Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the British Embassy in Nepal was closed (a) during the August bank holiday weekend and (b) on bank holiday Monday.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office staff and our embassy teams have been working around the clock to support British nationals and their families, and to lead the humanitarian response to the devastating floods, including over the weekend and bank holiday. The UK is working with the Nepalese and Chinese authorities to support their crisis response efforts on the ground. The UK acted on information provided in relation to missing individuals as soon as practicable and shared relevant details with the appropriate authorities. Police Family Liaison Officers have been deployed to support individual families, including on any information that could help efforts to locate the missing. Family Liaison Officers are available to discuss the utility or otherwise of mobile phones given the impact on the physical infrastructure and communications in the area. The information picture is changing continuously as Nepalese search and rescue teams work in the affected areas, and UK staff are in close contact with the authorities to understand the latest situation.