Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment has he made of the implications for his policies of recent reports that Saudi Arabia carried out an execution during Ramadan.

Saudi Arabia remains a Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office human rights priority country, in part because of the increased use of the death penalty. Saudi Arabia is well aware of the UK's opposition to the death penalty in all countries and in all circumstances, as a matter of principle. We regularly raise the death penalty with the Saudi authorities through diplomatic channels, including at Ministerial level.