Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to use overseas superannuation funds to pay pensioners owed money by the government of Zimbabwe; and, if so, when they will do so.

The legal and moral responsibility to pay pensions to former Rhodesian and Zimbabwean public servants sits with the Government of Zimbabwe. The British Government continues to remind the relevant authorities in Zimbabwe of this legal commitment. Following our most recent approach the Government of Zimbabwe wrote to us on 27 May. They explained that pension repayments remain affected by current financial constraints in Zimbabwe and the state of the wider economy. Nonetheless, at our prompting they committed to continuing to seek a solution.