Asked by: Imran Ahmad Khan (Independent - Wakefield)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many British armed forces personnel have been recruited from the British Overseas Territories in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Heappey
The requested information is provided in the following table:
Intake of UK Regulars, British Overseas Territory Citizens, for the last five Financial Years (FY)
FY | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 |
Intake | ~ | 10 | 10 | 10 | ~ |
Notes:
Asked by: Lord Risby (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what support they have provided to British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies during the COVID-19 pandemic; and whether this support will extend to the provision of vaccinations when trials are concluded.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK Government has undertaken a major operation to support the Overseas Territories (OTs) in dealing with COVID-19. Support has been sent to all of the inhabited OTs with the exception of Pitcairn. UK support has enabled seven OTs to start testing for the virus and the others to continue testing when supply routes were cut. Supplies of PPE were sent to ensure no OT ran out. Medical equipment was sent to ensure hospitals could cope when each island was cut off from their usual medical evacuation routes by providing field hospital equipment, medicines, ventilators, CPAPS and other equipment. Expert support was provided in the form of advice from PHE, deployments of medical staff and a remote telemedicine service providing OT clinicians with remote access to clinical advice in the treatment of COVID-19 and other critical conditions. Military teams were deployed to the Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands to support with logistics and border security. Flights were arranged by the FCDO to repatriate British nationals to and from the OTs. Emergency budgetary support has been provided to Montserrat, St Helena and Anguilla to keep essential public services running and ensure these OTs can respond to the impacts of the pandemic.
The UK Government has worked closely with the governments of the Crown Dependencies throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. While the Crown Dependencies are responsible for their own emergency planning, response and recovery, the UK has engaged at working and political level with these jurisdictions to support their own efforts to combat COVID-19 and mitigate against its spread on the islands. This has included ensuring that the Crown Dependencies can access UK supply chains for key medicines and medical devices, including PPE and ventilators. The UK will maintain this engagement over the coming months to ensure that the UK can continue to offer support to Crown Dependency governments.
Through the Vaccine Task Force, the UK Government is procuring vaccines on behalf of the Crown Dependencies and OTs, and is working with them to ensure the smooth deployment of a COVID-19 vaccine once a safe and effective one is available.
Asked by: John Lamont (Conservative - Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what support the Government provided to British Overseas Territories to help them tackle the effects of the covid-19 pandemic.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The safety and security of those in the British Overseas Territories (OTs) is a UK Government priority. The UK Government has been working with the OTs to support their healthcare systems throughout the pandemic. To date, we have funded, procured and delivered medical supplies to all inhabited OTs (except Pitcairn, which has had no confirmed cases of COVID-19), delivered testing systems to six territories and boosted testing capabilities in three other OTs. The Government has supported OTs' efforts to source and recruit additional medical personnel, and healthcare professionals from Public Health England continue to provide technical advice and guidance. We have also been working closely with the OTs to assess their exposure and resilience to the economic shock caused by the pandemic and are considering requests from territory governments for additional economic support and funding on a case-by-case basis. We are looking to the territories firstly to make full use of their own financial resources in order to address the needs of their citizens. Economic support from the UK Government will be to complement comprehensive local responses, be subject to need, and require good governance.
We have been working with OT Governments to understand the impact of the pandemic on security and have provided in-Territory support in the form of Security Assistance Teams to a small number of OTs. We stand ready to provide additional tailored support as needed and if requested. The UK brought forward the deployment of RFA Argus to provide resilience to some of our most vulnerable OTs in the Caribbean. Since the start of the pandemic, we have worked with territories to arrange flights to the Caribbean and the South Atlantic, flying residents of the OTs home from the UK as well as repatriating British Citizens and other nationalities from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos Islands, the Cayman Islands and St Helena. We have also repatriated people from Ascension and the Falkland Islands using regular RAF flights. As well as providing access routes in and out for the people of the OTs, we are working to mitigate the problems around transport access caused by the pandemic to minimise shortages in food, fuel and medical supplies. The OTs are facing an unprecedented challenge, and in addition to the urgent assistance already delivered, we will support the territories as they deal with the medium and longer-term economic, public health and other impacts of the pandemic.
Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what (1) financial, and (2) other, assistance they have offered each of the UK Overseas Territories as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The safety and security of those in the British Overseas Territories (OTs) is a UK Government priority. Multiple government departments, led by DFID and the FCO, have been working with OT Governments to respond to the pandemic.
It is first and foremost for the OTs to make full use of their financial resources in order to address their needs. The UK Government will consider requests for further support/funding on a case-by-case basis. All UK financial support is subject to robust governance and needs assessments.
To address immediate healthcare, access and security needs, FCO has reallocated £15m of 2020/21 CSSF and £5m of 2020/21 International Programme funds to COVID-19 support. DFID is providing an initial £10m from its budget to mitigate immediate non-health impacts in the three ODA-eligible OTs, and has earmarked an additional £20m to mitigate short to medium term impacts of the outbreak on these OTs.
To date, the UK Government has procured and delivered medical supplies to all the inhabited OTs (except Pitcairn, which has had no confirmed cases of COVID-19), delivered testing systems to 6 territories and boosted testing capabilities in three other OTs. Health professionals from Public Health England are providing advice and support to each OT, and the Government has supported OTs to recruit medical personnel.
MoD and Home Office have provided in-territory security support to Turks and Caicos Islands through a Security Assistance Team and an additional 29 military personnel have reinforced TCI's Maritime Police Unit to counter illegal migration. A further Security Assistance Team is supporting the Cayman Islands to assist planning on security, logistics, COVID-19 and hurricane response. RFA ARGUS arrived in the Caribbean earlier than planned to provide support to the OTs during the hurricane season; she could also provide support for COVID-19 impacts if required.
The UK Government has arranged four flights to the Caribbean, including two paid for by the Cayman Islands Government, and a flight to the South Atlantic, flying residents of the Overseas Territories home from the UK as well as repatriating British Citizens and other nationalities from the Bahamas, Bermuda, Turks and Caicos Islands, the Cayman Islands and St Helena. The Government has also repatriated people from Ascension and the Falkland Islands using regular RAF flights.
Asked by: Lord Randall of Uxbridge (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the UK Overseas Territories' marine protected areas are part of the Blue Belt; if not (1) why not, and (2) what plans they have to include those areas in future.
Answered by Baroness Sugg
The UK Overseas Territories' are constitutionally responsible for their marine environments. The Blue Belt programme has supported Territories to designate and manage large-scale protected areas around the British Indian Ocean Territory, South Georgia & the South Sandwich Islands, Pitcairn, St Helena, Ascension and within the British Antarctic Territory. The programme is on track to deliver over 4 million square kilometres of protected ocean during this year, with the anticipated future designation of a management regime across Tristan da Cunha's maritime area.
Other Territories indicated that they did not wish to pursue the development of large-scale marine protected areas within their waters though the Blue Belt programme. Many of these Territories have already implemented a range of marine management measures within their waters. Funding from the Blue Belt programme has been used to enhance the annual Darwin Plus initiative, to enable those Territories to bid for funding to undertake local marine projects, which many have done, including projects with the Blue Belt delivery partners.
The next phase of the Blue Belt programme, subject to the comprehensive Spending Review, will seek to expand engagement, and provide broader support for all Territories to protect their marine environment, while further developing sustainable marine economies.
Asked by: Luke Pollard (Labour (Co-op) - Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many of the UK's Overseas Territory Blue Belt marine protected areas have published and are implementing marine protected area management plans.
