Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to repatriate British nationals who are stranded abroad as a result of covid-19.

Consular teams are continuing to support British people who are experiencing disruption. If people want to return to the UK we encourage them to get in touch with their airline as soon as possible while flights remain available. We are working intensively with the Governments of those countries that have closed their borders to people travelling to and from the UK, to enable airlines to bring back British people to the UK, if that is what they want.

We are also in close touch with air carriers. We encourage affected British nationals to contact their airline and insurer as a first step. We are providing direct support to individuals through our contact centre and consular teams, but call volumes are high. In the light of the rapidly changing situation, we urge all travellers to sign up for our travel advice alert service. We will keep the situation under review and remain in contact with the airline operators and authorities overseas to facilitate return travel.