Question to the Department for International Development:

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to the Answer of 23 July 2019 to Question 278525 on Ilois: Resettlement, how much of the £20 million allocated to his Department for programmes to develop a support package for Chagossians living in Mauritius has been spent; and how much of that spending has been classified as Official Development Assistance.

Since the Written Ministerial Statement in November 2016, neither the main Chagossian leadership nor the Government of Mauritius have engaged actively with the UK Government in the development of a support package for Chagossians in Mauritius. However, as a first step DFID has contracted the British Council in Mauritius to deliver English Language Training (ELT) to the Chagossian community. The British Council ran a series of radio adverts at a cost of £5,444 to gauge interest among the Chagossian community. This is the only spending to date against DFID’s commitment of £20m and is classified as Official Development Assistance. Following this successful campaign, ELT courses started in late August.