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Mr. Mark Sedwill - New Ambassador to Afghanistan
Mr Mark Sedwill CMG has been appointed Her Majesty's Ambassador to The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in succession to Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles KCMG, LVO, who has been appointed as the Foreign Secretary's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Mr Sedwill will take up his appointment during April 2009
Mark took over the Directorship of UKvisas (now Visa Services within UKBA) in 2005. His first visible act there was to replace the god-awful Diplomatic Service Protocols (DSP's) with the comprehensive, understandable policy guidance that we have today.
He replaced the bizarrely arranged application forms with the on-line forms that we have today. A quantum improvement. This forum even sent a letter thanking him for this improvement.
Important to me, he cleaned up *ENORMOUS* amounts of sleaze and corruption within UKvisas and is largely accountable for a restored public trust in the organization. Trust me, you wouldn't *believe* the stuff he cleaned up.
His promotion to HM's Ambassador to Afghanistan signals the esteem he is given by the senior leadership of our government.
I hope people here will appreciate what Mark has done at the helm of UKvisas (VSD, UKBA) and join me in wishing him good luck and godspeed in Afghanistan.
