diff --git a/src/if_python3.c b/src/if_python3.c
index b16dfc6..023a773 100644
--- a/src/if_python3.c
+++ b/src/if_python3.c
@@ -68,9 +68,16 @@
 
 static void init_structs(void);
 
+/* The "surrogateescape" error handler is new in Python 3.1 */
+#if PY_VERSION_HEX >= 0x030100f0
+# define CODEC_ERROR_HANDLER "surrogateescape"
+#else
+# define CODEC_ERROR_HANDLER NULL
+#endif
+
 #define PyInt Py_ssize_t
 #define PyString_Check(obj) PyUnicode_Check(obj)
-#define PyString_AsBytes(obj) PyUnicode_AsEncodedString(obj, (char *)ENC_OPT, NULL);
+#define PyString_AsBytes(obj) PyUnicode_AsEncodedString(obj, (char *)ENC_OPT, CODEC_ERROR_HANDLER);
 #define PyString_FreeBytes(obj) Py_XDECREF(bytes)
 #define PyString_AsString(obj) PyBytes_AsString(obj)
 #define PyString_Size(obj) PyBytes_GET_SIZE(bytes)
@@ -661,8 +668,9 @@
 
     /* PyRun_SimpleString expects a UTF-8 string. Wrong encoding may cause
      * SyntaxError (unicode error). */
-    cmdstr = PyUnicode_Decode(cmd, strlen(cmd), (char *)ENC_OPT, NULL);
-    cmdbytes = PyUnicode_AsEncodedString(cmdstr, "utf-8", NULL);
+    cmdstr = PyUnicode_Decode(cmd, strlen(cmd),
+					(char *)ENC_OPT, CODEC_ERROR_HANDLER);
+    cmdbytes = PyUnicode_AsEncodedString(cmdstr, "utf-8", CODEC_ERROR_HANDLER);
     Py_XDECREF(cmdstr);
     PyRun_SimpleString(PyBytes_AsString(cmdbytes));
     Py_XDECREF(cmdbytes);
@@ -1463,7 +1471,7 @@
     }
     *p = '\0';
 
-    result = PyUnicode_Decode(tmp, len, (char *)ENC_OPT, NULL);
+    result = PyUnicode_Decode(tmp, len, (char *)ENC_OPT, CODEC_ERROR_HANDLER);
 
     vim_free(tmp);
     return result;
diff --git a/src/version.c b/src/version.c
index a138681..ffed791 100644
--- a/src/version.c
+++ b/src/version.c
@@ -710,6 +710,8 @@
 static int included_patches[] =
 {   /* Add new patch number below this line */
 /**/
+    250,
+/**/
     249,
 /**/
     248,