Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many people have applied for an emergency repatriation loan since the start of the covid-19 pandemic; and how many of those applications have been (a) accepted and (b) rejected.

The welfare of British nationals remains our top priority, and we remain committed to helping British travellers around the globe return home. British nationals who are overseas and wish to return to the UK, but cannot afford travel costs and have no other options for getting funds to return home, may apply for an emergency loan from the government as a last resort. We estimate the FCO has issued over 2000 loans on behalf of the FCO since 7 April. We are unable to provide an accurate number of people who have had their applications for emergency repatriation loans rejected as we do not have full details on our systems to be able to provide comprehensive figures.