staff in the last year.

But Freedom of Information Act regulations meant that details about murder, manslaughter and suicide victims could not be precisely conveyed. Though accidental death of British nationals was 13 with six dying in road accidents. The request for information was made to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Central Freedom of Information Unit by a Thaivisa reader who asked to remain anonymous. The reader asked for clarification on the breakdown of the number of deaths in the kingdom, what constitutes welfare and what the FCO propose to do with the money from the embassy sale.

The answer to this last question was conveyed in a separate letter and was thus: “The sale of the compound raised £426 million. The funds will be reinvested across the FCO’s Global property portfolio, enabling us to continue to update and modernise our global estate so that it meets our aspiration to provide a world-class platform for diplomacy and the promotion of Global Britain. This includes a new Embassy and Residence, designed for our needs in the 21^st century, on new sites in Bangkok later this year. There will be no interruption to our consular service”. Regarding the 489 deaths death with by the embassy it was stated that the Freedom of Information act precluded giving details of information where there are five or less in a category as this might identify those concerned.

But the following was supplied to our reader: Death from natural causes: 122Death from murder or manslaughter: Less than or equal to five.Death from suicide: Less than or equal to five. Death from accidents: 13Number of expats or British citizens in the figures: 250 – 94 temporary and 156 permanent overseas residents died.Death from road accidents: 6 What actually constitutes welfare (named in the report as 303 cases). Breakdown: Health case, 147, Financial issues 105, Immigration 50, Unknown 1. Though conveyed to a private individual the information above is deemed to be in the public domain.

Thai Visa

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