Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate he made of the average cost to UK citizens to repatriate themselves during the covid-19 outbreak.

The British Government is working with the airline industry and host governments across the world to help bring back British travellers to the UK as part of the plan announced by the Foreign Secretary on 30 March - with up to £75 million available for special charter flights from priority countries, focused on helping the most vulnerable travellers. We are determined that the cost of a flight will not be a barrier to bringing British travellers home but we are asking passengers to make a contribution so that we can put on as many flights and bring back as many people as possible. To set a limit on the costs to travellers, we aim to charge passengers no more than £400 for flights under 6 hours, £600 for 6-10 hours and £800 for over 10 hours (using the airline industry's 'time-in-air' calculator). On average, passengers have paid less than £600. Pricing is kept under constant review and there have been small deviations in the past where we have sought to achieve better value for money for taxpayers. Costs above this amount are borne by the taxpayer.

We hope most travellers will be able to claim their costs from their travel insurance but for those British Nationals that cannot afford the cost of a flight to return, and have no other funding options, they may be eligible for financial support through an emergency loan from public funds