Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Chapman of Darlington on 7 March (HL5231), what are the "long-standing processes on establishing geographical feature names for UK use"; and whether the Gulf of Mexico will be renamed.

The Permanent Committee on Geographical Names (PCGN) advises HMG on policies and procedures for the representation of geographical names for places and features outside the UK, excluding those of the Antarctic. For names of international maritime features beyond any sovereignty, PCGN usually advises reflecting the common English conventional name, which for this body of water is the 'Gulf of Mexico'.