To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what research his Department is undertaking on the viability of the proposed return of the Chagos Islanders to the archipelago; and if he will make a statement.

Following the Law Lords judgment of 22 October 2008 in the Judicial Review of the 2004 British Indian Ocean Territory Orders in Council, Government policy remains that no-one has a right of abode in the Territory or the right to enter the Territory unless authorised. The Government have no plans to resettle the Chagos Islanders in the Territory and is not therefore undertaking research on the viability of the return of the Chagos Islanders to the British Indian Ocean Territory.