Helping and advising British nationals abroad is one of our key services.

In 2009 we dealt with almost 2.1 million enquiries from British nationals – from lost passports to victims of sexual assaults.

This was spread across our global network of 260 embassies, consulates and high commissions.

In a typical week during the summer in Alicante, consular staff deal with 25 detentions, 10 deaths, 2 hospitalisations, issue 50 emergency passports and attend to 120 visitors to the consulate.

What services do we offer?

The Your UK mission abroad page has more info about the services and facilities we can offer you.

FCO travel advice

Our comprehensive travel advice web pages have the latest advice for every country in the world and plenty of practical info about keeping safe and what to do when things go wrong.

The FCO in an emergency

We send rapid deployment teams to help British nationals caught up in crises around the world such as hurricanes, plane crashes, terrorism and natural disasters.

We also have a 24/7 response centre based in London.

And our LOCATE service makes it easy for Britons to register their travel plans with us – we can then contact people in an emergency.

Forced marriages

Our dedicated team assist British nationals being forced to marry abroad. They see dozens of cases a year – some are girls who fear they are about to be forced into a marriage and others already have been.

The FCO played a key role passing the Forced Marriage (Civil Protection) Act and hosted a major EU conference on forced marriages.

Child abductions

We have a team dedicated to help solve cases of parental child abduction.

They will help parent’s whose children have been abducted to liaise with the local authorities, get legal representation and help them with accommodation and travel plans.