Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he has discussed the UN Human Rights Council Resolution condemning the use of the death penalty as a means of punishment for consensual same-sex relations with (a) his US counterpart and (b) the UK Permanent representative at the UN.

The UK has a long standing policy of opposing the death penalty in all circumstances. This was reflected in the UK's support for the Resolution on the Death Penalty at the thirty sixth session of the Human Rights Council in September 2017. The UK Permanent Representation engaged with a broad cross-section of the Council's membership on the Resolution. This included engagement with the US Permanent Representation to the UN in Geneva, rather than at the level of foreign ministers. The UK Government was pleased to see twenty-seven members of the Human Rights Council vote in favour of the Resolution.