The All Party Parliamentary Group on Deaths Abroad, Consular Services and Assistance (“the APPG”) is a cross party group of MPs who came together in April 2018 to work on a commonissue affecting their constituents, namely that of a lack of support and consular assistance in the UK following a trauma overseas e.g. suspicious death or imprisonment.

The APPG was set up by Hannah Bardell (former MP for Livingston) following the experiences of two families in her constituency, whose loved ones died abroad in suspicious circumstances in 2015 and 2017.

Since its inception, the APPG has held a number of evidence sessions in Westminster and Scotland to hear about the experiences of others. In total, we listened to the experiences of around 60 families. Some had loved ones murdered abroad, others had loved ones die in suspicious or unexplained circumstances, some go missing presumed dead and others who were imprisoned. We also met or spoke with around 50 organisations including but not limited to the police, victim support organisations, government departments, airports and law firms in an effort to get as much information as possible about the supports available for families and where the gaps lay.

The family evidence was overwhelmingly negative about the lack of consular support on offer. We repeatedly heard about a lack of compassion, a lack of communication around processes and a feeling of ‘abandonment’ at the time people most needed support and guidance. That was not to mention a lack of practical help such as access to translation of documents, repatriation costs and assistance in finding a suitable lawyer or funding legal costs.

The response from third party organisations was less negative, with suggestions that there is support available but acknowledgment that it is not widely publicised, that services are not as joined up as they could be and the majority was clear that more could be done in this space to support families, which would not be overly onerous. The APPG also got the sense that budgets and resources are so tight that the support that is on offer is stretched and sometimes, to protect their own funding, organisations are not working as transparently with others as they could be.

One finding very apparent to the APPG was that the cases examined were largely out of the ordinary and did not fit the ‘one size fits all’ support systems available and, whilst all cases were different, the common theme was trauma overseas. As a result, the APPG recommended the government clarifies the guidance around consular assistance; enshrines in UK law the right to consular assistance for all British nationals and creates adepartment/agency for protection of British citizens, completelyseparate to that which currently works on diplomacy and trade. We made these recommendations after hearing repeatedly that people were unclear what consular assistance they were entitled to and were upset when comments were made to the press by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office that they were supporting the family, but with no evidence of what that entailed or communication about the same.

The APPG has made 92 recommendations in total; some are relatively quick and simple to action and others, such as legislation, will take longer. We intend to work with families and third party organisations to campaign for change and, a key part of our work going forward, will be to support BRAG’s campaign on enhanced consular protection.

For the full report please see here