Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the cost to the public purse has been of the Government's charter flights to repatriate people to the UK during the covid-19 pandemic.

Helping British nationals who need and want to return to the UK is one of the Government's highest priorities. Since the outbreak in Wuhan, we estimate that over 1.3 million people have returned to the UK via commercial routes - the majority supported by our work to keep vital routes open. Additionally we have now brought home over 32,000 people on 155 flights organised by the Foreign Office from 29 countries and territories.

The UK Government continues to work with the airline industry and host governments across the world to help bring back British travellers to the UK as part of the plan announced by the Foreign Secretary on 30 March - with up to £75 million available for special charter flights to priority countries, focused on helping the most vulnerable travellers. A proportion of the funding remains and the work is ongoing to utilise it to support the next phase of our repatriation effort.

We have asked passengers to pay for a ticket home, just as they would pay for a commercial flight, to help ensure that we can use the money to bring as many people as possible home. The money is being spent directly on the transport required to get people home - this includes charter flights to the UK as well as the costs of ground transport and internal flights to get people to the departure airport.