Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will deposit in the National Archives the Registers of Births, Deaths and Marriages for the Chagos Archipelago between 1884 and 1971.

A collection of registers of Birth, Deaths and Marriages for the Chagos Archipelago between 1884 and 1971 is currently held in the FCO Archives. We will consider what future actions may be most suitable for these registers as part of our ongoing programme of records appraisal. This will include consideration of the status of the registers and where they will ultimately be deposited.