Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his counterpart in Saudi Arabia on future arms deals with the UK.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Mr Johnson) has discussed issues relating to the continued export of arms from the UK to Saudi Arabia regularly with his counterpart, including most recently during his visit to Riyadh on 11 December 2016 and again on 15 December 2016.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what information the Government holds on whether any UK nationals sit as judges in Israeli military courts.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not hold any information on this issue.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the proportion of Palestinian child detainees from the West Bank who have been transferred and detained inside Israel in each month since April 2016.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
Whilst we do not hold monthly figures, the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention remains a human rights priority for the UK and I raised this with the Israeli Ambassador to London on 10 November. We remain concerned by the continued transfer of Palestinian child and adult detainees to prisons inside Israel, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on reports of recent massacres in Beni and the North Kivu region in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Government is deeply concerned by the reports of mass killings in Beni. During my visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in August, I raised the ongoing violence in eastern DRC with Maman Sidikou, Head of the UN Peacekeeping Mission in eastern DRC (MONUSCO). In addition, our Ambassador to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, regularly discusses the Beni situation with the MONUSCO leadership and the DRC Government. The EU Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions of 17 October reiterated the EU’s profound concern at the situation in Beni and reminded all involved of the UN sanctions regime for those responsible for serious human rights violations. Most recently, our representative on the UNSC visited eastern DRC last week to explore what more MONUSCO can do to prevent future killings.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his international counterparts on improving diplomatic co-ordination against Daesh.
Answered by Tobias Ellwood
The Global Coalition continues to coordinate closely as we reach a key phase of the campaign against Daesh. All five of the Coalition's Working Groups have met in the last two months, including Communications which I co-chaired. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, My Right Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Mr Johnson) and the Secretary of State for Defence, my Right Hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Sir Michael Fallon), attended meetings in Paris in October shortly after the operation to take Mosul began. Most recently, the Small Group of Coalition senior officials met in Berlin on 17 November.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many times he has met Ministers of the Scottish Government since July 2016.
Answered by Alan Duncan
I met the Scottish Government Minister for UK Negotiations on Scotland's Place in Europe in the context of the Joint Ministerial Council (Europe Negotiations) on 9 November. The Foreign Secretary, my Rt Hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Boris Johnson) has not yet met any Minister in the Scottish Government in his official capacity, but is committed to do so as part of the FCO's continued engagement and cooperation with each of the Devolved Administrations.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK's decision to leave the EU on UK bilateral relations with (a) other EU and (b) non-EU countries.
Answered by Alan Duncan
As the UK leaves the European Union, the Government intends to strengthen its bilateral relationships with countries in Europe and around the world.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 August 2016 to Question 45523, for what reasons the Government has not ratified the Convention for extension to the British Indian Ocean Territory.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The British Government's ratification of the UN International Convention of the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has been extended to all of the permanently inhabited Overseas Territories. It has not been extended to the British Indian Ocean Territory as there is no permanent resident population.
Asked by: Paul Monaghan (Scottish National Party - Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 26 August 2016 to Question 45523, what plans he has to provide a response to the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination's recommendation (CERD/C/GBR//CO18-20) on the British Indian Ocean Territory and the Chagossians.
Answered by Alan Duncan
The UK has not extended its ratification of the UN International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to the British Indian Ocean Territory, and therefore considers questions relating to the Territory to be outside the remit of the Committee.