Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what criteria her Department uses to assess whether to refer a case to be handled by the Special Cases team in her Consular Department; and whether those criteria are publicly available.

Every request for consular assistance is discussed internally and allocated to the relevant consular official or team depending on a variety of factors. Our approach to complex case work is judged on a case-by-case basis and we will always act in the way that we judge is most likely to be in the best interests of the affected individual and their family.