Answered by Wendy Morton
The UK's Overseas Territories Blue Belt initiative is on track to deliver over 4 million square kilometres of protected ocean during this year. Of the Marine Protected Areas which have been designated to date, St Helena and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands have adopted and published Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Management Plans. The British Indian Ocean Territory has developed an internal conservation plan which guides activities. The South Orkney Islands Southern Shelf MPA, in British Antarctic Territory waters, is managed through the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. Ascension Island and Pitcairn are in the process of developing their Management Plans, with the support of the Blue Belt team.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the number of university students from British Overseas Territories studying in the UK.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government fully recognises the important contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education sector, including those from the British Overseas Territories, both economically and culturally.
We have set out our ambition to increase the number of international higher education students hosted in the UK to 600,000 per year by 2030, within the International Education Strategy.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publishes statistics on students studying at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by domicile. The latest available data is from 2018/19, published in January 2020.
In 2018/19, HESA estimated there to be 2,130 British Overseas Territory domiciled students enrolled at UK HEIs at all levels of study. The table below shows the breakdown by domicile.
Table: Student enrolments by country of domicile, UK HEIs, 2018/19
Domicile[1][2][3] | 2018/19 |
Anguilla | 55 |
Bermuda | 500 |
British Virgin Islands | 180 |
Cayman Islands | 315 |
Falkland Islands | 50 |
Gibraltar | 900 |
Montserrat | 15 |
Pitcairn Islands | 0 |
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | 0 |
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | 25 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | 95 |
British Overseas Territories Total | 2,130 |
British and EU nationals residing in British Overseas Territories or in other Member States’ overseas territories are currently eligible for Home Fee Status if they are studying at either undergraduate or postgraduate level at English HEIs and have been living in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the overseas territories for the three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course. They will remain eligible for home fee status for the duration of courses starting in the 2020/21 academic year or before. We will provide sufficient notice for prospective students on fee arrangements ahead of the 2021/22 academic year and subsequent years in future.
The Department for Education (DfE) funds Commonwealth scholarships for five or six PhD scholarships from non-ODA Commonwealth countries. DfE funding for the Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships means there will be 150 new scholarships awarded by 2025, all of which are open to British citizens from overseas territories.
[1] Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5, so components may not sum to totals.
[2] Domicile refers to country of student’s permanent address prior to entry.
British Antarctic Territories and British Indian Ocean Territories are omitted from this analysis as HESA defines them as having ‘no settled inhabitants’. HESA defines 'no settled inhabitants' as no inhabitants apart from military and scientific personnel, staff of contractors and seasonal residents (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c18051/a/domicile).
[3] Source: DfE analysis of the HESA student record https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-28.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the number of university students studying in the UK from the British Overseas Territories of charging those students the same level of tuition fees as British students.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government fully recognises the important contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education sector, including those from the British Overseas Territories, both economically and culturally.
We have set out our ambition to increase the number of international higher education students hosted in the UK to 600,000 per year by 2030, within the International Education Strategy.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publishes statistics on students studying at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by domicile. The latest available data is from 2018/19, published in January 2020.
In 2018/19, HESA estimated there to be 2,130 British Overseas Territory domiciled students enrolled at UK HEIs at all levels of study. The table below shows the breakdown by domicile.
Table: Student enrolments by country of domicile, UK HEIs, 2018/19
Domicile[1][2][3] | 2018/19 |
Anguilla | 55 |
Bermuda | 500 |
British Virgin Islands | 180 |
Cayman Islands | 315 |
Falkland Islands | 50 |
Gibraltar | 900 |
Montserrat | 15 |
Pitcairn Islands | 0 |
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | 0 |
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | 25 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | 95 |
British Overseas Territories Total | 2,130 |
British and EU nationals residing in British Overseas Territories or in other Member States’ overseas territories are currently eligible for Home Fee Status if they are studying at either undergraduate or postgraduate level at English HEIs and have been living in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the overseas territories for the three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course. They will remain eligible for home fee status for the duration of courses starting in the 2020/21 academic year or before. We will provide sufficient notice for prospective students on fee arrangements ahead of the 2021/22 academic year and subsequent years in future.
