Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the benefits and costs to the UK of membership of the EU Satellite Centre.
Answered by Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
The EU Satellite Centre produces satellite imagery and analysis in support of EU missions and operations in fulfilment of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defence Policy. The UK is able to draw on the Centre’s output for defence and security purposes. This year the UK’s financial contribution is approximately 2.17 million Euros.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will make representations to the government of Hungary to protect the legitimacy, autonomy and academic freedom of the Central European University.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We are closely monitoring the situation. As part of our regular, open and frank discussions with the Hungarian Government, the British Embassy in Budapest is engaging with them on this matter.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will seek parliamentary approval before deciding whether to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
It is a matter for the Government, and the new Prime Minister, to decide whether there should be a Parliamentary vote before the UK notifies the European Council of its intention to withdraw from the EU.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether Scottish legislative consent is a necessary condition before Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty can be invoked on behalf of the UK.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
No, a legislative consent motion is not required.Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they intend the UK to continue to be a member of the Council of Europe and party to the European Convention on Human Rights.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
The UK continues to be an active member of the Council of Europe and party to the European Convention on Human Rights. I also refer the noble Lord to the answer given by the the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, my hon. Friend the Member for Esher and Walton (Mr Raab) in the House of Commons on 14 June 2016 (House of Commons Vol. 611, Column 1615), in which he said that while we cannot rule out forever withdrawal from the Convention, it is not the Government’s policy to withdraw.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anelay of St Johns on 13 June (HL424), whether another country’s failure to recognise dual citizenship impedes the UK from offering consular assistance to an individual whose fundamental rights are being violated.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Dual citizenship is allowed in the UK and we respect the rights of Britons who choose to have dual nationality in the UK or overseas. However we acknowledge that many countries do not accept dual nationality, or allow it in the same way as the UK.
The consular assistance we offer to dual British nationals overseas depends on where they are and their circumstances.
We do not normally offer support to dual nationals who are in the country of their other nationality, however we consider each case on the circumstances and we may make exceptions if there are special humanitarian reasons to do so.
In countries where dual nationality is not recognised we offer assistance and lobby for consular access, but the other country has the right to refuse to grant such access.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they will seek assurances from the government of Iran that Nazanin Ratcliffe will be granted access to a lawyer and due process rights.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
We regularly lobby the Iranian government on all of our consular cases; requesting consular access for our officials, and to ensure that they have access to lawyers and are receiving appropriate medical care. Most recently the Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised the issue with Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif on 17 May, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my Hon. Friend the Member for Bournemouth East (Mr Ellwood), raised the subject with the Iranian Charge d’Affaires in London on 18 May. The Iranian government do not recognise dual nationals of any country, therefore we cannot gain direct access to dual nationals held in custody.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to respond to the European Parliament’s call for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia, and if so, how.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
It is up to individual member states, not the European Parliament, to make national arms export licensing decisions.
The Government takes its arms export responsibilities very seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, taking account of all relevant factors at the time of the application.
We are able to review licences and suspend or revoke as necessary when circumstances require.
The Government is satisfied that extant licences for Saudi Arabia are compliant with the UK’s export licensing criteria.
Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether opposition to the death penalty remains a key human rights priority for them, in the light of the UK’s candidacy for the UN Human Rights Council.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Our UN pledges renew our enduring commitment to promoting universal human rights. This includes work to abolish the death penalty. As I have said repeatedly in this House, this Government opposes the death penalty in all circumstances and we continue to call on all states to abolish it.Asked by: Lord Lester of Herne Hill (Non-affiliated - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are their plans to release files from their Special Collections archive during this Parliament.
Answered by Baroness Anelay of St Johns
Files outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) standard corporate file plan are now known as non-standard files.
Estimated at around 600,000, the non-standard files are generally older than the standard departmental files.
We have divided most of the non-standard material into four main categories in order to prioritise the preparation of these files for transfer to The National Archives (TNA): High Priority (around 60,000 files), Medium and Low priority (around 290,000 files across both categories) and a separate category for the Hong Kong government records (around 270,000 files). The Hong Kong records require further assessment before we can prioritise them for release (most are on microform).
Our prioritisation of the non-standard files has taken into account feedback from a wide variety of sources and interested parties including Professor Tony Badger, Professor of History at Northumbria University, the Independent Reviewer of the non-standard files.
We aim to prepare for transfer to TNA all high priority non-standard files (10% of the total) by 2019.
The first of the high priority records have now been released at TNA. They include 445 Colonial Reports, which are bound volumes of reports submitted annually to the Colonial Office by colonial governors. In October 2015, 254 files relating to the defection of Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean were released to the public.
Our current estimate is that we will be able to prepare the medium and low priority records for transfer to TNA by 2027.
The FCO is committed to complying with the Public Records Act and to full transparency with respect to our record holdings.