Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will make representations to his counterpart in the US to reconsider the alleged practice of officials not medically monitoring hunger striking in Guantanamo Bay detainees.
It is the Government's understanding that US practice on medically monitoring hunger striking detainees in Guantanamo Bay has not changed. Detainees continue to be monitored carefully on medical grounds. On 17 October, a Pentagon Spokesperson said that the practice of permitting the involuntary feeding of hunger-striking detainees in Guantanamo Bay will continue, if US medical officials decide that artificial feeding is required to prevent death or serious self-harm.
The Government believes that mentally competent adults are entitled to take decisions to hunger strike.