Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what budget assumptions her Department has provided to the Office for Budget Responsibility on the potential costs to the public purse relating to the proposed treaty with Mauritius on the British Indian Ocean Territory.

As usual, the OBR will include costs in its forecast once the approach to implementation of government policy is clear. In this case, that will be after any agreement has been scrutinised by Parliament and then ratified. Financial obligations arising from an agreement will be managed responsibly within the government’s fiscal framework by the lead departments, the FCDO and MOD, and no payments will be made until the treaty is legally binding.