Ilois: Resettlement

(asked on 18th July 2016) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether, in the light of the comments by Lord Mance in the Supreme Court’s judgment in <i>R (on the application of Bancoult (No 2)) v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs </i>[2016] UKSC 35 that a refusal to allow resettlement of the Chagos Islands could be judicially reviewed as potentially "irrational, unreasonable and/or disproportionate", what steps they plan to take to reach a reasoned decision on the issue of resettlement as quickly as possible.


This question was answered on 2nd August 2016

In the last Parliament, the Cabinet asked for further detailed work to understand the uncertainties around cost and demand for resettlement of the British Indian Ocean Territory. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Department for International Development and the Ministry of Defence, have refined uncertainties around costs, and a 12 week public consultation was carried out to clarify demand. The results of the consultation were published in January 2016. Officials are now carrying out remaining work on the options available before the Prime Minister, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), takes a final decision on the policy. There is no date yet when an announcement on possible resettlement will be made. Developments will be announced to Parliament and the public in due course.

Reticulating Splines