Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment he has made of the the potential impact of the change in the social time discount rate announced on 7 September 2026 to the total cost of the Chagos deal over the 99 year period.

The value of payments under the UK-Mauritius Agreement were set out by the UK government at the time of signature and have not changed. What has changed is the Social Time Preference Rate applied in the calculation of the forecast net present value, which applies to all long-term government investments of this nature. The forecast real value of payments under the treaty remains £101 million per annum in today's money.