The Department for Education (DfE) funds Commonwealth scholarships for five or six PhD scholarships from non-ODA Commonwealth countries. DfE funding for the Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships means there will be 150 new scholarships awarded by 2025, all of which are open to British citizens from overseas territories.
[1] Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5, so components may not sum to totals.
[2] Domicile refers to country of student’s permanent address prior to entry.
British Antarctic Territories and British Indian Ocean Territories are omitted from this analysis as HESA defines them as having ‘no settled inhabitants’. HESA defines 'no settled inhabitants' as no inhabitants apart from military and scientific personnel, staff of contractors and seasonal residents (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c18051/a/domicile).
[3] Source: DfE analysis of the HESA student record https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-28.
Asked by: Scott Benton (Independent - Blackpool South)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits to the (a) UK and (b) British Overseas Territories (BOTs) of increasing the number of students from BOTs studying at UK universities.
Answered by Michelle Donelan - Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology
The government fully recognises the important contribution that international students make to the UK’s higher education sector, including those from the British Overseas Territories, both economically and culturally.
We have set out our ambition to increase the number of international higher education students hosted in the UK to 600,000 per year by 2030, within the International Education Strategy.
The Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) publishes statistics on students studying at UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by domicile. The latest available data is from 2018/19, published in January 2020.
In 2018/19, HESA estimated there to be 2,130 British Overseas Territory domiciled students enrolled at UK HEIs at all levels of study. The table below shows the breakdown by domicile.
Table: Student enrolments by country of domicile, UK HEIs, 2018/19
Domicile[1][2][3] | 2018/19 |
Anguilla | 55 |
Bermuda | 500 |
British Virgin Islands | 180 |
Cayman Islands | 315 |
Falkland Islands | 50 |
Gibraltar | 900 |
Montserrat | 15 |
Pitcairn Islands | 0 |
South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands | 0 |
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha | 25 |
Turks and Caicos Islands | 95 |
British Overseas Territories Total | 2,130 |
British and EU nationals residing in British Overseas Territories or in other Member States’ overseas territories are currently eligible for Home Fee Status if they are studying at either undergraduate or postgraduate level at English HEIs and have been living in the European Economic Area, Switzerland or the overseas territories for the three years prior to the first day of the first academic year of the course. They will remain eligible for home fee status for the duration of courses starting in the 2020/21 academic year or before. We will provide sufficient notice for prospective students on fee arrangements ahead of the 2021/22 academic year and subsequent years in future.
The Department for Education (DfE) funds Commonwealth scholarships for five or six PhD scholarships from non-ODA Commonwealth countries. DfE funding for the Queen Elizabeth Commonwealth Scholarships means there will be 150 new scholarships awarded by 2025, all of which are open to British citizens from overseas territories.
[1] Numbers are rounded to the nearest 5, so components may not sum to totals.
[2] Domicile refers to country of student’s permanent address prior to entry.
British Antarctic Territories and British Indian Ocean Territories are omitted from this analysis as HESA defines them as having ‘no settled inhabitants’. HESA defines 'no settled inhabitants' as no inhabitants apart from military and scientific personnel, staff of contractors and seasonal residents (https://www.hesa.ac.uk/collection/c18051/a/domicile).
[3] Source: DfE analysis of the HESA student record https://www.hesa.ac.uk/data-and-analysis/students/table-28.
Asked by: Matthew Offord (Conservative - Hendon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, which Overseas Territories have introduced legislation to allow civil partnerships.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
Nine Overseas Territories have legal recognition and protection for same-sex relationships. Same-sex marriage is legal in the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Bermuda, Pitcairn Islands and St Helena, Ascension Island, and Tristan da Cunha. The Premier of the Cayman Islands has publicly undertaken to bring in domestic partnerships by early this year. The laws in the uninhabited territories of the British Indian Ocean Territory, British Antarctic Territory and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands also allow for same-sex marriage.
In the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, civil partnerships have been allowed for United Kingdom military and civilian personnel.