The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has launched a new global registration service called LOCATE (online registration form) which will help to track down Britons in the event of a crisis abroad. This new registration service has been created in response to the changing face of travel. More people are travelling today than ever before. Although the chances of being directly involved in a crisis are small, a fifth of Brits say they have been abroad during an incident and felt compelled to let someone at home know they were OK. But communication is often difficult at those times and not knowing an individual is safe can lead to worry for friends and family and a diversion of consular assistance away from those who really need it.
When registering planned foreign trips you can also register details of your family and friends so that they can be contacted with news in the event of you being affected by an incident abroad.

LOCATE is a two-way service and in the event of an emergency worried family members can register details of a loved one who may be caught up in the incident. If the traveller also confirms with the FCO that they are OK, LOCATE will match the two bits of information and the good news can be quickly passed to relatives.

The FCO advises that travellers simply add LOCATE to their usual pre-travel checklist:

•  Get comprehensive travel insurance
•  Find out about vaccinations
•  Research the local laws and customs of your destination/s
•  Take photocopies of important documentation or store copies online using a secure data storage site
•  If travelling in Europe, take your EHIC

All British citizens resident in Latvia are reminded that they should consider registering with LOCATE (online form).  While registration is not mandatory it will allow the Embassy to contact you directly in the event of an emergency or pass on messages of general interest. While previous registrations were automatically migrated to LOCATE not all contained the necessary details.  If you do not re-register with LOCATE your current registration will automatically be deleted after one year.  Once you have registered with LOCATE the system will automatically generate an annual message requesting confirmation that registration is still required. Once registered please keep your registration up-to-date - especially if you change e-mail addresses.
If you are having problems in registering on LOCATE our Consular Staff will be more than happy to give advice.  This can be done either in person by calling at the Consular Office at 5 Alunana Street, Riga, by phoning  (Tel: 6777 4700) or by e-mail at british.embassy@apollo.lv