Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the potential risk of volcanic activity in Montserrat.

The FCDO supports the work of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) who constantly monitor volcanic activity, and funds a Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) who visit Montserrat annually to assess volcanic activity. The 2022 visit by the SAC concluded that there has been a subtle change in the activity of the volcano since 2019. This demonstrates that the volcanic system is still active and a restart of lava extrusion remains a possibility. However, this observed activity does not indicate that lava extrusion is imminent or inevitable. The MVO continues to analyse the data and closely monitors the volcano.