All Members of the Foreign Affairs Committee have followed anxiously the terrible events around the Indian Ocean following the undersea earthquake and consequent tsunami wave just after Christmas. The true scale and horror of these events became apparent only gradually and none of us appreciated at first how many people were directly affected.

  Although the thoughts of all of us are with the many thousands of local people who died or whose lives have been devastated, as members of a Committee of Parliament I and my colleagues on the FAC have a duty to focus on the position of British citizens caught up in the disaster, and on the support provided to them by the FCO.

  The Committee has of course noted press reports of alleged FCO shortcomings in the period immediately following the tsunami, including the leader in the Independent of 29 December. Allegations have centred on unpreparedness of official bodies, lack of capacity at the call centre in London, lack of sensitivity on the part of some officials, and errors committed by others. I make no judgment on the validity of any of these claims, save that even if some are valid in part, all would have to be placed in the context of the unprecedented scale of the disaster. I think it would be helpful to the Committee and, potentially, to a wider audience, if we were to receive a detailed commentary on the main criticisms which have appeared in the press, balanced perhaps by some of the tributes paid to the official response by bodies such as the APTA and by private individuals. A detailed chronology of key actions and decisions taken by the FCO would also assist us greatly in understanding the sequence of events. Finally, we would hope to receive your views on the lessons learnt, which could be applied in the event of any future major disaster, much as we all hope nothing this awful will ever occur again.

  I recognise that key officials are still working very hard on dealing with the emergency and with those affected by it (indeed, I understand that a member of your parliamentary relations team is among those now in Phuket). I do not, therefore, wish to suggest a deadline for receipt of your response; I am sure you will do your best to get it to us so that we are able to consider and publish it before the Easter recess.