Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Bahraini counterpart on potential human rights violations by Bahraini authorities.

We regularly raise human rights issues and individual cases with the Government of Bahrain, at senior levels, both in private and public, most recently during my visit to Bahrain in November 2020. We urge that all allegations of this nature are reported to the appropriate Bahraini national oversight body and encourage them to carry out swift and thorough investigations into any such claims.

On 6 July, the UK Government established the Global Human Rights ('Magnitsky') sanctions regime by laying regulations in Parliament under the Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act 2018. This sanctions regime gives the UK a powerful new tool to hold to account those involved in serious human rights violations or abuses. It is not appropriate to speculate who may be designated under the sanctions regime in the future, as to do so could reduce the impact of the designations.