Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of preparations for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2021.

Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon (Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth), the UK Commonwealth Envoy and the British High Commissioner to Rwanda are in regular touch with the Government of Rwanda (GoR) and the Commonwealth Secretariat on preparations for the 26th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Thanks to the GoR, in March 2021, our High Commission in Kigali participated in an Advance Visit Programme, alongside other member states. As outgoing Commonwealth Chair-in-Office, we have been working closely with the GoR and the Commonwealth Secretariat to share all aspects of our experience of hosting the CHOGM in 2018.