Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to help improve mutual twinning arrangements between local authorities and the British Overseas Territories.

With the support of funding from the UK Government, Hampshire County Council is twinned with Anguilla and St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, and Suffolk County Council is twinned with Montserrat. These partnerships are focused on learning and support in children and adults social care and education.

Links between local authorities in the United Kingdom and with British Overseas Territories are principally a matter for those authorities themselves. However, the Government recognises that such links, as well as those between local authorities in the United Kingdom and abroad more generally can be beneficial to those authorities, bringing with them learning and best practice from all over the world as well as creating and deepening ties between people and communities. The Government is therefore supportive of more and better such links.