Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, with reference to the Human Rights Watch report on torture in Egypt published in September 2017, whether he plans to make representations to his counterpart in the Egyptian Government on ending the practice of torture.

We are concerned about reports of torture and mistreatment in detention in Egypt, and continue to raise these issues with the Egyptian authorities. We have raised our concerns in public, through the UN Human Rights Council and through the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights Priority Country reports, and in private, in meetings with Egyptian officials in London and Cairo. Our Ambassador in Cairo last raised human rights concerns with the Egyptian authorities on 18 April. The UK wants to see more political progress and better protection of human rights in Egypt, including implementation of the rights guaranteed by Egypt’s Constitution.