Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether the Government (a) holds (b) is aware of and (c) has sought to obtain information on Russian air force responsibility for hospital bombings in Syria.

We have obtained information about attacks against medical facilities in Syria from various sources, including non-government organistions, humanitarian organistions supporting hospitals on the ground in Syria,and the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry. A large number of attacks on hospitals have been documented in the Syrian conflict - the vast majority by the regine and its backers. In its reports of 6 March 2018, the UN Commission of Inquiry stated that pro-regime forces deliberately target medical infrastructure as part of their war strategy. Between March 2011 and December 2017, Physicians for Human Rights documented 16 attacks on medical facilties by Russian forces and a further 118 attacks committed by either Russian or Syrian government forces. These attacks on hospitals, as well as on the heroic White Helmets rescue workers, are utterly unacceptable. On 5 March the UN Human Rights Council, at the UK's initiative, adopted a resolution which included condemnation of attacks on medical facilites.