Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, which of her Department's officials informed US authorities that they would not observe the interrogation of Omar al Bayoumi in 2001.

It is the longstanding policy of successive UK Governments not to comment routinely either on individual cases or intelligence and security matters.

These questions relate to ongoing civil legal proceedings in the United States; this imposes legal and procedural limits on the information that can be disclosed at this stage. The Government is therefore unable to comment further while litigation remains active.