Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions his Department has had with EU member states on securing new bilateral voting rights agreements.

Prior to the UK's departure from the EU, in December 2018, the UK wrote to all 27 EU Member States signalling willingness to enter into bilateral agreements to ensure continuity of local election voting and candidacy rights (VCR) for each other's citizens.

Some EU countries already grant local voting rights to UK nationals, and we have bilateral agreements with other EU Member States.

A number of EU Member States have constitutional barriers which prevent them from entering into bilateral agreements.