Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will update his Department's travel advice guidance on the safety of women travellers to (a) Germany and (b) Austria to take account of recent events in those countries.

The FCO’s travel advice is kept under constant review, and is based on objective assessments of the risk to British nationals.

Our current advice for Germany can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/germany

Our current advice for Austria can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/austria

While we condemn the criminal behaviour seen in Cologne and on a smaller scale in Hamburg, Salzburg and elsewhere on New Year’s Eve, we do not assess that this is now the standard of behaviour to expect at all public gatherings in Germany or Austria. In addition, the authorities are taking action to ensure that such attacks are not repeated.

We advise all travellers and British nationals resident in Germany and Austria to monitor our travel advice regularly.