With Scottish schools breaking up for the holidays, families will soon start heading off for a well-earned summer break. It’s something people look forward to all year, and many will fly to the sun here in Spain. For our eight consulates across the country, it’s the busiest time of year, helping many hundreds of people who need assistance.
Provided that holidaymakers take the sensible precautions of getting travel insurance, keeping their passports and valuables safe and researching local customs, then when they get here, the vast majority will have a great time.
But some won’t. Holidays can and do go wrong. It can be as simple – and as common – as a lost or stolen passport, or an awkward fall that lands you in hospital. Sometimes it is more dramatic – becoming a victim of crime, illness or a serious accident. In fact, our Consulates in Spain dealt with 3,600 assistance cases last year, as well as providing nearly 6,000 emergency passports, including an estimated 470 for people from Scotland.
In these situations, citizens of the United Kingdom can fall back on one of the world’s best and most professional consular services – a service that answers more than one million calls a year from the British public, staffed with trained experts who are committed to helping them discreetly and effectively.
Imagine having to calm a worried parent over a teenager who has just been arrested, help a distressed victim of serious sexual assault, or comfort family members after a dream holiday ends in the unexpected loss of a loved one. The Foreign Office staff who work in the consulates do some of the most challenging and emotionally charged jobs in the civil service, yet they say that helping people in distress can be immensely rewarding.
Everyone born in Scotland – like every other British passport holder – has a right to use the UK’s worldwide consular network without question.
A couple of weeks ago we launched one of our summer “Know Before You Go” campaigns, encouraging young people to take out insurance – some 38% think it’s not worth it, but they’re taking a big risk. Whether providing advice on travel insurance, health risks or simply encouraging people to research their destination before they depart, “Know Before You Go” is all about giving travellers useful information before they go on holiday.
Our experience with such campaigns is that it’s best to be up front with the facts and to help people to think through possible consequences before they get into trouble.
The same applies to the referendum vote in September, because when it comes to consular care overseas, there is a clear choice to be made between what everyone in Scotland is entitled to right now and what people are being offered under independence.
Currently, everyone from Scotland has an automatic right to rely on the UK’s diplomatic network around the world, with over 800 trained consular staff.
In an independent Scotland, the Scottish government would offer a much smaller network of 70-90 overseas posts, backed up by honorary consuls.
And it’s also important to be completely clear about what the position is on the help that can be offered to citizens of another state.
Some have suggested that if Scotland becomes independent and then goes on to gain entry to the EU and the Commonwealth, Scottish citizens would be able to turn up at any EU or Commonwealth Embassy to ask for help. But that’s not what the rules say.
If a country has any representation in a particular country, even if that is only a volunteer honorary consul, then those representatives are obliged to look after that country’s citizens. Only in countries where there is no representation at all do EU or Commonwealth Embassies offer help.
Here in Spain, we have one of the largest British consular networks in the world, with fully functioning consulates in Alicante, Barcelona, Ibiza, Las Palmas, Madrid, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Tenerife, and a telephone number that’s staffed all day which means you can get advice quickly from wherever you are. Our offices help with a very wide range of issues, in a country that receives 14 million British visitors a year. This means that Scottish families on holiday in the popular areas generally only have to make a short trip for help when it’s needed. Our 13 honorary consuls are a first point of assistance in areas where fewer British visitors go.
No details have been released about the size of the network that the Scottish Government would plan for Spain, but it’s a great comfort to British citizens needing consular help in Spain that they can avoid the expense and inconvenience of a trip from one of the islands to the mainland or even the capital – which can be many hours from the beach.
I take pride in the consular service we offer to people in Scotland, just as I take pride in the work we do to promote Scottish exports to Spain and Spanish investment in Scotland. British consulates make holidays and overseas travel safer and more enjoyable for families, and looking after our citizens abroad is one of the most important things that the Foreign Office does.
So it’s worth thinking about which alternative works best for Scottish families. Right now, Scottish people are entitled to ask for help at any time from one of the best consular services in the world.
3 comments
Comment by Iain Macmillan posted on
Disgusting British State sponsored scaremongering. Vote YES!
Comment by alex posted on
An indepenant scotland may be able to offer a better passport service the UKs high price and poor delivery.
May be would not be able to use the FCO but the uk spends a fortune of the FCO. A large part of the work done does not benefit the typical british person.
If its like civil service home services, would imagine you have illegal discrimination, use of unregulated agents used to offer finainical threats and approved voilance on behalf of the the british government.
Even the most mundance of government agencies internally seem rather apt at this. May be the FCO is completely different of course then the internal civil service that does not respect EU law or the basic freedoms that many EU members take for granted.
Comment by Bill Stewart posted on
Please explain to me how this is supposed to influence me , as a Spanish resident with no vote in the referendum.