UK announces changes to travel advisory language

UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office Minister, Meg Munn MP, has made a written statement in the House of Commons today concerning language used in FCO travel advisories, saying, “Travel Advice is one of the most important public services which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office delivers.”

“We provide Travel Advice notices for 218 countries and territories based on the most accurate and up-to-date information available to us and with the constant growth in international travel, more people are using FCO Travel Advice.”

“In 2006, the FCO Travel Advice website received, on average, 150,000 visitors a week and our call centre handled 62,700 telephone enquiries over the course of the year.”

“Travel Advice is designed to help British travellers to make informed decisions about travelling abroad and it is therefore kept under regular review to ensure that the information it provides remains of the highest quality.”

“Following feedback from British travellers and tour operators about Travel Advice, we have identified areas where we could improve the language we use to explain the nature of the terrorist threat.”

“The principles of FCO Travel Advice, as agreed in the 2004 Review (Command Paper 6158), in relation to the threat from terrorism, remain unchanged and will continue to draw on intelligence assessments, open source and media reporting, the local knowledge of our overseas Posts and their diplomatic reporting.”

“We are now introducing four generic threat descriptors, intended to clarify the scale of the terrorist threat to the travelling public.” “Drawing from our experience of what our customers need from Travel Advice, we consider that these descriptions are the most helpful to the travelling public given the innate difficulty of describing the threat from terrorism.”

“The descriptors, as agreed with the travel industry and other stakeholders are:

‘A high threat from terrorism’ means a high level of known terrorist activity.

** A general threat from terrorism’ means some level of known terrorist activity.

** An underlying threat from terrorism’ means a low level of known terrorist activity.

** A low threat from terrorism’ means no or very limited known terrorist activity.

“Our Travel Advice will continue to reflect the best judgements we can make at the time, though, as we have seen in the UK, it is possible for attacks to take place without prior warning.”

“I believe that these changes will improve our Travel Advice to give effective information to help British travellers make informed decisions about their travel plans and personal security overseas.”

Report by The Mole