Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Minister of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, whether he has had discussions with the St Helena Government on steps to return the remains of formerly enslaved people from St Helena to their ancestral homes.

Approximately 8000 former slaves died after being taken to St Helena by the Royal Navy's West African Squadron trying to halt the slave trade in the mid-nineteenth century; their ancestral homes are not known. 325 Skeletons were unearthed during the construction of St Helena Airport and the UK Government provided support for their reburial on 21 August 2022. St Helena Government plans to create a memorial and interpretation centre to honour those who died.