Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how the £40 million compensation package for the exiled Chagos Islands community will be allocated (a) in Crawley constituency and (b) across the UK.

As the Government made clear in the Written Ministerial Statement of 16 November, the support package is not compensation. The Government is taking the time necessary to carry out scoping studies and discuss ideas with Chagossian communities in the UK and overseas in order to develop cost-effective programmes which will make the biggest improvement to the lives of those Chagossians who need it most. Accordingly, we are yet to begin disbursing funding from the support package to the Chagossian community. It is too early to confirm how funds from the package will be allocated across the UK over the next ten years.