Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the level of assessment he has made of disappearances, mass arbitrary arrests, torture, deaths in custody and extra-judicial killings committed by the Egyptian forces in the context of their counter-terrorism operation in Sinai; and when and at what levels that issue was last raised by UK officials with their Egyptian counterparts.

UK officials regularly raise human rights concerns with their Egyptian counterparts. Egypt is a Foreign Office Human Rights Priority Country. Our Annual Human Rights report for 2016, which reviewed developments pertaining to human rights abuses in Egypt is available on gov.uk.

The UK raised concerns about torture, enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings in our national statement at the UN Human Rights Council in September 2017 and Foreign Office Ministers have also publicly expressed the UK’s deep concern about the human rights situation in Egypt. We look to the Egyptian government to respect the rights guaranteed in Egypt’s constitution and investigate all reports of abuses, whether they occur in the Sinai.

We will continue to monitor the human rights situation in Egypt, and to urge the Egyptian government to implement the human rights provisions contained in its constitution.