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 humanitarian situation in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

We are monitoring the situation in St Vincent and the Grenadines closely and our thoughts are with those affected by the eruption. An estimated 16-20,000 people are directly affected, with just over 3,700 currently in shelters. Infrastructure and agriculture have also been badly hit and ash fall is significant and causing problems with the movement of people, as well as impacting electricity and water supplies.

To address the immediate needs over the weekend we pledged an initial £200,000 to the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) to help address the immediate humanitarian impact of the volcano eruption. This will be used for emergency supplies and other requirements. Urgently needed technical experts will support relief efforts on the ground, support emergency telecommunications, and restore critical lifeline facilities. We have provided advice from the UK Government Office of Science (GO Science) and the British Geological Survey on how to deal with the significant ash fall (including on its impact on livestock). Finally the UK is also a contributor to the International Federation of the Red Cross Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) which has allocated funding of some £209,000 to the St Vincent and the Grenadines Red Cross response.

Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth, spoke to the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines and his High Commissioner to the UK on 14 April. They discussed initial and ongoing UK support for the recovery following the volcanic eruption.

We will continue to work with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency and other appropriate agencies to provide further support.