Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many British nationals stranded abroad in India as a result of the covid-19 outbreak who registered with his Department for flights to return to the UK were staying in the regions of (a) Punjab and (b) Gujarat.

By 9 April, over 21,000 individuals had contacted the British High Commission in New Delhi to register their interest in returning to the UK. 9,982 of these individuals were located in Punjab and 3,316 were in Gujarat.

As of 5 May, over 12,500 British nationals have returned from India on 53 HMG charter flights, including over 4,400 from Punjab and 3,000 from Gujarat. 7 additional charter flights from Amritsar (Punjab), due to run between 5 and 11 May, were announced on 30 April.