§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs for what reason his Department's police officers were disembarked from their aircraft on the tarmac at Stansted on 4 June, instead of flying to Kosovo; when the detachment will now fly to Pristina; and if he will make a statement. [124936]
§ Mr. HainIt is usually the responsibility of the United Nations to finance and arrange the transport for civilian police officers deploying to Kosovo. On this occasion, the UN requested that the UK make the travel arrangements.
The FCO therefore arranged to charter a plane for 4 June to transport the 56 Ministry of Defence police officers to Kosovo. However, delays in baggage handling and a minor technical fault resulted in the plane's revised estimated arrival time in Pristina being after 17:00 hours, the time at which Pristina airport closes.
The police officers' departure was therefore re-arranged for 6 June (no aircraft were available on 5 June) on a different plane. I can confirm that the officers did indeed reach Kosovo on that day.