Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether the Prime Minister’s special envoy for negotiations regarding the British Indian Ocean Territory sovereignty dispute was aware of the 1966 Agreement (1) when negotiating in Washington DC on behalf of the UK Government during 2024 and 2025, and (2) when the agreement concerning the Chagos Archipelago was signed on 22 May 2025.

I refer the Noble Baroness to the answer I provided on 22 December in response to Question HL12715, and I gently point out to her that the Government has always been aware of the Exchange of Letters to which I referred in that answer, even if they appear to have taken some Opposition parties by surprise.