Weirdest consular requests revealed - Telegraph Consular staff also reported a number of requests for Olympic tickets, and help finding bars to watch the football, while one holidaymaker asked the Foreign Office to silence a noisy cockerel. The background check on the Swedish woman was requested by a man in Stockholm, and help with the tattoo translation was requested in Rome. During the last 12 months, the Foreign Office handled more than a million consular inquiries and supported a total of 52,135 British nationals in difficulty overseas. The majority of requests for help are made by Britons in southern Europe. The Foreign Office set up a contact centre in Malaga in February 2011 to handle the high volume of non-consular inquiries. Since its launch staff have handled 131,211 calls, it said, 39 per cent of which have been lifestyle inquiries. "Our aim is to help staff at posts concentrate on what is important but some of the inquiries we received from British nationals last year were bizarre to say the least," said Steve Jones of the Foreign Office. For example, one customer contacted us to ask if we could provide the name of the watch that the Royal Navy sailors wore between the years 1942-1955. The consular affairs minister Mark Simmonds said: "We are not in a position to help people make travel arrangements or social plans, but we do help those who face real problems abroad. These can include victims of crime, bereaved families who have lost a loved one abroad or Britons who have been arrested or detained. For more information on what the Foreign Office can and cannot help with, see www.gov.uk/knowbeforeyougo