Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether his Department has an access to justice unit within its consular directorate.

​The access to justice unit was established in January 2015 to lead on consular support provided to families bereaved through murder or manslaughter. This followed an internal review of the support offered to these families conducted in 2014, and recommendations made by the Foreign Affairs Committee in their 2014 Report on Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) Consular Services. The name of the unit was changed to the Murder and Manslaughter Team shortly after it was established to better reflect the unit’s purpose as a dedicated team supporting those bereaved through murder or manslaughter overseas. This includes working closely with our posts overseas on these often complex and long-running cases.