Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment she has made of the implications for her policies of the debate entitled Beyond the Lisbon Treaty, which took place at the Council of Europe on 26 April 2022.

The UK Government supports the intention to strengthen human rights protections in Europe through the EU's accession to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). However, we maintain our principled position that the EU must be bound to the ECHR on the same basis as other contracting Parties. The Government recognises the crucial work of the Council of Europe and in particular PACE in this sphere, noting that recommendations will go to the Committee of Ministers in due course for appropriate review.