Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what guidance his Department has issued for holidaymakers to advise them to take out appropriate winter sports insurance cover.

For details of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s communications work on travel insurance in general I refer the Honourable Member to the answer I gave on 12 January 2016 to Parliamentary Question 21029.

An important part of this work is underlining to British nationals intending to travel overseas the need to take out insurance that is right for their trip, including for any winter or extreme sports activities. We produce specific guidance for travellers on winter sports holidays and we are currently running a ‘Know Before You Go’ campaign focusing on this issue, working in partnership with the Association of British Travel Agents and British four-time Winter Olympic skier Chemmy Alcott. The headline message of the campaign is for those taking a winter sports holiday to take out appropriate travel insurance. More information can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/winter-sports-stay-safe-on-the-slopes and https://www.gov.uk/government/news/winter-sports-a-third-left-on-thin-ice-without-appropriate-insurance.