Extract from oral answer (Lords) on Philippines: Typhoon Odette - Jan 5

Lord Lancaster of Kimbolton: My Lords, be it typhoons in the Philippines or hurricanes in the Caribbean, the key to timely support is the ability of the affected area to open its ports and airports. That is why our overseas territories of the Cayman Islands and the Turks and Caicos Islands raised army reserve regiments in 2019 to do just that. These have been tremendously successful, and I should declare my interest as the honorary colonel of the Cayman Islands regiment. I simply ask my noble friend whether he has any plans to encourage our other overseas territories to follow suit.

The Minister of State, Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park): My Lords, I will have to get back to my noble friend on the specific point but, broadly, as I said in my opening remarks, the UK has committed £750,000 to the emergency appeal. More recently, Ministers in the Foreign Office have agreed to increase that to £1 million and we are now working out how best to allocate those remaining funds...

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