Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assurances he has given to his counterparts in the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies that the Government will replace funding provided by the EU when the UK leaves the EU.

The British Government has committed to fully involving the Overseas Territories (OTs) as we prepare for negotiations to exit the EU in order to ensure their priorities are taken into account. To this end, Ministers from the FCO, DEXEU and DIT met with OT Leaders at the Joint Ministerial Council for the Overseas Territories on EU Negotiations (JMC OT EN) on 12th July. This was the second in a series of such Ministerial meetings to take place this year and one of the prominent issues discussed with OT leaders was that of EU funding.

While the UK remains a member of the EU, current EU funding arrangements continue unchanged. Leaving the EU provides an opportunity for the UK to take our own decisions about how to deliver the policy objectives previously supported by EU funding and we look forward to continuing our dialogue with the OTs as the negotiations on these issues begin.