Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the report in the Daily Telegraph, ‘Chagos supply mission ‘thwarted by officials’’ published on 11 April, what role, if any, the Commissioner for the British Indian Ocean Territory had in authorising the prevention of humanitarian items, such as bed linen and mosquito nets, from entering Peros Banhos.

The Commissioner has a constitutional responsibility to discharge the powers conferred on him under the British Indian Ocean Territory (Constitution) Order 2004 and related instruments, and does so with professional diligence. The Commissioner and BIOT Administration is constitutionally and legally separate from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.