At its meeting this morning, the Committee considered your statement in the House yesterday and its relevance to the Committee's ongoing inquiry into Foreign Policy Aspects of the War against Terrorism. We were of course mindful of the fact that you are to give oral evidence to that inquiry on Monday afternoon.

  The Committee has asked me to write with two requests before that meeting, as follows.

  First, the Committee wishes to receive an update of the memorandum submitted by the FCO to its predecessor Committee in January 1999, on the Travel Advice System.

  Second, the Committee wishes to receive on a confidential basis the same papers as are being supplied to the Intelligence and Security Committee by the intelligence co-ordinator in the Cabinet Office, as referred to in your statement at column 23.

  In order that the Committee is able to take account of your reply before next weeks' meeting, I would hope to receive it not later than Noon on Monday 28 October.

Chairman of the Committee

22 October 2002

  Thank you for your letter of 22 October. As requested, I enclose an updated Memorandum on the FCO's Travel Advice system. [4]

  You also asked to receive, on a confidential basis, the same papers which will be provided to the ISC by the Cabinet Office Intelligence Coordinator, as referred to in my statement to the House on 21 October about the terrorist attack in Bali. As I said in my letter to you of 23 September, Agency Heads are obliged to provide information to the ISC under the Act of Parliament which established that Committee for the purpose of overseeing the work of the Agencies. That is why I have asked the Intelligence Coordinator in the Cabinet Office to ensure that all the intelligence available to us before the Bali bombing is made available to the Committee. It would not be appropriate to establish a competing jurisdiction by engaging your Committee on this as well; nor do I believe it to be necessary for the efficient discharge of your, different, functions.

Secretary of State

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

28 October 2002

  1.  Residents of the United Kingdom made over 58 million trips overseas in 2001 (compared with 45 million in 1998). The safety of British nationals abroad is one of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's (FCO) principal concerns. We therefore attach great importance to providing information about personal safety and security overseas to enable people to make informed decisions about travel. The FCO's Travel Advice is designed to provide British travellers with practical, objective, accurate and up-to-date advice. However, the decision on whether to travel to a particular country must always remain a personal one. We cannot stop British nationals travelling to a particular destination, although we do advise against all travel or all non-essential travel to a number of countries.

  2.  Since January 1999, when the FCO submitted to the Foreign Affairs Committee its last memorandum on Travel Advice[5], the FCO has made considerable progress in this area. The FCO's Travel Advice now covers every country in the world and has become more detailed, more user-friendly, more popular and broader in scope—achievements recognised in May 2001, when it won the Sunday Times Award for the Top Information Service Relating to Travel. The following sets out some background information on FCO Travel Advice and the principal improvements since 1999.

TRAVEL ADVICE UNIT

  3.  The FCO's Travel Advice Unit (TAU) is based in Consular Division with a full time staff of four, supervised by a senior manager. The TAU updates Travel Advice in response to requests from our Posts overseas and Departments in London. Particular attention is paid to information, including intelligence, which might affect the level of threat to British citizens abroad. Advice is under constant review, especially where it covers volatile regions or developing crises. In such cases, it may be updated on a daily basis (eg after the Bali bomb attack; during India-Pakistan crisis). All our Travel Advice is automatically reviewed monthly. In 2001, the TAU updated our Travel Advice on 1,569 occasions. There have been almost 1,200 updates so far this year—almost a 50 per cent increase on 1999. Guidance on how we draw up Travel Advice is issued to Posts annually.

  4.  Consular Division is engaged in a constant dialogue with the travel industry on matters relating to Travel Advice and overseas travel more generally. They meet formally with key organisations such as ABTA and the Federation of Tour Operators at least twice a year to discuss key concerns and developments.

SCOPE OF ADVICE

  5.  Since 1999, the content of the FCO's Travel Advice has been significantly improved. Country advice is now considerably more comprehensive and in most cases is divided into a number of standard, user-friendly categories such as "Safety and Security", "Local Travel", "Local Laws and Customs" etc. The categories are regularly reviewed and we add to them as necessary. Advice for specific areas within countries is now often available, in addition to general country advice. In 2001, a Frequently Asked Questions section was added to the travel section of the website, covering everything from money matters to crime; from timeshares to adoption overseas. There are separate sections on the Euro, insurance and health. There is also specialist advice for a number of groups, including women travellers, backpackers and those retiring overseas.

DISTRIBUTION

  6.  Travel Advice is available on the FCO website. The travel area of the site records an average of 675,000 page impressions per month. Many regular users arrange to receive automatic updates when travel advice changes, using the "automatic update facility" on the FCO site. During working hours, the TAU provides advice by telephone and fax. 30 organisations receive daily faxed updates from the Travel Advice Unit. Significant changes in Travel Advice are also announced through press statements.

  7.  Until January 2001 the Travel Advice issued on the FCO website was duplicated on CEEFAX. Due to the increasing length of the travel advice notices, however, it became impractical to include individual Travel Advice notices on CEEFAX. We therefore limited the publication on CEEFAX to countries and areas to which the FCO advised against all travel or all non-essential travel.

  8.  Consular Division also produces and distributes travel advice leaflets covering a range of matters of both general and specialist interest (which are also available on the FCO website) including:

—  Checklist for Travellers.

—  Health Advice for Travellers.

—  British Consular Services Abroad.

—  Death Overseas.

—  Dual Nationality.

—  Travellers Tips.

—  Travellers Tips for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender travellers.

—  Backpackers and Independent Travellers.

—  Retiring Overseas.

—  Advice for British pilgrims on the Hajj in Saudi Arabia.

—  British Prisoners Abroad.

—  Victims of Crime Abroad.

—  International Child Abduction

—  Forced Marriage Abroad

  9.  In addition to advice issued centrally, our Posts overseas also have discretion to issue local advisories containing information and advice of interest, in particular, to the expatriate community.

CAMPAIGNS

  10.  The FCO has gone to great lengths to improve awareness of our Travel Advice. The Know Before You Go (KBYG) campaign, launched in June 2001, is designed to maximise awareness of the potential risks of foreign travel; and to encourage British travellers to take out travel insurance and to check the FCO Travel Advice before they depart. The FCO has run a series of mini-campaigns on specific themes: back-packers and independent travellers; the dangers of becoming involved in drugs overseas; advice for those going to the 2002 World Cup. We have also worked closely with gay pressure groups and the gay travel and publishing industries to produce a comprehensive set of Travellers Tips. Future mini-campaigns will target those visiting friends and relatives overseas over religious and national holidays; and the 18-30 year old "clubber" market.

  11.  Over 140 partners have signed up to the KBYG Campaign Charter and agreed to promote the campaign through their own marketing activities. Partners are asked to take every opportunity to get our key messages across, by directing customers to the FCO Travel Advice notices and by encouraging them to purchase travel insurance. In its first year, the campaign reached a potential 18 million readers, 11 million listeners and 2 million viewers.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

October 2002

5   Foreign Affairs Committee, First Special Report of session 2000-01, Work of the Committee During the Present Parliament : A Progress Report, HC 78, pp 23-24. Back