HC Deb 21 April 2004 vol 420 cc536-7W
Peter Bottomley

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many deaths abroad of Britons(a) travelling and (b) living overseas, broken down by the numbers dying of (i) natural causes and (ii) the main categories of non-natural causes. [166526]

Mr. Mullin

In financial year 2002–03 3,998 Britons died overseas. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) only records the deaths of British nationals where our consular staff have been directly involved. We do not record statistics where our staff have been informed of a death and need take no further action.

The FCO does not maintain statistics recording either the nature of each death or the breakdown between the numbers of deaths of Britons travelling and living overseas.