Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will meet with the Chagos Islands (British Indian Ocean Territory) All-Party Parliamentary Group to discuss citizenship rights for people descended from the British Indian Ocean Territory.

There is no legislative provision which would enable adult third generation Chagossians with no residential link to the UK or a British Overseas Territory to qualify for British citizenship.

This Government undertook a consultation on this issue in 2015, providing members of the Chagossian communities and other interested parties the opportunity to provide their views on the relevant issues.

Following this consultation, we committed to fund a package of approximately £40 million, targeted at programmes aimed at improving the lives of the Chagossian population. We were clear that this would not include making specific provision for citizenship to be transmitted beyond the first generation born outside the British Indian Ocean Territory.