Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to strengthen trade cooperation with Israel in the high tech sector.

The UK is a close friend of Israel and we enjoy an excellent bilateral relationship, built on decades of cooperation between our two countries across a range of fields such as education, hi-tech research, business, arts and culture. Trade between our countries is at record levels. The British Government helped to establish the UK-Israel Tech Hub, a non-profit organisation based in Tel Aviv and London, to help British companies looking for cutting-edge innovation or Israeli start-ups seeking to grow through the UK. Over the last 5 years the Tech Hub has generated deals worth £62 million.