Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs written question – answered at on 21 March 2011.
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent steps his Department has taken to improve consular services for UK citizens overseas.
holding answer
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) received over 1.9 million consular inquiries in 2009-10. We dealt with almost 20,000 serious consular assistance cases, including approximately 6,000 deaths and 6,000 detentions of British nationals. In addition, we respond to major crises; and issue replacement travel documents to British nationals whose passport is lost, stolen or otherwise unavailable and they need to travel urgently.
We continually review our consular services to ensure that they are the best we can provide: focused on providing assistance to the most vulnerable as efficiently as possible and building working relationships with partners where they are able to provide services that the FCO cannot.
On
We have enhanced our support to British nationals involved in international parental child abduction to bring UK court orders to the attention of local authorities and to lobby to lift travel restrictions where there is an imminent risk of harm to the child.
Since
In respect of crisis responses, the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs announced on
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