Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2016 to Question 54664, when the contract between Sure telecoms and the British Indian Ocean Territory Administration was agreed; when that contract will next be tendered for; and what the value is of that contract.

The licence to own and operate internal communications services from Diego Garcia was granted to Cable & Wireless in 1982 (subsequently Batelco / Sure in 2013, following a corporate split of Cable & Wireless, then purchased by Batelco) and provides a five year notice of termination. The British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) Commissioner served notice of termination to Sure in March 2014, after which the BIOT Administration will be reprocuring the licence. The value of the licence is commercially sensitive.